Bowl 'em over

It's not just the Kohlis and Nehwals of the sports world that are signing lucrative endorsement deals. Last year saw a string of brands roping in numerous upcoming sports stars as ambassadors. 

Under-19 cricketer Prithvi Shaw became the ambassador for Protinex, the protein supplement of French food company Danone. In September, gold medallist and athlete Hima Das was cherry-picked by Adidas as their new face. Since December, Cricketer Smriti Mandhana has started endorsing contact lenses by Alcon, a division of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. 

This reflects a new trend of established global brands looking beyond highly successful sports personalities. Celebrity-driven endorsements in India have increased over the past decade, growing from 650 in 2007 to 1, 660 in 2017, as per data by ESP Properties and sports persons are cornering a bigger share of it than before.

It's no surprise that cricketer Virat Kohli was the biggest celeb brand, with a brand value of $170.9 million in 2018, as per data by global advisory Duff & Phelps. Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni and P V Sindhu collectively contributed almost $241 million, which is over 27% of the cumulative brand value of the top 20 celebrities pegged at $877 million. 

Experts say upcoming stars are getting a place in the sun.

Says Ritesh Nath, vice president, Cornerstone Sport, “It is good that several other players are gaining visibility. Signing upcoming players and athletes allows brands to break away from the clutter. Leveraging the aura of these stars, brands create hard-hitting content, something that focuses on larger issues and which can resonate with the viewers, rather than putting out plain vanilla advertisements. This strikes an immediate chord with their target audience.”

Experts say brands craftily play around the stories of hardships that several upcoming sporting stars have faced and conquered, and create compelling content. The campaign starring Mandhana, for example, recognises the daily struggles and successes of people to attain their dreams, while demonstrating the “never compromise” attitude.

“Sports is becoming 'sportainment'. The leagues across disciplines are seeing consistent growth in viewership, not just on television but also the online viewership. Millennials are consuming sportainment content by the truckload and young, upcoming talent in sports have a massive following among this audience,” says Jiggy George, founder and CEO, Dream Theatre and co-founder and MD, Mojostar. 

Experts say brands benefit tremendously by signing on emerging stars. Since the brand value of A-list celebs is much higher than the brand itself, this results in the celeb overshadowing the brand, says Shrenik Gandhi, chief operating officer and co-founder, White Rivers Media.

Secondly, A-listers charge exorbitant amounts. As per industry data, television commercial (TVC) spends with celeb endorsers constituted a stupendous Rs 6, 660 crore in 2017. Experts say top-ranking cricketers could charge as much as Rs 4-6 crore a day for endorsing a brand. Upcoming athletes, on the other hand, are paid between Rs 25-50 lakh a day.

But thanks to social media, even without spending crores on A-listers, brands can get a similar reach among their target audience and grow their customer base and loyalty, says Gandhi. “Another advantage of signing on newer athletes is that unlike the high-profile sports stars, the newbies are happy to experiment and adapt quickly to the brand ethos,” adds Gandhi.

Shradha Agarwal, COO, Grapes Digital, concurs. “We have seen higher deliverables and involvement from upcoming stars. They give more than 100% not only to their game but to endorsements as well. They are ready to do more content pieces and be more involved to drive affinity for the brand,” says Agarwal, adding that in today's digital era, social affinity, engagement and follower base have become crucial for marketers while selecting brand ambassadors. “Because marketers look forward to their reach and affinity not just with their face value on TVCs (television commercials) and print advertisements, but also the kind of content they share about the brand on their social media handles.” 

Agarwal further states that due to high social media penetration in India, every star has the opportunity to have a high social media base, but the engagement rate differs. For example, Smriti Mandhana has a follower base of 8,00,000 on Instagram and drives an engagement of 1,30,000, while K L Rahul has a follower base of 2.6 million, and an average engagement of 3,50,000. 

“Players who can channelise social media cleverly to enhance their engagement stand a better chance of being approached by multiple brands,” said an expert.

Thus, when upcoming athletes and players are signed on as ambassadors, they have to stay active on social media and give a part of their presence to the brands they are endorsing, says Gandhi. “When consumers consume their content, there are high chances of them adopting the brand ethos, pledging loyalty to the brand and the celeb. This is how sports stars can enhance their reach and subsequently increase their market value and that of the brands they endorse,” adds Gandhi. 

THE SCORECARD

• Rs 4-6 cr – Top-ranking cricketers could charge per day for endorsing a brand
   
• Rs 25-50 L – Upcoming athletes are paid per day