Author(s): Pingali Venugopal
Globally around twenty percent of the advertisements use celebrities. Studies have shown that celebrities impact the different stages of the AIDA process. In India advertisements with celebrity endorsements account for over $200 million and film personalities contribute eighty percent of celebrity endorsements. This study focused on the impact of the celebrity endorsements on the Gen Y in India. An exploratory study with a sample of hundred Generation Y respondents from a cosmopolitan city in India was done. The data collection was done to capture the impact of celebrity endorsement during the different stages of the decision process. The study showed that advertisements using celebrities are popular and help in increasing the awareness. However, these advertisements do not take the consumers through the subsequent stages of the AIDA process to culminate into sale. Based on the findings a framework for using celebrity endorsement based advertisements for Gen Y segment is suggested.