Godrej ropes in Aamir Khan to increase visibility

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan will lend his name and star power to a new set of commercials for the Godrej Group that will break around the launch during the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League next week.

The Mumbai-headquartered group is back as a television sponsor of the cricket tournament after a year’s gap.

Khan will appear in nine ads, introduce key Godrej products and highlight how they contribute to making life easier and better.

This is the first time the $4-billion (Rs 21,600-crore) Godrej Group has a brand ambassador for its corporate campaign, though it has used celebrities to endorse individual products such as Godrej Eon (Preity Zinta) and Cinthol (Virat Kohli now, Hrithik Roshan earlier).

While the trend of using celebrities for corporate campaigns is not new, this will be Khan's first tryst with the over 100-year-old Godrej Group.

The group conducted a brand valuation exercise two years ago.

UK-based valuation firm Interbrand then valued the flagship brand at $2.86 billion.

Tanya Dubash, executive director and chief brand officer, Godrej Group, says the conglomerate may look at a brand valuation exercise towards the end of this calendar year to see where the flagship name has headed in the intervening time.

"What we are doing now is a result of the brand valuation exercise we undertook two years ago.

"It gave us a sense of what we needed to do to enhance the value of the Godrej name.

"Some of the drivers identified included showcasing user experiences in our campaigns and commercials and focusing on a cluster of brands to drive home this message," says Dubash.

The first phase of the current campaign, which will run for the next two to three months, will focus on products such as Good Knight, besides new product Aer, an air freshner launched last year.

The next phase, which will kick off in the second half of the calendar year, will focus on a new set of products, Shireesh Joshi, head of strategic marketing, Godrej Industries said.

Image: Aamir Khan | Photograph: Rediff Archives