[DWind]

Voted for second option. I believe a celebrity can only create awareness of a particular brand which would only take a customer to the dealer's threshold. Beyond that it is upto the dealer+car to help enhance the customer's buying experience.
Also a celebrity needs to be in best of form as the car. Case in point is Yuvraj for FIAT. Yuvraj was not in the best of form on and off the field which only generated luke warm response while SRK was the badshah at the time. Another point working for SRK-Hyundai was the novelty factor. SRK had not endorsed any products before (I think!) and him launching an unknown brand brought more attention than AB who was into endorsing almost anything to the point people being tired of watching him whenever he comes on screen.

[clevermax]

I may be little biased but I feel Sachin Tendulkar & S10 with his Signature on it is/was the best combo till now. I am happy that our little master did it for S10 itself - both are real performers

Though SRK - Hyundai ads are stupid, they help in selling the cars I believe.

[gvivek75]

It's a tricky question. As some members have already noted in this thread before, awareness/ recall is all that celebrities can generate. Ultimately what a common (wo)man would look at is the association between the celebrity and the product itself.

Case in point: John Abraham who people know as an avid biker himself. To certain extent even MS Dhoni (though he could have definitely done better than TVS Star City ).

What business do Shahrukh/ Aamir/ Yuvi/ Amitabh/ Hritik have with the auto brands they endorse? Yes Santro and i10 have done phenomenally well, but does it really have anything to do with SRK peddling them? As far as I can recall there is nobody endorsing i20 and it is still the leader in its segment. To all those who attribute Hyundai's success to SRK, this needs an explanation

[ghodlur]

I dont recall TVS heavily cashing on Mahindra Sing Dhoni for bikes and neither did Hrithik Roshan setting the cash counter jingling for Hero Honda. The ads however were real duds.
Most of the vehicle manu. have realized that are inclined more towars taking common people images in their ads.

[raj.barcode]

Hope they pass some discounts to the customers than hiring these stupid actors to endorse for them. They are absolute waste. Any customer will surely see the merits of a brand/car however uneducated he is before putting in hard earned money. Please don't tell me people are ready to pay 5 lakhs + just because their favorite celebrity is in the ad campaign . the same person who may never drive the same (eg Will anyone see shahrukh driving an i10 in marine drive. never)

[rohan_iitr]

I have always believed that celebrity endorsements generally add no value to marketing campaigns, except in certain cases like:
- Film stars promoting beauty products
- Sportsmen promoting sports goods
- Celebrities promoting luxury products

If the celebrity doesn't relate to the product, the endorsement is useless. Some advertisement campaigns I find useless :
- Film stars/cricketers promoting colas
- Film stars/cricketers promoting cars
- Film stars promoting mobile phones and service providers

Hyundai/SRK and Yamaha/John Abraham endorsements are considered successful. But IMHO, Hyundai and Yamaha vehicles would have sold equally well even without SRK's and John Abraham's respective endorsements.

Instead of spending crores of rupees on celebrity endorsements, if Hyundai and Yamaha had spent similar amount on improving the customer experience at their dealerships and service centres, I'm sure the customers would have been happier.

Rohan

[vishwas]

I wonder how it helps Hyundai when SRK shows off his real cars. A lifestyle TV channel showed him in a convoy of fine german vehicles.

[CARDEEP]

I feel celebrity endorsements help in introduction of the car to the masses. Then it on the car to take up from whatever mileage that has been generated due to the celebrity endorsement.

I see SRK's endorsement to Hyundai's small cars as a success & even SRT's Fiat endorsement was success initially. But, where Hyundai's cars have been fuel efficient, decent performers & backed by wide & competent A.S.S., Fiat cars case has been marred by non-performing A.S.S. only.

I feel that RK's Nissan's endorsement will definitely pull few buyers to the showrooms, from where the dealer network has to handle the initial euphoria.

[Deep Blue]

I dont know about the cars but it definitely helps the celebrities

[xingamazon]

My take on the celebrity endorsements:
Firstly not all celebrities are just celebrities. There are some who needs to have an appeal quotient. For example any person who sees Shah Rukh's add gets more appealed than say Abhishek or Saif's ad. Its a complex combination of age, sex appeal, the way the ad is shot etc.

Secondly even if the appeal is great it only adds to the initial eurphoria. The product has to do the talking later on.

So any celebrity is not enough, like Sachin for Palio was a no no on seeing the ad. On other hand there are lots of people who bought TVS Star in TN after seeing the Surya ad.

[HammerHead]

"Celebrity Brand Ambassadors - Do they help sell cars?"
I would say 'Yes', only if the car is from either Maruti or Hyundai.
IMO celebrity endorsements do help in introducing a new car brand to the masses. Everyone knows what makes a car sell

[Mpower]

Tough for a bhpian to answer this question because we already know everything about car brands.

To the aam aadmi, a name like Nissan or Versa may mean nothing until Ranbir or AB introduces it to them.

PS: Aveo-->Saif Ali Khan
Logan-->Kunal Kapoor

[benzinblut]

Its about entering the market in style. Rest is upto a lot of differen things.

But companies should choose ambassadors that can connect with the product. I personally feel John Abraham for Yamaha, Priyanka Chopra for Pleasure connect very well. The others not so much.

PS: SRK on the i10 is a totally different level

[SmartCat]

Logan -> Kunal Kapoor? When did he endorse that?

Anyway, I think more people recognize Logan than Kunal Kapoor

[diwa]

Latest Addition - Ranbir kapoor > Nissan Micra

You also have Dada Sourav Ganguly for Vibgyor motor cycles
Sania Mirza - Hyundai Getz
Madhavan for Wagon R