Virat Kohli’s brand value declines, Dhoni gains: Duff& Phelps
Premium- Actor Ranveer Singh jumped a spot to rank at number two this year with a brand valuation of $158 million significantly higher than his $ 102.93 million in 2020
New Delhi: Former Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli has seen his brand value drop by more than 21% to $185.7 million in 2021 even as he continues to top the list as the most valuable brand ambassador, finds a new report by Duff & Phelps, a part of the Kroll business.
While the cricketer retained the top position in the company's latest rankings and continued to be the primary choice of product brands seeking to engage and attract consumers, he fell from a total brand value of $ 237.7 million in 2020.
Actor Ranveer Singh jumped a spot to rank at number two this year with a brand valuation of $158 million significantly higher than his $ 102.93 million in 2020. Among sports celebrities, MS Dhoni entered the top five club this year.
On Tuesday, Kroll unveiled its Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2021 titled ‘Digital Acceleration 2.0’ The report is based on the study of 2021, the second year of the pandemic and its impact on the overall celebrity endorsement space. The year saw brands and businesses leveraging social media and online platforms heavily for advertising and promotions, the report said.
After Kohli and Singh, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar was ranked third with a brand valuation of $139.6 million. Even though the star slipped by a spot, his brand valuation improved from $118.92 million in 2020. The “Gangubai Kathiawadi" actor Alia Bhatt was the fourth most popular choice also becoming the most valued female celebrity in 2021 at $68.1 million.
Among sports celebrities, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu ranked at 20th position. The overall brand value of the top 20 celebrities in 2021 is estimated at $1.2 billion, an increase of about 12.9% from last year.
The decline in Kohli’s brand value may have been a result of his resignation from the ODI and T20 captaincy and the related controversy. Both, the officials of the cricketing body Board of Control for Cricket in India, and former Indian cricket team captain Kohli were engaged in a war of words during the captaincy controversy. “His recent on-field outcomes may have also impacted brand Kohli. Yet he continues to hold more than 30 brands in his portfolio spread across product categories," said Aviral Jain, managing director of Duff & Phelps. Some brands came and went but his endorsement portfolio remained constant. His fee, too, remained constant as it was during his captaincy days, Jain added.
The report said that “with the reduced workload after stepping down from captaincy, Kohli can focus now on what he is known for – his batting – and continue his journey on becoming the world’s best batsmen."
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Cricketer Dhoni saw a big spike in his brand value to reach $ 61.2 million in 2021. Dhoni continues to enjoy a huge mass following and has brilliantly transitioned himself out of his pure cricketing image, the report said. Even after his retirement from international cricket, Dhoni continues to hold more than 25 brands in his portfolio spread across industries. One of his notable endorsements in 2021 included entering into a three-year strategic partnership with HomeLane.com both as an equity partner and a brand ambassador.
Actor Ranveer Singh's brand value shot up with several new endorsements in 2021. The actor now has around 35 brands across industries. Recently, he was appointed brand ambassador of CoinSwitch Kuber, operating in the crypto space, and Cred, operating in the FinTech payments space. Also, Bike taxi app Rapido has announced him as a brand ambassador to acquaint potential users about solving India’s intra-city commuting problems, the report said.
Actor Alia Bhatt, known for playing challenging roles, is the youngest celebrity among the top 10 list and is now the most valued brand among female Bollywood actors.
After the Tokyo Olympics, athletes like Bajrang Punia, Devendra Jhajharia, Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu added major endorsement deals to their brand portfolios. A majority of the endorsements were done in the financial services and the food and beverages segments. These included brands such as Apis Himalaya Honey, Mobil India, Natural Ice Cream, among others.
Jain said this is the 7th year the report has been published but this year has been noteworthy as they saw 'New Age' companies engaging with top celebrities. He said in 2021, the total number of endorsements had a V-shaped recovery. The total endorsements fell in 2020 to 357 brands and have increased to touch 376 brands in 2021. As a result, a good recovery has happened for the top 20 celebrities. “Pre covid, in 2019, this figure was 370. This growth has been driven by endorsements in new age companies that grew to about 12% of the total endorsements," Jain said.
Further, this represents a CAGR of 8.4% over the last five years growing from 272 product brands in 2017. This is also reflected in the overall brand value which also increased by about 13% from about $1.05 billion to $1.2 billion in terms of celebrities, he added.
As per the report, the fintech industry is growing very fast and is getting involved with top celebrities. Similar trend is noted in the direct-to-consumer or D2C space, which is growing leaps and bounds with more than 800 D2C companies. There is also an emergence of new-age social media apps and OTT platforms which are adding to the endorsement avenues, the report said.
While assessing celebrity brand value, Duff & Phelps takes note of relative brand rankings of celebrities, average endorsement fee rates, normalized number of annual endorsements and applicable brand multiples, the report said.
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