A celebrity can make a new phone feel desirable, a car feel aspirational and a soft drink feel instantly familiar. But put that same face next to a financial brand and the equation gets considerably more complicated. The product being sold is not just a service or a lifestyle. It involves someone’s money, risk appetite and often, their long-term financial decisions.
That is the line Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is now attempting to redraw. The regulator recently approved a Common Advertisement Code for specified regulated entities, including stockbrokers, depository participants, investment advisers, research analysts, online bond platform providers, portfolio managers and mutual funds/asset management companies. Among its provisions, regulated entities can use celebrities for brand-level or entity-level promotion, subject to prior approval and safeguards. Celebrity advertisements remain the exception to SEBI’s broader move away from mandatory pre-approval towards post-issuance reporting. The distinction matters. Celebrities can endorse the financial brand, but not specific investment products, putting the focus on building familiarity rather than driving a direct sale. And there is a sizeable audience for that. AMFI data shows that mutual fund AUM stood at ₹87.08 lakh crore as of August 31, 2026, with 28.35 crore folios, including 21.62 crore across equity, hybrid and solution-oriented schemes. For marketers, the question now is what role a celebrity can play in turning that scale into stronger brand awareness.
From selling products to selling familiarity
For Mirae Asset Investment Managers, the celebrity conversation is not entirely new. Shrinivas Khanolkar, Head - Digital, Marketing & Corporate Communication, Mirae Asset Investment Managers, points to the role celebrities have already played at an industry level. He shares, “Celebrities, including sportspersons, have definitely helped Mutual Funds become popular and have helped reach many households in the country. That experiment has worked and continues to educate investors. Now the real question is: does a celebrity brand ambassador for a particular brand really work or not? The Mutual Fund industry has done well so far and has allowed the products to be their brand ambassadors.”
That distinction could define the first wave of campaigns under the new framework. Instead of attaching a celebrity to a fund, stock or investment product, brands could use them to establish a broader personality for the institution itself.
For Grip Invest, Founder and Group CEO Nikhil Aggarwal looks at the role as one that sits above the conversion funnel. He adds, “Successful advertising needs both, the celebrity opens the door and earns attention. Product explanation and disclosure then do the convincing.”
That could push financial advertising closer to the logic already familiar in mainstream consumer marketing. The celebrity creates recognition and emotional affinity, while the brand, product pages, advisors and performance marketing channels do the harder work of explanation and conversion.
Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions, sees a similar role for celebrity advertising. “Celebrity advertising should complement the performance funnel rather than replace it. Performance marketing captures existing intent; a strong celebrity association can create familiarity, trust and consideration much earlier in the journey.”
But finance cannot simply become FMCG
The opportunity comes with an obvious creative constraint. A celebrity can bring emotion to the communication, but the underlying category cannot afford to lose its disclosures and risk context in the process.
Khanolkar puts the distinction bluntly. “Marketing a mobile phone, toothpaste, or a smart television is different from marketing an investment product. The risk is inherent to an investment product, and that needs to be spelled out.”
For him, even with a celebrity in the frame, the communication would need to remain focused on the institution and its processes. “Similarly, the celebs, as and when they appear marketing a Mutual Fund, would be expected to bring in brand and process awareness rather than awareness of a particular product.”
Almas Khan, Head of Marketing, Dun and Bradstreet, notes, “The shift is from information-led communication to conveying information with an emotional connect, rather than replacing information with emotion.”
That could produce a different kind of financial brand film. Rather than a celebrity talking about returns, funds or investment opportunities, the creative could centre on financial confidence, planning, understanding money or simply making an intimidating category feel easier to approach.
Suhas Diwakar Zele, Head of Marketing and Communications, Equifax India, adds, “A celebrity in such ads can be considered as a credible translator who can make concepts such as compounding, risk mitigation and portfolio diversification more approachable rather than overwhelming.”
The result could be financial advertising that looks more like mainstream brand storytelling while retaining the informational spine of BFSI communication.
The real test begins after the TVC
The bigger challenge may not be the hero film. It could be what happens to that film once it is cut into reels, snippets, influencer posts and performance ads.
Hamidani flags this as a particular compliance concern. “A compliant television commercial can easily cross the line when shortened, captioned or repurposed by creators. Brands will need a central compliance framework covering every derivative asset, with clear do's and don'ts around products, returns and calls to action.”
There is also the celebrity’s own reputation to consider. A brand may spend heavily building an association only to find itself dealing with the fallout from an unrelated controversy involving its ambassador.
Khanolkar argues that fit therefore needs to go beyond fame. “Successful partnerships are only those where both celebrity and brand engage meaningfully, understand the ethos, and have a long-term vision.”
Dun and Bradstreet’s Khan similarly argues for due diligence, reputational monitoring and escalation protocols, with Compliance, Legal, Risk and Marketing involved before a campaign goes live.
That may make celebrity selection in BFSI a very different exercise from simply chasing reach.
For agencies, meanwhile, the creative opportunity is substantial. A celebrity could help financial brands become more culturally visible, particularly as investing itself becomes a more mainstream consumer activity.
Aakash Goplani, Vice President - Business, SoCheers, sees the potential for investing to follow some of the brand-building trajectory witnessed in insurance and digital payments, although he cautions that it is too early to know exactly how far the category will go. He adds, “The initial campaigns will effectively serve as a learning phase for the industry, and over time, brands and agencies will have a much clearer understanding of how far they can push creativity while remaining within the regulatory framework.”
For BFSI marketers, the appeal is fairly clear. A familiar face can get people to notice a brand that they may otherwise ignore. But the celebrity cannot do the explaining, the disclosure or the convincing. What changes is the first few seconds of the conversation. And for a category trying to get more people to pay attention to investing, that could be reason enough to give celebrity advertising a shot.
