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LG to sponsor Stardust Film Awards

Chaebol signs up Bollywood actor Zayed Khan as brand ambassador; ties up with film production companies for product placements

After cricket, LG is now training its sight on the entertainment industry. The consumer electronics giant has tied up with two film companies for product placements.

While Salil Kapoor, head, marketing, LG Electronics India, declined from naming the movies or the film companies, he did mention that one of the movies featured Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee. Beyond this nugget of information, Kapoor could not be persuaded to talk more on the movie tie-ups.

However, LG was more than willing to talk about its signing up Bollywood actor Zayed Khan as a brand ambassador.

Khan will endorse the entire range of products from LG Electronics, which include the high-end refrigerators, plasma television, high-end mobile phones and digital appliances like microwaves and air conditioners.

Enumerating on why Khan was the right brand fit, says Salil Kapoor, head, marketing, LG Electronics India, explains, “Zayed Khan seemed the right choice as, in many ways, he represents what LG as a brand stands for. He is talented and intelligent, transparent but more importantly, he comes with no baggage. And, of course, he is an youth icon.”

On his part, Khan hopes that his ambassador status proves financially productive for the company.

With Khan coming on board, an obvious question is: What happens to cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who was signed on as LG's brand ambassador last year for the premium range of products (such as Whisen, TV DIOS and Plasma TV).

In fact, Singh had made his debut with LG's GSM mobile phones ad campaign. Incidentally, the first LG product that Khan unveiled was also a mobile phone – LG's T5100, digital camera phone with 1.3 megapixel resolution.

Though Kapoor assures that Singh continues to be LG's brand ambassador, he did not specify whether he would be as visible as Khan is likely to be.

Khan and the in-film placements form LG's aggressive promotional strategy. The other is visibility on ground through film awards. LG is the presenting sponsor for this year's Stardust Film Awards.

Talking about why suddenly the entertainment industry is high up on LG's agenda, Kapoor says, “We have been investing a lot on 30-second commercials. Now the focus of our media strategy is to project the brand value through both above-the-line and below-the-line activities in a very specific manner. For example, we are sponsoring the ICC ranking, which again is very specific and not too spread out. That way we reach the viewer or our consumer in direct fashion.”

In addition to this, the company is looking at improving its retail experience by giving special training to floor managers, who interface with consumers on daily basis. And this interaction accounts for 70 per cent of the total consumers' experience with the brand.

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