What drives B2B brands to spend extravagantly on celeb endorsements?

Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt appeared in a recent steel TMT bar ad. A look at the role of celebrities in construction materials ads.

Ranveer Singh and Allu Arjun for Astral Pipes, Akshay Kumar for Star Cement and Temco TMT bar, and Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan for Vectus Pipes and Tanks. The list of celebrities endorsing B2B brands is quite long.

Recently, celebrity couple Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor appeared in a steel TMT bar ad that caught social media’s attention. The Rungta Steel ad, featuring the duo, is not the first one for the brand. In February 2022, the brand released an ad that showed Bhatt enlisting the merits of using Rungta Steel for the construction of their new home. The latest ad, released this month, shows Kapoor doing the same.

While we have seen celebrity couples talk about home furnishings or consumer durables in the past, the discussion about TMT bars in the ad doesn’t quite seem like an actual conversation that would take place between a couple. This is because multiple middlemen, like architects and engineers, are involved, when it comes to deciding what raw materials are used during a construction project.

Sharing the relevance of using celebrities for advertising raw materials or B2B brands, Navin Kansal, chief creative officer, 21N78E, says that the celebs, if used in the right way, can allow B2B brands to drive awareness among their audience. This is because B2B, like B2C, is still very much a P2P (peer-to-peer) conversation.

Kansal explains, “Bars, drainage pipes, cement, etc., are all integral to the construction of a residential or a commercial property. But they are not necessarily in the consideration set (purchase decision) of the consumers.”

That decision is typically taken by the developer, unless the customer is building the property himself. The customer has to have inherent trust in the developer - to not compromise on the quality, says Kansal.

The objective behind B2B brands roping in celebrities could also be to excite the distributors. The larger aim is to drive interest and build credibility. For most of these brands, the idea could also be to be recognised as a popular brand amongst the fragmented commodity market.

Divyapratap Mehta, founder, Intertwined Brand Solutions, points out that the consumers, who are building their own homes today, are far more aware and may not leave all these decisions to their contractor or architect. Hence, from a business point of view, talking to the users helps these brands.

“Contractors and architects tend to suck a lot of money from the brands that sell TMT bars, cement, pipes, wiring, etc. Hence, it becomes difficult for these brands to survive on margins. It makes absolute business sense for them to advertise with the help of celebrities,” Mehta mentions.

Corroborating this point of view, Vidur Vyas, founder-CEO, NorthSide Consulting, tells afaqs! that B2B advertising, like B2C, is about building the brand and increasing consideration among its potential end users.

He adds, “Mass media campaigns (advertising) make a difference because it helps the (advertised) brand stand out from the competition, brings out the product’s competitive advantage, increases the end-consumer demand as well as trade equity.”

However, the criteria for choosing one brand over another does not necessarily involve taking into consideration the celebrity ambassador for that brand. But, at the same time, a big celebrity endorsement does give an impression to the middlemen that a brand is trustworthy. Hence, there may be value in targeting only them with such a mass media campaign.

Right creative approach is essential

Even when these brands decide to invest huge amounts of money in celebrity endorsements, the right creative treatment is necessary, as mere presence of big actors is not enough.

As per Kansal of 21N78E, the narrative and storytelling of the ad should be authentic, without compromising on creativity. “Exaggeration to make a point is fine, but conjuring end consumer scenarios that are far beyond the realm of such conversations happening in the real world, will only serve to invite mirth at best and not anything else.”

Mehta of Intertwined Brand Solutions says that the Bhatt-Kapoor ad is aptly timed, because most people know that the couple are currently building their home and, hence, the ad is contextual. This makes it a better celebrity ad than most others.

The success formula for these brands, according to Mehta, is to strike a balance between expert and consumer marketing, as the intermediaries cannot be fully ignored.