Connect with us

MAM

Stars Still Shine, But the Spotlight Flickers on Celebrity TV Ads

Published

on

MUMBAI: If television advertising were a red carpet, Hindi movies still stole the show in 2025 but the crowd was thinner than before. Celebrity endorsements continued to command attention on Indian television last year, accounting for 27 per cent of all ad volumes, even as overall celebrity-led advertising saw a dip compared to previous years, according to the latest TAM AdEx Celebrity Endorsement Report 2025

Film stars remained the undisputed face of brand storytelling, contributing a hefty 73 per cent of celebrity ad volumes. Male film actors alone dominated 43 per cent of endorsements, while film actresses added another 29 per cent. Sports personalities followed at 20 per cent, underlining cricket’s enduring pull on advertisers, while TV actors and actresses together made up the remaining single-digit share.

Despite their prominence, celebrity-led advertising volumes declined in 2025 after a modest three per cent rise in 2024, suggesting that brands are becoming more selective about when and how they deploy star power. The year followed a familiar rhythm: ad volumes peaked during March, May and September, with the April–June quarter emerging as the busiest period, driven largely by the IPL effect.

Sector-wise, celebrity endorsements clustered heavily around everyday consumption. Food and beverages topped the charts with a 24 per cent share, followed by personal care and hygiene at 16 per cent and household products at 10 per cent. Together, the top three sectors accounted for nearly half of all celebrity-endorsed ads, while the top seven sectors contributed 79 per cent of total volumes.

Gender patterns remained sharply defined. Male celebrities dominated food and beverage advertising, accounting for 64 per cent of endorsements in the category, while women led personal care and hygiene campaigns with a 61 per cent share, a divide that continues to shape casting choices in television advertising.

Among categories, toilet and floor cleaners emerged as the most celebrity-heavy, contributing nine per cent of ad volumes, ahead of toilet soaps, washing powders and aerated soft drinks. Meanwhile, e-commerce gaming attracted the widest pool of celebrity endorsers, with 41 stars lending their faces to brands in the category.

When it came to sheer visibility, Shah Rukh Khan towered over the field, clocking nearly 30 hours of average daily presence on television and claiming 10 per cent of total celebrity ad share. MS Dhoni followed with around 20 hours a day, while Ranveer Singh, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and a handful of others rounded out the top ten, a list notably dominated by men.

Dhoni also emerged as the most prolific endorser, fronting 59 brands in 2025, up from 52 the previous year. Celebrity couples continued to be a force multiplier, with four power pairs including Ranbir Kapoor–Alia Bhatt and Anushka Sharma–Virat Kohli accounting for half of all couple-led endorsements.

The takeaway from 2025 is clear, while celebrity appeal still drives recall and scale on television, brands are no longer betting blindly on fame alone. Star power remains potent but in a cluttered, cost-conscious market, it is being deployed with sharper intent and tighter focus than before.

Brands

Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

Published

on

Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

Continue Reading

MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

Published

on

SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC  head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

Continue Reading

Brands

Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion

Published

on

Bengaluru:  Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.

The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.

The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.

Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.

To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.

Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.

Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.

The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.

The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2026 Indian Television Dot Com PVT LTD