Coca-Cola has decided not to renew its brand endorsement contract with Aamir Khan, its biggest brand

ambassador for more than a decade, as the beverages maker is looking for younger faces to connect with the youth - brand Coke's core target. Coke is the second brand to drop the country's costliest celebrity endorser in the past six months after biscuit maker Parle Products. Since Coke doesn't have a contract on paper with Aamir now, he is free to endorse a rival cola brand if he chooses to do so," an official directly involved in the development said. "But the arrangement is that the beverage firm could use him on a project basis if and when the need arises," said the person, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media. Aamir has not featured in a Coke commercial for almost two years now. He was last seen in Coke's 'open happiness' commercial, in an animated version, in 2009. Since then, his nephew Imran Khan has been appearing in fresh Coca-Cola commercials. Aamir's contract with Coca-Cola, which began in 1999, was up for renewal earlier this month. Despite repeated attempts, his manager could not be contacted for comment. A Coca-Cola India spokesman said that the firm will continue to partner with the star for strategic communication initiatives. "We are working on some programmes that best leverage his persona and help amplify our core corporate and brand messages," he said. Aamir is one of the highest-paid actors on the endorsement circuit, charging 8-10 crore per brand annually. Last year, he signed a record 30-crore three-year deal with telecom firm Etisalat. The star behind blockbuster films like Lagaan and Taare Zameen Par has been the face of Coke's most popular campaigns over the years, including 'thanda matlab Coca-Cola' and 'paanch matlab chota coke'. Despite high-visibility campaigns, brand Coke has never managed to overtake Coca-Cola's other cola brand Thums Up in India. Coke also trails rival Pepsi in terms of market shares. Interestingly, PepsiCo had dropped the other big superstar of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan, two years ago, replacing him with a much younger Ranbir Kapoor as the ambassador of brand Pepsi. When Parle Products decided not to renew its contract with Aamir, its officials said the company will go for regional endorsements in line with their regional plan. It had hired regional actors Ravi Kishan and Rituparno Sengupta for its Monaco salty biscuits brand. Several firms are roping in regional celebrities to represent their brands because they are cheaper to hire and connect better with local communities. As a part of its global campaign in the run-up to this year's Indian Premier League (IPL), beverages player Coca Cola said it will launch a communication initiative in the country featuring the company's brand ambassador and Bollywood star Aamir Khan. The 'Coca Cola Open Happiness' campaign would involve a 360-degree communication effort, which would use the mass media and a range of other activities like on-the-ground and store activation programme, Coca Cola India said in a statement. "Open Happiness brings forward the thought of enjoying a bottle of Coca Cola while taking a pause from the daily routine to connect with others," Coca Cola India Director (Marketing) Kashmira Chadha said in the statement. She said that India is one of the few markets across the globe where the company has rolled out the Open Happiness initiative.

The TV commercial, featuring Aamir Khan, would be released in the second week of this month coinciding with the IPL tournament in South Africa. The new initiative comes as a follow up to the launch of the 'Open Happiness' concept in India in February this year that had featured cricket star Gautam Gambhir.

Celebrity branding is a type of branding, or advertising, in which a celebrity becomes a brand ambassador and uses his or her status in society to promote a product, service or charity, and sometimes also appears as promotional model. Celebrity branding can take several different forms, from a celebrity simply appearing in advertisements for a product, service or charity, to a celebrity attending PR events, creating his or her own line of products or services, and/or using his or her name as a brand. The most popular forms of celebrity brand lines are for clothing and fragrances. Many singers, models and film stars now have at least one licensed product or service which bears their name. Lately there has been a trend towards celebrity voice-overs in advertising. Some celebrities have distinct voices which are recognizable even when they not present on-screen. This is a more subtle way to add celebrity branding to a product or service. An example of such an advertising campaign is Sean Connery voice-over for Level 3 Communications. The use of a celebrity or sports professional can have a huge impact on a brand. For example, sales of Nike golf apparel and footwear doubled after Tiger Woods was signed up on a sponsorship deal. [2] More recently, advertisers have begun attempting to quantify and qualify the use of celebrities in their marketing campaigns by evaluating their awareness, appeal, and relevance to a brand's image and the celebrity's influence on consumer buying behavior. For example, Omnicom agency Davie Brown Entertainment has created an independent index for brand marketers and advertising agencies that determines a celebritys ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Davie-Brown Index (DBI) will "enable advertisers and ad-agency personnel to determine if a particular public figure will motivate consumers who see them in an ad to purchase the product advertised." Celebrity branding is a global phenomenon and it assumes paramount importance in countries like India where celebrities are given the status of demi Gods by the masses. There is a certain correlation between successful celebrity branding and brand endorsements. With the increased visibility of social networking celebrities are being created in new mediums daily. Cyberlebrities often use the internet as a resource to follow celebrity branding trends. Celebrity Endorsements help break the clutter and make the brand more noticeable.A celebritys preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message. For instance- Priyanka Chopras perkiness, Sachin Tendulkars credibility. On the other hand, in todays scenario, the clutter can also be termed with relevance to a large number of same products tagged in different brands by different celebrities. On the same stage, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, M.S.Dhoni, add on to the list of creating a clutter of celebrity endorsements he Coca Cola campaign in India, however, has been different from that of Pepsi, even though they both share similar product traits. Coca Cola had a presence in India before 1977, but was subsequently forced to exit the Indian market. When the company returned to India post

