Will brands find Katrina Kaif, Vicky Kaushal lucrative as a star couple?

Kabir Khan, Angad Bedi, Mini Mathur, Neha Dhupia, Gurdas Maan, Sharvari Wagh, and Vijay Krishna Acharya among many others from the film industry were a part of Vicky and Katrina's wedding festivities.

Actors Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal, who tied the knot on December 9, have joined the long list of Bollywood's star couples who have piqued the interest of Indian audience. But, will brands find them lucrative as well? Let's find out.

Brand experts think that the two actors coming together will enhance the brand value of the two stars and that more brand deals are likely to come their way after the wedding.

"When two well-known personalities get together as a married couple the allure of the combined brand of a power couple is always exciting to both consumers and brands. Much like Virat (Kohli) and Anushka (Sharma), Deepika (Padukone) and Ranveer (Singh) and Abhishek (Bachchan) and Aishwarya (Rai)– this pair is likely to get new-found attention in a big way in the coming days," Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and former marketer at HP Asia Pacific, Motorola & PepsiCo, told Moneycontrol.

He said that brands tend to look at the rub off of the fact that newlyweds attract disproportionate attention in the first few years of marriage and also attributes of the combined personalities that may have synergies with their brand.

With brands finding celebrity couples more appealing, Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal may bag more endorsement deals, leading to an increase in their brand value.

"Both are among the top stars of Bollywood today and their wedded status will enhance their individual and combined star power. So, I see an increase in their brand value," said Mathias.

Currently, Katrina Kaif has around eight brands in her endorsement portfolio including Johnson tiles, Sugar Free, Zomato, Reebok India, Kalyan Jewellers, Slice, Lino Perros, Emami. Vicky Kaushal endorses around seven brands including Upgrad, Bolt audio, Red Chief, Amul Macho, Reliance Trends, Havells, Mcdowells.

Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business, which is a financial consultancy firm, noted that Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif have increased everyone’s curiosity with their wedding celebrations. "While the celebrities individually enjoy immense fan following, it will be interesting to see how this couple fares as a ‘power couple’ brand in the advertisement industry," said Aviral Jain, Managing Director, Duff & Phelps.

He added that Katrina Kaif has a cumulative audience strength of 92.1 million on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and Vicky Kaushal has a cumulative audience strength of 13.7 million. "Thus, together they can attract a wide audience group and brands would want to rope in this new couple especially to encash the interest which is at an all-time high now."

When it comes to popularity on social media, Katrina Kaif has seen a 26 percent growth in social media following this year versus 2020 whereas Vicky Kaushal has seen 23.4 percent growth in social media following, according to data by Meltwater, a consumer and audience insights firm. In terms of audience engagement on social media, Katrina Kaif recorded an engagement rate of 1.7 percent and Vicky Kaushal reported engagement rate of 0.8 percent.

With higher reach on social media, brands find celebrity couples more lucrative. "More so when they come from different fields and backgrounds," added Mathias.

According to Jain, with many star couples in Bollywood, advertising agencies are trying to pull out all the stops to get the couples to share screen space.

"In a country where people are star struck by film stars and sportsmen, Bollywood couples have been a big hit in the advertising space. Combining two people for an ad automatically expands your communication with your current audience especially if it is a unisex product. Consumers tend to relate more to the product if a brand includes the perspective of both the genders using that product," he said.

Jain added, "Some advertisers do argue that because of the celebrity status the product image often fades away from the consumer's mind and only the story tends to stay. Yet, power couples and their fame are a great way to attract a larger audience. By tapping into each other's reach and impact, brands can target each partner’s unique following and voice."

But, engaging a celebrity couple for a product brand endorsement exercise is not a simple task.

"Not all industry marketers may be able to leverage a power couple. The celebrities may individually be endorsing competing brands. For instance, Deepika endorses Asian Paints while Ranveer endorses Nerolac Paints. This eradicates the possibility of them featuring together in a paints industry ad. They also individually endorse Oziva (Deepika) and Muscle Blaze (Ranveer) which are competing nutrition supplements’ brands," pointed out Jain.

Ad agencies are trying to pull out all the stops to get the couples to share screen space.

- Aviral Jain

"Both can be positioned as a real-time couple to appeal to the family driven customer segment and endorse such products and services which may require family consultations like in the case of (consumer goods company) Lloyd and Reliance Jio (Both the brands are endorsed by Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh). Thus, brands would target the power couple only when the synergies between the product brand image and that of the celebrity couple positively aligns."​