Hyundai, SRK rewrite brand-celebrity script

There is nothing new about Bollywood ambassadors endorsing car and bikes. Everyone from Aamir Khan to Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan to Hrithik
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Roshan feature in some automobile endorsement or the other. But car maker Hyundai is rewriting the usual brand-celeb script with Shah Rukh Khan.

Khan is actually involved in the scripting, advertising and storyboard brainstorming for the i10 brand which he represents. His company Red Chillies is also making the new i10 commercial which will debut for the Diwali season starting October 8.

Speaking to ET Now, Shah Rukh Khan said: "Many of the companies I represent take feedback from me. I use these products...like the Hyundai cars...so I can give a creative suggestion. In most of the scripting and advertising I do take a very active call."

The latest commercial for the i10 also included substantial inputs from the King Khan. "Normally for a commercial, the story and script is developed and decided by Hyundai and its advertising agency – Innocean ," said the Hyundai spokesperson . "Once the story board is decided it is shared with SRK and at times he gives his inputs and suggestions about the production or dialogues so that it adds value to the entire script or story. For this particular ad also the same procedure was followed."

The new i10 spot featuring SRK will highlight a fresh positioning twist for the car as a chic, urbane, stylish, reliable and desirable product . That positioning has also necessitated a tweak in the branding for Hyundai's flagship Santro. "We are now positioning the Santro as a more family-oriented mass car which has its advantages like mileage, cost of ownership and trust of over 15 lakh customers," says the Hyundai executive. Also, it is targeted towards tier 2 and tier 3 towns while the i10 is positioned as the most desirable compact car with primary target being young working couples; small nuclear families and more for urban use. The new spot will also highlight this difference using Khan to drive home the point. But for SRK, despite the branding tweak Santro's essential positioning has remained unchanged. "Technically , space wise, feature wise and to competition the Santro may be evolving but its basic value has remained unchanged. It's still an affordable car for a family buying its first car," he says.

Khan, who has been associated with Hyundai from the very beginning—first as Santro ambassador and now as i10 brand-am—uses the cars first up as they are launched in India. Despite the recent brouhaha over the use of Dish TV which he also endorses , Khan says he actually uses the products he endorses. "The products I endorse are of the highest order. Hyundai is one of the leading companies and you would buy their car," he says adding that he takes his kids for ice cream at night in the i10.

That's where his involvement in the product too comes in. "I often tell them can we add something like this to this car or do things differently ," Khan says. "I understand these are big decisions and a company like Hyundai won't do things simply because I say so but I bring in a creative voice."
Source: EconomicTimes.Indiatimes