Celebrity endorsements on TV drop 10% in 2023, Akshay Kumar the most visible star

Akshay Kumar is the most visible celebrity on TV in advertisements during January to June period of 2023.

Advertisements on television featuring celebrities dropped by 10 percent between January and June 2023, according to data compiled by AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, an audience measurement and advertising research firm.

Celebrity-endorsed ads witnessed a 21 percent growth from January to June 2022, while the growth fell to 11 percent this year during the same period.

Only 28 percent share of the ads telecast on TV were endorsed by celebrities and the remaining were non-celebrity ads. Out of the 28 percent, film stars contributed more than 80 percent of advertising during the first half of 2023, followed by sports personalities and television stars, who contributed 11 percent and 6 percent respectively.

Akshay Kumar emerged as the most visible star on TV for ads, with an average visibility of 31 hours per day across all channels, followed by Amitabh Bachchan at 21 hours per day. The third most visible star on Tv through sponsorships was Vidya Balan with 11.8 hours per day followed by Alia Bhatt at 11.6 hours and Ranveer Singh at 11 hours per day across all channels, the data noted.

Seven of the top 10 celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Virat Kohli, Kareena Kapoor, Sourav Ganguly, Ajay Devgan and Kiara Advani sponsored more brands than during January to June period in 2022.

Amitabh Bachchan's brand count increased from 37 recorded last year to 40 this year, Alia Bhatt's brand count went up from 23 to 29 and Virat Kohli endorsed 29 brands this year, up from 21 last year.

On the other hand, MS Dhoni's brand count decreased from 41 in 2022 to 32 this year. Akshay Kumar and Ranveer Singh's brand count fell to 29 and 27 respectively. The two celebrities endorsed 36 and 31 brands last year.

In addition, more than 40 percent ads were endorsed by the top three celebrity couples including Akshay Kumar-Twinkle Khanna with a brand count of 29, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya Bachchan with 40 brands and Anushka Sharma-Virat Kohli with 33 brands.

More than 50 percent of the ads endorsed by celebrities fell in the food and beverage, personal care and household products sectors.

Food and beverage, the top sector for celebrity-led ads recorded 65 percent ads that were led by male celebrities. Data by AdEx India noted that the average ad endorsing ratio of male and female celebrities for the top 10 sector was 55:45 in the first half of 2023. Also, there were an equal number of male and female celebrities in the top 10 list of most visible celebrities in TV ads.

In terms of categories, online gaming emerged at the top with 33 celebrities featured in ads on TV followed by spices with 27 celebrities.