Online players rope in brand ambassadors to click with youth

Abhishek Law Updated - October 31, 2012 at 08:41 PM.

E-commerce sites are increasingly banking on brand ambassadors to attract the youth. As many as five e-commerce sites – FashionandYou, Yatra, Myntra, Yepme and Shersingh – have roped in celebrities from Bollywood and the sports world to endorse their brands or a particular collection.

“A brand ambassador’s job for an online portal is not very different from its offline counterpart. Apart from providing a face to the brand, ambassadors echo what it stands for,” Trivikrum Thakore, Director Marketing, FashionandYou, told Business Line .

Apparel e-tailer FashionandYou had signed Nargis Fakri – of

Rockstar fame – to endorse the brand earlier in October.

Salman Khan has been seen on television commercials of online travel portal

Yatra.com . Similarly, actress Kalki Koechlin (of
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara ) is endorsing a particular set of collections on Myntra (another online apparel retailer) over the last one month.

Karisma Kapur has been endorsing Babyoye (specialising in baby products), while Shersingh, a new entrant in the apparel segment, has cricketer Zaheer Khan as its brand ambassador.

Fashionandyou is also planning to have a sales event where it will display a range of apparels endorsed by Nargis Fakri. Plans are afoot to initiate interaction with subscribers through social media, while television commercials too will be aired in the long run.

“We are indeed hoping for some positive impact on the sales front,” Thakore said.

Myntra claims an increase in off-take of collections endorsed by Kalki Koechlin. The company has an online fashion magazine (on Myntra’s site) which for the last one month has been featuring the actress and her endorsed apparels.

“There has been a marked increase in sales, between 20 and 30 per cent, for the collections endorsed by her,” Ashutosh Lawania, Co-Founder and Head Marketing, Myntra, said.

abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

Published on October 31, 2012 15:11