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Kareena is AirTel's new brand ambassador

Ishita Ayan Dutt

Kareena Kapoor, the hottest new face in Bollywood, has pipped sister Karishma as AirTel Magic's brand ambassador.

The choice of Kareena over Karishma was an outcome of a market research which identified the younger sister as an "icon of the youth", said, Hemant Sachdev, director (marketing), AirTel.

"Our constant endeavour is to make the brand more and more relevant to the youths and Kareena brings freshness to the brand," he said. Shah Rukh Khan, the other national brand ambassador for AirTel Magic, however, remains unchanged.

The duo will feature in advertising campaigns for the brand. The company however, refused to divulge any figures for the endorsement, but it is understood to be a multi-crore contract.

AirTel Magic's decision to put a thrust on the youth emanates from the fact that 70 per cent of the new customers in the pre-paid category is youth.

Market sources said that AirTel has more than doubled their marketing spend for this year vis-à-vis last year. The figure for AirTel (in the post-paid category) and AirTel Magic is likely to be around Rs 1 billion, factoring in the cost of building the brand in the new circles. Typically, AirTel spends Rs 80 million to Rs 100 million in each circle.

The company decided to continue with Shah Rukh as his brand image connotes `leadership.' Sachdev explained, he brings in the dimension of a leader who is successful, highly likeable and friendly.

Together the duo promise to mirror the energy, optimism, hopes and achievements of the mass market across AirTel Magic's footprint that covers 600 million people across 16 states.

While Shah Rukh and Kareena will be the national brand ambassadors, Madhavan and Sourav Ganguly would continue to add the appropriate regional flavour to the brand in Kolkata and Tamil Nadu, respectively.

The group's marketing effort has reinforced with the relaunch of the AirTel brand logo, with a new slicker, international and younger look.

Under the new brand strategy, AirTel will now become the power brand and sub brands like Tango (for WAP services), Yutopia (for the youth) will be withdrawn.

The group has already started promoting Magic as Airtel Magic. The idea is to rework the brand so that it is relevant to a larger population as the brand is now expanding to smaller cities and towns.

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