The social Celebrity Phenomenon

Gone are those days when you have to toil and work hard to become an nationwide phenomenon, even a simple 2 minute clip can make you the top trending phenomenon. The video clip of Priya Prakash broke the internet and made here a overnight celebrity.

The memes and clips were just the tip of the iceberg. But this fame tends to remain short lived and hence the top brands need to ensure that they make the most of the emerging social celebs.

Various top brands such as Kellogs and Pringles made her their brand ambassador and made of the occasion of the important events such as Valentine’s Day to promote the products.
But endorsing a viral one day wonder shows the desperation of the company according to Sumeet Narang, vice president – marketing, Bajaj Auto, companies need to endorse a celeb whom which the viewers can relate to in order to ensure a long term gains. Endorsing viral celebs such as Priya varrier would at most provide short term monetary gains.

Samit Sinha, managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting feels that an average person can become social celeb in a matter of minutes and companies often try to make most of their short lived fame but in long term they would need well established personnel to help personify their brand.

While Manish Kalra, chief business officer, Craftsvilla.com is strong advocate of the social celebs, as he feels that social celebs are a part of social population of India and their fame has power to generate large amount of fans and views in short span of time, hence a company should keep a constant track of the emerging viral celebs to make instant popularity gains.
Shouvik Roy (senior partner at YAAP has taken a neutral stand towards endorsing viral marketing celebs , they believe it depends on a company’s strategy. If they wish to gain short term gain they could endorse social celebs else they need to hire well established celebs.