Undoubtedly, he is spell-bounding! He means, when he says “Kuch Khaas Nahin…Bas Duniya Ko Nacha Raha Hoon….” The ad has stood at the pole position for the past few weeks; followed by Chevy’s Aveo U-Va (Saif Ali Khan takes Rani Mukherjee on a ride in his new Aveo U-Va. “How about some Coffee”…). And for Sony Ericcson, it’s none other than the perfectionist “HRITHIK”. The ad is nothing different or unusual. It doesn’t even have some long & striking dance steps. But again it’s none other than Hrithik who walks away with an equal share of the accolades as that of the brand ‘SONY’. Motorola & Sony Ericcson have always positioned their phones as a walkman or MP3 player or as an i-Pod phone that puts everyone on a rhythm instinctively.

The ad practically has nothing to say about the phone which except something towards the end, “...the Sony W200i with Bass Reflex Headphones…” This again shows that they still want music to be as their positioning cue than speaking of camera or some other technical attribute. My prior entry was regarding the Pepsi Gold ad, which never had any celebrity being featured, as of till now. Still the ad has soared very well & ranks 3rd this week in the chart. So is it that celebrity endorsements or tagging a celeb to a product (brand) makes it’s a more affable besides carrying the ‘TOM’ (Top of Mind) at the pole.

There have been ads in the past which never caught the ‘TOM’, so very well until they were tagged with some well known personality. Right now, I can remember ‘Victor GL’ which didn’t work when it was launched, until the brand chose Sachin Tendulkar as ambassador. Same was the case with 'Fiat Palio', Sachin again was the person concerned here too. It’s a tried & tested process in India, that celebrity endorsement will impact the sales figure of a certain commodity – indubitably leverage its brand value.

But then if that is the case, then is it that we are at a contradiction to what a brand value is as per marketing management is concerned. It’s very obvious that even I, or say SONY, itself (keeping in mind not to tarnish SONY’s brand image & placing the text just as an assumption) may actually launch a very good-looking mobile phone model tomorrow & may be again Hrithik will promote it on air, on screen, but the product bombs. No doubt, it will have some appreciable sales till then. So what next??? You find troubles in coming days. The battery doesn’t withstand long durations & gets discharged. The cell-phone falls down & it’s done. No looking back to it. The service centres or the spare-parts may not be readily available. You throw your cell-phone, promote bad ‘WOM’ (word of mouth) and discuss it intensively in your peer group – what else can be done….

Hrithik, any day is my favourite & will always be. I love dancing & music is something, I can’t live without. But is that something which drives me to buy a cell-phone. I might sound illogical, because today a mobile phone is deemed to have more than what a phone has to offer. People want to carry their office with them & thus brands like “i-mate”, “hp’s iPaq Pocket PC”, “Black Berry” etc. but then why not include the W200i in SONY’s sound system category & promote it as something that allows you to talk to your friends too, just as your neighbour’s phone does phone does. Let the music system be the USP itself. I am not at all negating to what the ad has to deliver. But it seems as if all these products are in a form competition with Apple’s i-Pod, distinctively or indistinctively.

Let’s see ……how far does “the thump” sets the world free!