In July 2012, we launched our latest product Celebritix, targeted at advertisers and media agencies. This article showcases key features of Celebritix, using some case studies.

What is Celebritix?

Celebritix is a celebrity evaluation software product, based on consumer research. It allows advertisers and media agencies to evaluate celebrity options being considered for endorsement. It also allows them to evaluate film options being considered for brand association or in-film placement.

How does Celebritix work?

Celebritix is based on consumer data collected every quarter, for more than 50 celebrities, across films, sports and television. Consumers are asked to score each celebrity on 20 dimensions, whose list is given below:

The consumer data is uploaded every quarter. Advertisers and media agencies who have subscribed to Celebritix have the software installed on their desktops. They can define their brand profile in the software, i.e., the target audience (gender, age, SEC) and the dimensions. They can assign choose the dimensions that their brands represent (out of the 20) and assign weighs to them (%).

Basis the brand profile, the software analyzes the celebrity data and calculates an OCX Score (Ormax Celebritix Score) for each celebrity being evaluated. The OCX score is a measure of the fit between the brand and the celebrity, and can be used to take decisions on celebrity choices.

Case Studies

Let’s look at three case studies that will help us understand Celebritix better. These cases are hypothetical and the choice of brands, target audience and dimensions is purely for illustrative purposes.

Case 1: Nokia wants to select a young film star (i.e., less than 35 years age) as their new brand endorsers

Nokia’s TG: MF 18-44 SEC AB

Nokia’s desired brand dimensions: Intelligent (30%), Stylish (30%), Successful (20%), Youthful (20%)

The table below illustrates the results based on Celebritix.

Interestingly, the top four recommendations are female stars. Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor score well ahead of Ranbir Kapoor. While Kareena leads on the “Intelligent” dimension, along with Vidya Balan, Katrina more than makes up for it on the other three dimensions, especially “Stylish”.

Case 2: Tata Docomo have Ranbir Kapoor as their brand ambassador. They want to understand how best to use Ranbir in their ads, in a way that Ranbir’s strengths are used optimally.

Tata Docomo’s TG: MF 18-44 SEC AB

The table below shows Ranbir Kapoor’s scores across the 20 dimensions in Docomo’s target audience:

The top four dimensions for Ranbir Kapoor are Modern, Stylish, Youthful and Good-Looking. It can be argued that the recent Docomo commercials, where Ranbir plays older characters, are more in the Fun & Innovative space, and hence, are not making the best possible use of Ranbir’s personality. A younger, more glamorized campaign look is recommended, to communicate the brand message.

Case 3: Axe wants to evaluate two upcoming films for brand associations – Shootout At Wadala and Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani

Axe’s TG: Males, 18-30 yrs., SEC AB

Axe’s desired brand dimensions: Hot & Sexy (1/3^rd), Masculine (1/3^rd) & Youthful (1/3^rd).

There are two aspects on which the evaluation between the two films can happen:

1. The fit between the stars and the brands
2. The box office potential of the films

The table below captures the brand fit (OCX) scores of the lead stars of the two films for Axe:

While Ranbir Kapoor is more “youthful” than John Abraham, the latter scores higher on “Hot & Sexy” and is more than twice Ranbir’s score on “Masculine” (Note: The target audience here is different from Nokia and Tata Docomo, and hence, the scores are different too).

As a result, basis the star fit, Shootout At Wadala emerges as the better bet for a tie-up for Axe.

As a second step, let’s look at the box office potential for both the films, captured through FBO (First-Day Forecast) of the films, based on starcast, banner, director, genre, theme, etc. FBO is calculated using Ormax Media’s proprietary model based on the movie research work done by the company. FBO for both Shootout At Wadala and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani is currently in a similar range of Rs. 9-10 crore.

Hence, Shootout At Wadala is the recommended choice of film for Axe.