Indiantelevision.com Team

(7 October 2009 10:50 pm)

MUMBAI: With the cricketing season pouring on to the television space, the game "endorsers" have surely had their brand impact on the target consumers.

As a result, MS Dhoni has emerged as the top player to rule the all-India power list when it comes to celebrity brand endorsements, according to the second round of the CelebTrack findings, a joint endeavour between Percept Talent Management (PTM) and Hansa Research.

Dhoni has ousted Sachin Tendulkar, who led the first round findings, and has now slipped to fifth place.

Interestingly, Dhoni is also the top-earning cricketer in the world as per the Forbes’ list of the 10 top-earning cricketers in the world.

Meanwhile, in the CelebTrack findings, following Dhoni is Bollywood 'Badshah' Shah Rukh Khan, not a cricket star surely but, of course, the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team. SRK has jumped three spots from his previous ranking of five.

Next in line stand the Bachchan clan, with daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan taking the third slot and Amitabh Bachchan grabbing the fourth.

While Tendulkar takes second top-of-the-mind brand post when it comes to cricketers, it's Sania Mirza who tops the charts when all the other sports besides cricket is considered.

Brand Smriti Irani, meanwhile, continues to rule the 'all India celeb power list' when it comes to television stars in the Hindi speaking market while Rakesh Roshan leads the director's score board.

"Our study also reveals the top 10 celebrities in the Hindi speaking market. Here too, Dhoni tops the list while Shah Rukh Khan ranks second. Big B comes third, followed by Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif. Hrithik, Yuvraj, Sachin and Aamir are also part of the list," says PTM CEO Manish Porwal.

With the endorsement market pegged at approximately Rs 10 billion, CelebTrack aims to trail celebrity perceptions amongst masses that would help advertisers choose the right brand fit for their products and services.

According to Hansa Research MD Ashok Das, the research was conducted on the basis of five parameters - 'popularity', 'persuasive power', 'image attributes (personality)', 'media presence' and 'over exposure'.

Says Das, "The second round of the bi-annual study was conducted over a period of six months starting April 2009, across 39 cities with 12,000-plus respondents. Approximately 400 celebrities from the national, regional and local favourite list were shortlisted from the arena of cine entertainment, cricket, other sports, music and television."

The joint body has also performed a study for the southern region to find that Dhoni, Aishwarya and SRK top the favourite chart in Karnataka.

"Currently, we have nine clients on board. They are Tata Indicom, Pepsico, ING Vysya, Cadbury, Airtel, Vodafone, Hindustan Unilever, 9Wins, United Spirits and Pepsi," adds Hansa Research associate VP Vineet Sodhani.

The study will be available to consumers on a subscription basis, the price of which stays at Rs 1.08 million.

Also Read:

Dhoni is world's top-earning cricketer

CelebTrack releases first round of findings; Amitabh tops celeb power list