liberalization, it came up with an innovative communication and advertising strategy. Coca Cola has essentially been following the principle of differentiation. Coca Cola Jo Chaaho Ho Jaaye, Coca Cola Enjoy was one of the companys first campaigns in India. It was remarkably well executed, and appealed both at a product level as well as at an emotional level. These ads featured celebrities such as Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. The target segment for Coca Cola in its initial days was the youth segment and this campaign clearly connected well with the segment. However, the next advertising campaign of Thanda Matlab Coca Cola was launched with an objective to have a mass appeal. The campaign leveraged the product platform rather than the emotional platform that it had established earlier. It is however, important to note here that Coca Cola made some exceptions for India. The company has similar marketing strategies across geographies and usually doesnt depend on celebrity endorsements. But given the great fan-following, and in adapting to the Indian context, the company had to initially deviate from its set charter. However with the current campaign of Open Happiness, Coca Cola seems to have achieved both an emotional as well as a mass appeal. There is a very natural connect with the target segment, that of celebrating every day, and sharing small moments of joy with our loved ones, irrespective of any barriers. Since the beginning one of the main challenges for Coke has been to increase per capita consumption of cola. Gupta had the mandate in the mid-90s and the current spokesperson echoes a similar sentiment. "The packaged beverages market back in 1993 was at a nascent stage and per capita consumption was just 3. Contrast that to 2012 when the per capita consumption has crossed 20," says the spokesperson.

Advertising for Coca-Cola in India has almost always been handled by McCann Erickson. Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Worldgroup gave the brand its award-winning campaign in 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola,' which won two gold Lions at Cannes in 2003. The campaign featured Aamir Khan playing regional roles (as a Hyderabadi and a Punjabi among others) and enabled Coke to strengthen its equity nationwide. "Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola firmly established Coke in India. The campaign also gave the brand a very good edge over competition," says Santosh Padhi, CCO & cofounder, Taproot India which handles communication for Pepsi. The objective of the company through the campaign was to target small towns and not just the urban populace. "Coca-Cola India believed that the first brand to offer communication targeted at smaller towns would own the rural market so it went after that objective with a comprehensive strategy," says the Coke spokesperson. This segment's primary need was out-of-home thirstquenching; and the soft drink category was undifferentiated in the minds of rural consumers. 'Thanda,' meaning cool/cold is also generic for cold beverages, thereby giving 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' multiple meanings. The phrase addressed both the primary need of the segment for cold refreshment by positioning Coke as a generic 'thanda' beverage like lassi or lemonade. After 2003, a number of campaigns were used to launch a 200 ml bottle, a PET bottle and to tackle the controversy surrounding allegations of high pesticide levels in colas. However, none enjoyed the same adulation as 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola'. "'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' was an absolutely gem of a tagline and the biggest ever claim made by any brand on the category of cold drinks. I am not sure why they dropped it at all. They could have approached the idea with a fresh execution every time," says Padhi.

Industry observers also speak about the constant change in the Coke marketing system that contributed to a steady dilution of the brand. "Coke had many people at the helm of marketing over the years and everyone tried to bring his own idea to the fore. Currently the brand has a roster of agencies working on its creative. It also has an internal creative arm that does advertising," says an observer familiar with Coke's promotional strategies. With so many cooks, the possibility of the broth getting spoiled is high. Since 2009, Coke globally has been running the 'Open Happiness' campaign, which was adapted for the Indian market as well. However actor Imran Khan who's been part of the India execution has not quite been able to recreate the magic his uncle Aamir Khan managed to weave in 2003. In 2010, Coca-Cola ran the 'Brrr...' campaign - again an adaptation of the brand's campaign in South Africa. On the current challenges in selling Coke to the consumer, Joshi says, "Consumers today are spoilt for choice. With such a vast range of options, they are fickle minded and over-communicatedto. However, the only way a brand can make itself valuable to the consumers is by offering something more than just the functional benefit or just creating awareness about itself." Padhi of Taproot agrees that Coke advertising in India has lost its charm and has been all over the place in the last five years; however the brand's recent association with Olympics gives it another opportunity for a comeback. "Coke lost the opportunity when it stayed away from World Cup and now Pepsi is far ahead. Their Olympics tie-up is a great chance for them to make a comeback and put some pressure on us. Then we will be forced to do even better work," he laughs.