Brands don’t want Virat Kohli as their brand ambassador anymore!

Brands don’t want Virat Kohli as their brand ambassador anymore!

But when he’s literally one of the biggest influencers on the planet with an audience of 4 times the population of the UK, then why are brands not interested?

Here’s why this is happening:

Remember that annoying AC Ad we saw during IPL this year?
Most of us didn’t even realise that Virat Kohli was in an Ad for a brand that most of us can’t even recall.

The biggest mistake they made was that they were trying to make Virat the pull, not the narrative.

Because he is in so many ads, audience has become used to watching him endorse products and get less hooked by him directly.

This is happening because of a phenomenon known as audience desensitisation and image saturation.

Over the years, people have gotten used to seeing Virat promoting various brands, which has resulted in a diminished impact of his presence.

This is why brands are afraid. They feel his image has lost its distinctiveness, so their Ads would fail to stand out in the clutter.

When we get enough exposure to some type of stimulus, we stop noticing that stimulus with time.

Don’t get us wrong, the "Virat Kohli" brand is completely intact and thriving. Audience desensitisation is something which even Ronaldo had to face.

It’s actually a good sign that you’re extremely relevant and well distributed.

In India, right now, if you want to get a great brand ambassador, bollywood is over.

And major influencers are currently not distributed enough to make a great brand ambassador.

So, what most brands are left with are cricketers who still have a significant cultural relevance.

And among them the best one playing is Virat Kohli. See, Virat has a different kind of relationship established with the people.

We’ve also seen Tendulkar and Dhoni as the face of many of brands. In fact, they are two of the highest paid cricketers through Ads.

But Virat is by far the most influential among cricketers. People love him for his explosive and expressive nature, on and off the ground.

He wears his heart on his sleeve — be it during a match or during an interview.

And he naturally chooses the right brands that align with his personality. That helps the Ad creators in making the campaigns contextual right from the base.

When someone is the brand ambassador of a lot of brands, you don’t just pull him in and create narratives with no novelty and expect the campaign to be a hit.

What genius brands do is that instead of driving the attention through Virat like that AC brand, they use his over-exposure to their advantage by placing key elements from his personality and story that everyone knows about in the Ad.

Basically, cancelling out the desensitisation by creating stimuli that not only hooks people, but surprises them and makes them relate.

This is actually the boon you have as an Ad creator when you’re working with over-distributed personalities. Most aspects of their life are already well-known so you have a lot of elements to play with.

Best example is the Noise Ad where Virat’s having a cheat day with chole bhature.

Everyone knows about his love for Ram ke Chole Bhature from his interview on Breakfast with Champions.

Noise used this element from his over-exposed image to generate stimuli.

They personified the watch as his partner who keeps him in check. Also, for those who don’t get the chole bhature reference, it’s actually very surprising to watch the epitome of fitness in your country enjoy having chole bhature.

It creates inner remarkability in the Ad.

Another example is Too Yumm snacks. Now, a lot of people who know Virat understand that he no longer promotes anything unhealthy.

Getting him on as an early ambassador of a “healthy” chips brand convinced people that this is a great alternative. After that all they did was create multiple narratives that highlighted that he’s a cheater who preaches fitness and health and is having chips.

Then comes the crazy brand value that Virat+Anushka have. The couple literally met for the first time on an Ad shoot.

Since then, no other power couple has done so many endorsements together in India. One that stands out in particular is the unforgettable Manyavar Mohey Ad that was released right before their wedding.

It confirmed the speculation that the couple will soon tie the knot and also its Ad sequel which came out right before their first anniversary where they fight it out like a married couple at a friend’s marriage.

Genius move by Manyavar!

Now you know why Brands are less interested in having Virat Kohli as their brand ambassador.

He’s not every brand’s cup of tea :)