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BY IMPACT Staff

Celebrities are increasingly looking to leverage their star power on digital media. An agency named Fluence aims to become a common platform for both brands and celebrities

By Simran Sabherwal

Did you know that the most followed accounts on Twitter globally happen to belong to musicians? Four of the five most followed accounts (seven of the top 10 belong to pop stars) are artists, with Katy Perry topping the list with 49,000,000 followers, followed by Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. With falling record sales and tough competition, international pop stars are increasingly looked to build a fan following on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, primarily because social media has proved to be an effective marketing tool.

While internationally musicians score over movie stars, sports stars and even politicians, in India it is the actors who lead the pack. What’s helping Indian celebrities leverage their brand value as effectively as their international counterparts on digital media is Fluence.

Connecting celebrities with their fans

Fluence, CA Media’s Digital venture and part of the global conglomerate The Chernin Group, LLC (TCG), is a celebrity digital network which aims to connect celebrities with their fans and brands through their online presence. The firm, which manages the digital lives (including social media presence, digital endorsements, online/mobile monetisation and equitylinked investments) of actors Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Karisma Kapoor, recently signed on singer Sonu Nigam.

Ashish Joshi, VP Digital & Business Head – Fluence, says that the agency looks to leverage learnings inherited from its global platform TCG, to create a network in India around celebrities. “Fluence is not a social media agency but a digital media company where we try to capture the 360-degree ecosystem around celebrities’ lives on digital platforms and build networks around them,” adds Joshi.

“We will create platforms on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, games/apps and voice blogs; associate with partners like telcos and OEMs; look at e-commerce and also build interesting properties that can be monetised on social media platforms along with brands.”

Benefits for brands

On making the connect between a brand and a celebrity, Joshi believes that the fan base available on the celebrity platform provides brands direct eyeballs that can be effectively engaged with the star’s help. Fluence can help brands maximise their impact, by utilising the online influence of celebrities and providing specific demographic and psychographic analytics of the celebrity fan base, highlighting campaign effectiveness.

While the agency enables the celebrity to interact directly with his fans, it also gives him a better  idea of his actual fan base and translates that number into something beneficial for the celebrity and the brand he’s associated with too. Joshi adds, “We have a three pronged approach: first, we create and build the networks; second, we create interesting content to achieve stickiness and retention on those platforms, and third, we monetise it via distribution. For example, we know how to reach out to OEMs and telcos by creating interesting voice blog properties. When it comes to brands, we try to create interesting brand properties and present them subtly on the artist’s social media platforms, where they can leverage their association and grab eyeballs. It is a mutual beneficial relationship where the artist also can monetise those efforts.”

Elaborating on a successful digital association between Salman Khan and Suzuki, Joshi says that the two-wheleer’s Hayate campaign was kicked off with the making of the TVC video, building up to the launch. The TVC was later launched exclusively on the actor’s Facebook page first. Addtionally, a contest was held where Khan asked his fans what was their ‘way of life’, which was supplemented with the Apna Way of Life App on Salman’s Facebook page. Similarly, a game was created around Thums Up and Salman Khan, which was promoted on the actor’s Facebook page as well as Twitter account.

While the above campaign is based on the actor’s existing tie-ups, Fluence is also looking at brand associations for a short period, even for a period of three months, specifically for the digital platform. Joshi says, “We have the expertise and the know-how and we also work very closely with the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube nationally and internationally and we can enable interaction between consumers and we know for a fact that such an association of this nature can help both the brand and the celebrity as such.”

Speaking on his association with the firm, Sonu Nigam said, “With the expertise of Fluence, I look forward to imbibing fresh ideas and exploring new platforms using various innovative and path-breaking ideas to communicate with them and build further engagement”. Fluence is currenly looking to sign on artists from genres as diverse as music, sports, television, literature, and the culinary arts.

Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com

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