Celeb tweets or advertisements?

By NewsGram Staff Writer

With Digital India being organized just a few weeks back, who would have thought of such quick results?

Hitherto, brands were doing events and campaigns with B-town celebrities in order to promote their products. But now there is an all new wave, 'tweet-only' deals, wherein the celebrities post messages in support of the brand on Twitter for a fee of Rs 1-5 Lakhs per message. These tweets camouflage the brand advertising in a way that makes the reader feel that the actor is narrating a personal experience with the product, whereas it is a sort of advertisement of the product.

Digital brand association is a popular trend abroad and has now picked up its momentum in India as

well. While Sonakshi Sinha tweets for fashion brands, Asus India and Starbucks, Yuvraj Singh has a deal with UC browser, a part of the Alibaba group.

These actors/actresses are chosen on the basis of their "number of followers" which allows the dissemination of their tweets and the brand as well. It is not as if these actors manage their Twitter accounts personally. They have well-paid social media managers who can publicize the product in 140- words and get attention for the same.

While Sinha charges Rs. 4-5 lakh per message, Priyanka Chopra and the newly-wedded Shahid Kapoor are known to cost 10-12 lakh per message. Brands like Asus, Starbucks and Honda are eminent enough to have their own Twitter accounts and tweets but they resolute to do their endorsements via celebrities because of their popularity and the 'personal touch' that these actors would give to their products.