Virat Kohli continues to be the most valuable celebrity with a brand value of $237.5 Million: Duff & Phelps Study

• Duff & Phelps’ latest report reveals that Virat Kohli continues to be the most preferred celebrity as his brand value rose by 39% to $237.5 million in 2019. Akshay Kumar jumps to second position with a brand value of $104.5 million.
• The report titled ‘New is Gold’ brings forth how the advent of digital media and OTT platforms have paved a way for new faces and relaunched old faces such as Emraan Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
• It further discusses how regional industries created ripples nationally and globally with OTT proving regional content is no longer a desired state, but a prerequisite for today’s consumer.

Duff & Phelps, the global advisor, released key findings from the fifth edition of its Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2019: New is Gold. The study provides a ranking of India’s most powerful celebrity brands based on brand values derived from their endorsement contracts.

“This year we saw the new generation celebrities make it to the top 20. Apart from the celebrities who were featured in last year’s study, this year, we have Ayushmann Khurrana (rank 10), Tiger Shroff (rank 17) and Rohit Sharma (rank 20) with a cumulative brand value of USD 87.5 million,” said Aviral Jain, Managing Director, Duff & Phelps.

“The industry saw a wave of new faces and concepts with the effective usage of digital media to capitalize on millennials and Gen Z. Even though brands changed their approach of sticking to established actors by roping in new faces, overall the industry managed to stay on course with the perfect blend of traditional and new. The new pedigree of stars also ventured into investments by emerging as ‘starvestors’ (star investors), thus infusing capital in brands that resonated with their values,” Jain added.

Commenting on the changing nature of the endorsement market in India, Varun Gupta, Managing Director and Asia Pacific Leader for Valuation Services, Duff & Phelps said, “This is the dawn of a new era for the media and entertainment sector. The industry has seen experimentation, be it celebrities moving from traditional mainstream endorsements towards investments in brands, the rise of digital format advertising campaigns, or the onset of over-the-top (OTT) stars who are breaking new ground in endorsements. Brands and celebrities have parallelly adopted the path of conscious advertising and filmmaking by choosing uplifting topics and making the narrative less window dressed, an important facet for today’s Gen Y and Gen Z.”

Old is Gold to New is Gold

Study shows how with a fresh coterie of millennial and Gen Z celebrities bagging major banner films and endorsements, it’s clearly time to change the ‘Old is Gold’ adage to ‘New is Gold.’

In the age of social media, Millennial and Gen Z actors have an inherent advantage and are considered to have a relatively higher social media quotient.

Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, a leading global makeup brand, hired Tara Sutaria as its first Indian celebrity brand ambassador. Reliance Retail and Reliance Trends also signed on national award winner Vicky Kaushal along with the upcoming Janhvi Kapoor as their brand ambassadors having an extensive youth following.

The study also suggests that Kriti Sanon, Disha Patani, and Tiger Shroff are the upcoming big celebrities in the advertising and marketing realm.

OTT: A Place For Old and New Actors

OTT players have helped many stars relaunch themselves. Actors like Bhumi Pednekar, Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saif Ali Khan and Vicky Kaushal have given some noteworthy performances on the digital platform.

The growing popularity of the digital platform can be gauged from the fact that not only actors, but also notable directors like Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar, are creating content frequently, exclusively for GenOTT.

Celebrity Endorsements: Top Brand Categories

According to a 2019 report on celebrity endorsements issued by TAM Media Research, more than 50% of the ads endorsed by celebrities were dominated by three sectors: Personal Care/ Personal Hygiene, Food and Beverages (F&B), and Haircare, as shown in the following chart.

Further, the study focuses on the rising trend of OTT since the upgrade of India's digital demography. Regional industries created ripples nationally and globally with OTT proving regional content is no longer a desired state, but a prerequisite for today’s consumer.

Other Key findings from the report:

• Virat Kohli retains the top position for the third consecutive year. His brand value rose by 39% to USD 237.5 million (mn) in 2019.
• Akshay Kumar jumps to second position with brand value of USD 104.5 mn (a jump of 55.3%).
• The dynamic power couple, Ranveer and Deepika, claim the third spot with a brand value of USD 93.5 mn each. Deepika retains her most valuable female celebrity status for the second consecutive year whereas Ranveer moves up a spot, to now occupy the same position as Deepika Padukone.
• Total value of the top 20 celebrity brands stands at USD 1.1 billion, with the top 10 contributing about 75% of the total value.