Cricketer Virat Kohli remained the top celebrity endorser and increased his brand value to $170 million in 2018, while actor Shah Rukh Khan lost value and slipped to fifth position from second in 2017.

Deepika Padukone grabbed the second slot with brand value of $102 million and her husband and actor Ranveer Singh too moved up to the fourth position with a brand value of $63 million. Akshay Kumar, who moved up to the third position was valued $67 million.

Total brand value of the top 20 celebrities stood at $877 million.

Kohli saw his brand value growing from $144 million in 2017 to $170 million in 2018 as he endorsed 24 products. Deepika Padukone too became more valuable compared with $93 million in 2017. The only woman in the top 5-celebrity list, Deepika endorsed 21 brands.

Ranveer Singh grew his value from $42 million in 2017 to $63 million in 2018, as per a Duff & Phelps report.

Shah Rukh Khan lost his value considerably from $106 million in 2017 to $60 million in 2018 and the number of products endorsed by him too came down from 21 to 13 last year.

Among the top 10 celebrities, in terms of brand value, Salman Khan retained his position in the sixth slot, while Hrithik Roshan moved down to 10th from 7, giving way to Alia Bhat and Varun Dhawan to move up. Amitabh Bachchan too had to move a slot down.

The total brand value of top 10 celebrities moved up to $660.5 million against $611 million in 2017. The overall number of product brand endorsements of top 20, has increased from 272 in 2017 to 314 in 2018, up 15 per cent, whereas the number of endorsements by top 5 celebrities increased 9 per cent from 96 in 2017 to 105 in 2018. Film stars dominate the endorsement segment with the maximum takeaway of 76 per cent, followed by sportspersons and TV actors who take 12 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively. Further, top 40 Bollywood celebrities endorsed over 500 product brands in 20 industry segments during the 12 months ending October 2018. Brands also were increasingly leveraging power couples. In 2018, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma endorsed around 40 brands together like Head and Shoulders, Manyavar, Pepsi, Celkon, Boost, Audi, Fastrack, Goinee, Wrogn and Polaroid.

“The celebrity endorsement market in India has matured from vanilla endorsement deals to full-fledged partnerships through innovative routes like equity deals and strategic partnerships. On the other hand, rising internet penetration, varied formats of content consumption and a burgeoning middle class with increasing disposable incomes are boosting media spends for traditional and digital advertisements through celebrities.

“Millennial celebrities continue to be the first choice for brand endorsements as companies want to have a greater focus on the youth segment fuelled by demand in sectors like e-commerce, retail, FMCG and smartphones,” said Varun Gupta, managing director and Asia Pacific leader for valuation services, Duff & Phelps.

The top segments dominated by female celebrity endorsers were personal care, jewellery and banking. On the other hand, e-commerce, smartphones, automobiles, financial services and direct-to-home segment mostly featured male celebrities in television advertisements. The personal care segment made up 44 per cent of total celebrity endorsements, and hence was of critical importance in the endorsement space. The food and beverages segment contributed 14 per cent, which is about one third of the personal care segment on television.

Regional celebrities also were seen gaining ground in 2018. “Brands are also increasingly going regional in their endorsement strategy to cater to the heterogeneous peculiarities of states. They are leveraging the equity that local celebrities enjoy. Product brands are also looking for better returns on their investment through a step up on regional markets and have started coming up with region-specific commercials featuring regional celebrities like Mahesh Babu and Tamannaah,” Aviral Jain, managing director, Duff & Phelps, said.