In India’s advertising landscape, multi-celebrity campaigns are everywhere—from Dream11 and Flipkart to Manyavar and IPL promos—but marketers are questioning whether piling on stars is helping brands or just creating short-term noise.
When Dream11 launched its IPL 2025 campaign, “Aapki Team Mein Kaun?”, featuring Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor leading rival fantasy cricket teams, social media exploded. Memes, reels, and online chatter dominated the internet. Yet, amid the hype, many observers asked: did people remember Dream11, or just the celebrities?
The Celebrity Recall Dilemma
Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer at Zepto, believes that more celebrities no longer guarantee impact.
“In today’s cluttered landscape, more celebrities don’t guarantee recall. What cuts through is originality,” he says, citing Zepto’s creative stunts—like the Valentine’s Day song or The Great Indian Fake Wedding—as examples where ideas, not stars, drove engagement.
He adds that real advocacy now often comes from employees and authentic voices, whose organic reach can outperform celebrity endorsements.
Celebrity Culture as Message and Medium
Others argue that celebrities remain crucial to building cultural narratives. Hemant Shringy of Wondrlab Network says that today, celebrities are both the message and the medium.
“Curated combinations of stars and influencers help brands reach multiple audiences and build cultural scale,” he notes. But he cautions that campaigns fail when stars overshadow the brand. “The celebrity must serve the brand, not the other way around,” he emphasizes.
When Star Campaigns Work—and When They Don’t
Jackie J. Thakkar, creative director and stand-up comic, points out that star-stacked campaigns guarantee attention but not lasting connection. Using Dream11 as an example, he says the campaign was memorable for its rivalry and humour, but the core thrill of fantasy sports took a backseat.
“A big celebrity cast buys eyeballs, not loyalty,” he says, warning that continuous reliance on stars is financially unsustainable for long-term brand building.
Vishal Singh of Globale Media adds that excessive celebrity use can dilute a brand’s identity. Frequent ambassador changes, as seen with Manyavar, create fragmented messaging, whereas single-ambassador consistency—like Abhishek Bachchan in Idea Cellular campaigns—builds lasting equity.
The Power of Story and Authenticity
Even brands that leverage multiple stars acknowledge that storytelling, not sheer star power, drives value. Flipkart’s Pratik Shetty explains that celebrities help build emotional connection and brand love, rather than mere visibility.
Successful campaigns, like CRED’s Rahul Dravid “Indiranagar ka Gunda” moment or Neeraj Chopra’s humorous ads, integrate the celebrity into the story, making them part of the idea rather than the focus. When campaigns fail, they become parades of faces, leaving no memory of the product.
Marketing experts are noticing a shift: attention is easy; meaning is hard. Brands are rediscovering creator-first storytelling, continuous narrative worlds, and authentic community involvement—whether through Mumbai Indians’ creator collaborations, Zomato and Swiggy campaigns, or Zepto’s culture-led stunts.
As budgets tighten and consumer skepticism grows toward celebrity endorsements, the era of celebrity inflation may give way to meaning inflation, where authenticity and strong ideas matter more than star wattage.
Star power will always grab attention. But in a world where loyalty is scarce and trust is fragile, only a strong idea ensures lasting brand recall.