IPL ad recall: IIHB survey identifies most memorable brands and celebrities

The Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) ran a telephonic survey on Sunday, 4 October, 2020 reaching out to 892 respondents during the day to check-out recall of brands, their celebrities and their messaging. Respondents: 59% males, 41% female. All respondents were between 15 to 35 years.

Byju’s was the most spontaneously recalled brand on the IPL last weekend; its celebrity endorser Shahrukh Khan though trailed behind other celebrities who were more visible, hence more recalled. Dream 11 was at No. 2 with multiple endorsers.

Swiggy, Thar, UpGrad and Altroz ranked highest amongst brands that did not use a celebrity.  Despite heavy media weights, VI was not spontaneously recalled. 

MS Dhoni had the highest spontaneous recall as a celebrity endorser. Virat Kohli was a not-so-close second. Akshay Kumar was at rank 3; Ayushmann Khurrana at rank 4.

During the World Cup 2019, too, Byju’s had emerged as the No. 1 recalled brand with a celebrity endorser in the IIHB survey. Fogg was however the most spontaneously recalled brand last year during the World Cup. This year it finds no mention.

Based on the research feedback, the IIHB team re-activated its CELEBAR tool based on Celebrity Brand Association & Recognition to assign a metric score to each celebrity and associated brand. The tool takes into account:

• Spontaneous recall of the brand
• Spontaneous recall of the celebrity
• Spontaneous recall of the brand & celebrity together
• Recency of communication
• Media weight behind campaign
• Solus versus multiple brands using the celebrity

In the survey on the weekend, the feedback was as follows:

MS Dhoni had a CELEBAR score of 82. Spontaneous recall was a very high 72%. His association with Dream 11 was also very high at 79%. He got 12% brand association with Oppo, 6% with AMFI (articulated mostly as Mutual Funds) and 2% with Khatabook. Also 2% for TVS, 2% for Indigo Paints. So, most of Dhoni’s brand goodness got hijacked by Dream 11.

If Dhoni had only been endorsing Dream 11, his CELEBAR score would have been near 100, given his strong association with that one brand to almost the complete exclusion of the other brands he endorses.

Virat Kohli trails MS Dhoni at 69 on the CELEBAR score. Most respondents recalled seeing Kohli as an endorser for brands. 20% associated him with Dream 11 (he actually endorses MPL). This could be because Kohli endorses many brands and respondents tend to confuse what he endorses.

Kohli is most associated with MRF (30%), Flipkart (29%), Himalaya (11%), Boost (10%) and Philips (8%).

Akshay Kumar also has a CELEBAR score very close to that of Virat Kohli at 67. His highest recall was with Fortune (27%), PolicyBazaar (24%), Harpic (17%), Berger (9%), Kurkure (9%). Akshay Kumar has stronger linkages with the brands he endorses than Virat Kohli.

Ayushmann Khurrana  has a CELEBAR score of 55. His strongest brand association is with JSW Paints at 33%, followed by Urban Company at 12%, Polycab at 11% and Tide at 10%. Despite low association with Tide, Khurrana’s triple role was mentioned by many respondents though many got the brand wrong.

Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan tied at a CELEBAR score of 52. Shahrukh had 72% association with BYJUs. But, not everyone  spontaneously connected him to the brand he is endorsing, which was surprising. Last year, the association between him and BYJUs was stronger. This could be because of weaker creative by the brand.

Aamir is very strongly associated with PhonePe (81% positive connect). His association with Ceat tyres was only mentioned by 2% respondents.  On probing almost all respondents failed to connect him to his robotic avatar in Ceat.

Amitabh Bachchan, seemed shaded for once in the endorsement game, with a CELEBAR of only 32. Except, Flipkart (22%) and Dubai Expo (9%), the Big B did not find much mention. He also was mentioned by 2% for TVS.

Bachchan’s score was matched by Anil Kapoor at 32 on CELEBAR with high positive recall of 42% with CRED and 11% with Spotify.

A number of cricketers … Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and more were all connected back to Dream 11. Saurav Ganguly also was recalled but most respondents could not remember the name of the fantasy league he represents despite fairly large media exposures.

Hema Malini who only endorses Kent had a good CELEBAR of 22 because she is uniquely associated with just one brand.

Salman Khan continued to be associated with Thums Up! 11% associated him still with the brand, more than 9% that associated him with Pepsi.

Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer had very low mentions. With CELEBAR scores of 17 and 21 respectively. Ranbir for Lay’s and Ranveer for Thums Up received marginal scores.

The ladies department is also running on low fuel. Alia Bhatt was recalled for PhonePe (19%) and Deepika was recalled for Jio (11%)

Bappi Lahiri and Madhuri Dixit both received some recall. Also Boman Irani, Virender Sehwag, Priyanka Chopra and Shraddha Kapoor received some mentions.

Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor of the IIHB says, “So far in the IPL, MS Dhoni is the biggest celebrity. Virat Kohli trails. However, it is surprising that Shahrukh Khan has not done as well as the brand, BYJUs, that he represents. Aamir, though supported by much lesser media weightages, is a better performing celebrity this season at IPL.

Non-celebrity brands have done well too. Swiggy, Thar, UpGrad, Altroz, Lenskart, MG Gloster, Facebook, Amazon, Kellogg’s, cricket.com, and VI were mentioned in significant measure by respondents.

PhonePe and Swiggy were rated as the best ads of the ones on the IPL. But, the feedback on qualitative goodness was inadequate and is mentioned here only as part of data received by default.”