REVIEW: Top Celebrity Branded Real Estate Projects in India

Move over Donald Trump, India has embraced the celebrity endorsed real estate phenomenon and early word is that Indian celebrities increase purchase prices by 10-15%. The India Street has examined a number of the most prominent celebrity endorsements for real estate builders and projects and has rated them accordingly. The rating is not a statement of the project quality, but a statement on the suitability of the brand ambassador.

Project	Celebrity	Brand Ambassador Rating 1 – 10 (best)
Royal Garden Villas and Resort · Location: Bangalore	Jack Nicklaus – US Golfer	Rating: 8 While Jack is popular in the US, his appeal in India is probably limited. I would have gone for Vijay Singh (yes I know he wasn’t raised in India) due to his heritage.
LVL City · All Projects	Yuvraj Singh – Cricketer	Rating 7: A good choice for LVL but they fail to effectively tie the Cricketer to the project very well
Unitech Grande	Greg Norman – US Golfer - designed the Signature Golf Course	Rating 8: Very good brand ambassador positioning for the project, but I don’t know how much star power Mr. Norman has in India
GVK industries	Sania Mirza – India Tennis Star	Rating: 2 We can’t even find her on their website. It doesn’t make sense to us that she endorse the company or projects since they deal in large infrastructure projects. Just how exactly is she going to help?
Golden Grand · Location: Bangalore · Developer: Golden Gate Properties (GGP)	Ajay Devgan and Kajol – Bollywood Stars	Rating: 9 This power couple is a near perfect fit for the project and should prove to be a benefit to the development. They are featured on the home page as a pair of likeable neighbors.
Nitesh Forest Hills · Bangalore	Shane Warne · Australian Cricketer	Rating: 8 If the Cricket Camp run by Shane Materializes, this endorsement will be revised upward
All of EMGEE’s real estate projects	Bipasha Basu · Bollywood Star	Rating: 9 Due to Emcee wanting to appeal to the young hip generation, Basu is a very good choice
SRK group · Construction Division · SkyWings Development	K.J. Jesudas · India Singer	Rating: 5 Although Jesudas is fairly well known, I’m not sure how this adds much value to SRK’s construction projects. I rate this project a neutral.
Skyline Construction · Bangalore	Rahul Dravid · India Cricketer	Rating: 9 A very good choice for Skyline using him on almost very marketing piece. However, the company fails to tie their projects to Cricket which Nitesh Forest Hills appears to be doing well.
Royal Garden Villas & Resort at Tuscany Hills	Vijay Amritraj · Tennis Star	Rating: 10 A perfect blend of matching the tennis star’s qualities and participation since Vijay will headline the tennis center at Royal Garden Villas. He joins Jack Nicklaus as co-brand ambassadors for this project
MONT VERT TROPEZ · Location: Wakad	Remo Fernandes · India Singing Pop Star	Rating: 5 Like the other singers on this list, I don’t see the developer tying the singer’s style or music to the project. Mont Vert should have added some elements to the project that match Remo. Still, we don’t like singers as real estate ambassadors.
Aamby Valley Project · Location: Lonavala	Aishwarya Rai Amitabh Bachchan	Rating: 10 Perfect brand ambassadors for a near perfect development. This all inclusive city development has everything.
Chadha Group	Kapil Dev · India Cricketer	Rating 9: The facility will have a state of the art sports center including a cricket field. We like this project and the brand ambassador

We like celebrity endorsements as both a buyer and as a method to sell more residential product. The former because it forces the developer or property manager to maintain the project and keep it up to the standards of the celebrity that endorsed it. Can you imagine the Aamby Valley project falling apart and having an irate Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan come after you in the press? It would not be good for the corporate image.

I also believe it sells more residential product and at a higher value because customers want to be associated with a top brand. This luxury brand phenomenon cuts across all modernizing cultures around the globe. Lastly, the celebrity effect gives a boost to the developer’s corporate image if managed correctly.

According to Navdeep Malhotra, the maker of A Different Sunday, “If stars can lend fizz to aerated drinks and other consumer goods, then why not real estate? Housing projects are merchandise too and need a selling impetus. However, it also lends a peep into how tough the competition is in the sector and on the chances of sales sagging or plateauing in near future.”

While star power is a new trend in the Indian real estate, some celebrity endorsements make less sense. Currently there are filmstars, cricketers, TV actors and musicians that are acting as “real estate” brand ambassadors. How are musicians adding value to a real estate development unless they tie the musician to something related to musical arts. A community built around a symphony hall or school might work, but a standard real estate development doesn’t seem to be a fit. Moreover, as I rated above, I can’t see how GVK industries receives much value from Sania Mirza because the brand relationship is confusing.

