Endorsement

Celebrities (actors, musicians, sportsmen, etc.) have long been used to promote and sell brands. It may not be a revolutionary concept anymore, but studies show that a famous face can still effectively move a product off the shelves. Celebrities (actors, musicians, sportsmen, etc.) have long been used to promote and sell brands. It may not be a revolutionary concept anymore, but studies show that a famous face can still effectively move a product off the shelves.
The benefits of using celebrities are obvious: they create hype for the brand, their popularity and star appeal draws people to watch the commercial (and potentially buy the product) and they come with a certain level of credibility attached to them, which should ideally rub off on the brand.All of this and more is possible but some important provisos apply. The celebrity has to be the right fit for the brand; the brand and the celebrity should ideally share the same personality, beliefs and basic values; and the celebrity should have some kind of credibility and popularity among the brand’s target audience.
Pakistani brands have gone down the celebrity endorsement route in the last couple of decades with varying results. In recent years, the nature of celebrities has changed considerably so that where star status was once strictly reserved for sportsmen (usually cricketers), actors and musicians, the term ‘celebrity’ has now been extended to include TV chefs, political analysts and newscasters, social commentators, philanthropists, social workers, etc.

Pakistan cricket team and the lack of any big names on the idiot box or the silver screen, music is the only industry in Pakistan that is still capable of producing a celebrity in the true sense of the term. The fact that the music industry has consistently been able to turn out fresh and promising talent has paved the way for the mix between music and marketing.