When Deepika Padukone marries Ranveer Singh, it's going to be a big brand wedding

A high-profile marriage can often cost millions, but only a few are worth billions. When Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, two of Bollywood’s most successful actors today, tie the knot on November 15, top marketing honchos will be rushing to their strategy rooms.

After Saifeena (Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor) and Virushka (Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma), Deepika and Ranveer will provide companies with a big branding opportunity.

Between them, Ranveer and Deepika have a following of close to 90 million fans on social media — a tempting platform for any company for its brands. Saifeena is proof of success of a couple's brand value in India — Ranveer and Deepika could be next.

The trend to use an acronym for couples first started with the coming together of Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Their joint entity 'Brangelina' was once believed to have more equity than their two star parts individually.

Interestingly, Ranveer and Deepika presently work with brands that have conflicting interests. For instance, while Deepika endorses GoIbibo, Ranveer is the brand ambassador for MakeMyTrip. Deepika appears in advertisements for a popular breakfast cereal brand, Ranveer meanwhile advertises for a noodles brand. Between the couple, they also endorse two rival banks — Kotak Mahindra and Axis Bank. Will the scenario change? Perhaps not.

“Between Deepika and Ranveer, there can be three entities, two of them individually and one together as a power couple. The stars would continue their individual endorsements and take up new business together,” said brand strategist Harish Bijoor.

In recent times, celebrity couples have evolved as highly marketable brands. Thanks to social media and popular hashtags like #relationshipgoals, couples and the images they share are highly desirable. “Brands would now have the opportunity to marry the 50-odd million dedicated followers Deepika Padukone has to the 40 million fans Ranveer Singh has and make it a delightful branding coup,” Saurabh Uboweja, brand strategist,  who is also the founder of Brands of Desire, a management consulting firm.

According to experts, lifestyle brands and some FMCG brands could use the power couple for endorsements at approximately between Rs 3 crore-Rs 3.5 crore for a day’s commitment. Individually, both the actors are said to charge anywhere between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore for a day when they are taken on board as a brand ambassador. While taking both the actors individually could cost a brand close to Rs 4 crore, taking them as a team would give them a substantial discount.