Suggested Reading

• Indian Celebs in for ‘Real’ Estate

• The Next Biggest India Investment - Gujarat

• VIDEO: Selling Naked Puts - We Bare All

Indian Celebs in for ‘Real’ Estate

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury

Kolkata, India: The construction companies in India are betting their money on celebrities to build a strong brand image for their developed projects. And you believe it or not, it is not just film stars, but ‘grief stricken’ cricketers, TV actors and even musicians have signed in as ambassadors endorsing real estate brands. Glamour is now the newest essence in the realty sector. Celebrity signatures has now become a key ad mantra for many a construction companies. Such endorsements are not without the bouquet of non-tangible benefits. Besides, being attention grabber, the promos ensure credibility and send a strong message of persuasion to the common people who often get carried away by the stars. Exactly what the advertisers want. In 2006, five celebrities including two film actors, one film actress and two TV actresses were used by the real estate advertisers for endorsement on TV. The number is likely to increase in 2007. So, if Yuvraj Singh is hitting the screens and the bill boards with LVL City project, pace man S. Sreesanth is running fast on his follow through for the Mather Builders based basically in Kochi and looking ahead to expand their business to other parts of the country. Rahul Dravid at present is being considered as ‘the wall’ for Skyline Housing and Construction. While talking of the tinsel town, the bollywood stars have also associated themselves with every brand coming their way as their ambassadors. Recently, Bipasha Basu, one of the sexiest babe of the industry has struck a raw deal. Popularly known as ‘Bips’ in the social circles, the girl is all set to associate herself with the business of real estate. She has recently got into a contract as the next brand ambassador for all of EMGEE real estate projects in India and other parts of the world. Not to talk about Amitabh Bachchan who invited people, until a few months back, to buy their some share of property in the prestigious Amby Valley project launched by the Sahara India Pariwar. While her daughter in law Aishwarya Rai did not lag behind in the real estate endorsement and followed the footsteps of her father in law in the Amby Valley project. It is worthwhile to mention that the percentage of endorsement amount was a meager amount for the other family member of Big. Others also do not want to lag behind. Newly-married actress Perizaad Zorabian too was the face of AEZ Group till recently while Television star Shweta Tiwari, better-known as ‘Prerna’ of the ‘(K)Ekta Kapoor famed ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’, promoted ‘Gaursons’ for a long time. Just recently, Remo signed up for Pune-based Mont Vert Tropez. According to many, Remo’s endorsement allegedly struck a discordant note with the Goans as the singer had been on the fore front of a battle to save Goa from real estate giants. Others who have understood the immense potential of the real estate sector and has endorsed with the sector include tennis ace Sania Mirza for GVK Industries, angry young man Ajay Devgun and dark and beautiful Kajol for Golden Grand Group, spin Maharaja Shane Warne for Nitesh group, singer KL Jesudas for SRK Constructions, former Davis cupper Vijay Amritraj for Royal Indian Raj and a singer with a difference Rabbi Shergill for Impact Country. The perfect ambassador brings in two advantages for a brand. First, a celebrity gives the product greater recognition among the target audience since a large number of people know the person. Secondly, it gives the brand a personality to form a quick connect with the customer. It’s actually an image building exercise or an effort to be a cut above the rest, realty giants are now discovering that celebrity signature is the new mantra to achieve instant success. Saurabh Kapoor of LVL City, a company that has Yuvraj Singh and Preeti Jhingiani as its brand ambassadors says a brand ambassador adds to the recall value of any product. If Amitabh Bhattacharya , VP, Omaxe limited is to be believed, a star should not override the product or brand and must never be used as mere gimmick to gain instant publicity. He also adds that if the brand and celeb gel perfectly, it surely augurs sales. Amitabh is famous for the Shahrukh Khan’s DLF advertisement. Bhattacharya opines that Badshah Khan was an instant hit not only with the A/A+target buyers, but also had a strong impact across various other groups. Shalini Wadhwa of DLF. While airing her point of view said that the celebrities bring a psychological advantage as their trust factor spills onto the company as well. DLF is soon coming out with a fresh advertisement featuring SRK once its IPO gets a green signal. The Borell report of 2006, dealing with the online real estate advertising predicts that much of the growth in online real estate ad spending will be the result of a shift from newspapers. Newspaper real estate ads are predicted to total $4.327 billion this year, down almost 8 percent from last year's estimated $4.682 billion.

By 2010, newspapers will account for only 30 percent of real estate ad spend, or $2.9 billion less than Online’s share, according to Borrell.