This proposal recommends appointing actor Anubhav Mohanty as brand ambassador for MGNREGS in Odisha to increase awareness and demand for employment opportunities. Celebrities can help establish credibility, ensure attention, and boost recall of social programs. Anubhav is popular in Odisha and could attract workers to job sites. The proposal suggests launching a campaign called "Launch with Anubhav" where beneficiaries who completed 100 days of work could meet Anubhav to promote MGNREGS.

1. PROPOSAL
Celebrity Endorsement as a Strategy for MGNREGS in Odisha
Appointment of Anubhav Mohanty as brand ambassador of MGNREGS and special
IEC campaign named “launch with anubhav” to establish MGNREGS as a brand.
Backgrond
To meet the primary objective of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS i.e. guaranteeing at least one
hundred days of wage employment to every registered rural household, it is necessary that the
demand for work is captured and rural people are made aware of the provisions of MGNREG
Act and its implementation process. In this background, the celebrity endorsement as a
strategy plays a vital role in establishing MGNREGS as a brand by pulling huge demand for
job.
Objective of celebrity endorsement
Brands have been leveraging celebrity appeal for a long time. Across categories, whether in
products or services, more and more brands are banking on the mass appeal of celebrities.
The celebrity endorsements can be justified by the following advantages that are bestowed on
the overall brand:
Establishment of Credibility:Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that
brand among the target audience.
Ensured Attention:Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of
advertisements and making the advertisement and the brand more noticeable.
PR coverage: is another reason for using celebrity for PR events.
Time saving: Celebrity is able to build brand credibility in a short period of time.
Higher degree of recall: People tend to commensurate the personalities of the celebrity with
the brand thereby increasing the recall value.
Associative Benefit: A celebrity’s preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message -
because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand, the beneficiaries will also benefit.
Psychographic Connect: Celebrities are loved and adored by their fans and advertisers use
stars to capitalise on these feelings to sway the fans towards their brand.

2. Demographic Connect: Different stars appeal differently to various demographic
Segments (age, gender, class, geography etc.).
Mass Appeal: Some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to
generate interest among the masses.
Providing testimony: Another benefit of using celebrity endorsers is that s/he can provide
testimony for a product or service, particularly when the product has contributed to their
celebrity.
Rejuvenating a stagnant brand: With the objective of infusing fresh life into the stagnant
brands.
Selection of Celebrity
The choice of celebrity is critical for the success of the advertisement. The celebrity
should have high recognition, high positive affect, and the image of the celebrity must match
with that of the product.
Selection of the right celebrity is crucial. The needs of the brand—rather than the fame of the
celebrity—should be the primary criteria when selecting a celebrity spokesperson. The
celebrity's physical attractiveness, values, and credibility also matter tremendously. However,
it would be suicidal to forget about the target audience.
The FRED Principle
F is for Familiarity. The target stakeholder must be aware of the person, and perceive him or
her as empathetic, credible, sincere and trustworthy.
R is for Relevance. There should be a meaningful link between the advertised brand and the
celebrity endorser, and more important, between the celebrity endorser and the defined target
group.
E is for Esteem. Target group must have the utmost respect and confidence for the celebrity.
D is for Differentiation. The stakeholders must see the endorser as a cut above the rest. If
there is no perceived disparity among celebrities, then the strategy will not work.

3. Anubhav as Brand Ambassador
A brand ambassador is a person who represents a brand to target stakeholders to
increase brand awareness, create a specific brand image, create saleable opportunities and
build brand preference.
This also involves the promotion of MGNREGS as brands on the market using celebrities
who feature in both electronic and print media advertisements and appear at brand launches.
Since Anubhav enjoys huge followings of fans so using them enables brand marketers’
messages to reach many people. Being a celebrity increase the chances of the message being
paid attention to. Brand ambassador is also about building brand credibility on the social
sector in Odisha.
Cost
Since he is one of the highest paid and a much-sought-after actor in Ollywood, he may attract
beneficiaries to MGNREGS work site. As he is also a Member of Parliament from Ruling
BJD party, the endorsement fee could be very low or may be nil if we could convince him for
this social cause.
Special campaign “Launch with Anubhav “
It can also do well if it is supported by a sound brand ambassador activity programme
to ensure that the brand benefits maximally from the relationship.
A special campaign “launch with Anubhav” may be kicked off. The detail of campaign is as
follows;
One each beneficiaries from district who has completed 100 days may be invited to have
launch with Anubhav in special programme on 26th January 2010.