Model and vejaay, yes. But Bollywood personality?? Malaika, as far as I can remember, has appeared in one item number on top of a train.
The company elaborates: "We were looking for a vibrant, regal, fashionable, easily recognisable youth icon and someone the youth of the country could easily identify and connect with."
Someone who'd charge less than Rani Mukherjee or Shahrukh Khan, I guess. But the basic question is: can a celeb add any value to a brand like Yahoo mail?
I have a google account, am more than reasonably happy with it and too lazy to shift elsewhere. But if I had to open a new one today I would probably opt again for google because I perceive it as better, faster and 'cooler'.
So sure, yahoo feels the heat. It's much lower on the 'gotta have' scale than it used to be a while ago. But I don't think having Malaika to greet every user who wished to sign up for a new id did the trick. (no kidding - that was part of the deal!)
Note the manner in which the company's communication tom-tomed Malaika and mentioned the tech bits just by-the-way. Like yeh Indian userlog na, kaafi dumb hain.
"The company perhaps hoped to put the heat on hotmail with its own online hottie and yes, Khan brought with her larger storage space, greater attachment capacity and advanced spam control. If you still needed more Malaika, you could actually have her... on your mobile phone as well. Yup, Malaika themes, wallpapers, screen-savers, video clips and even Malaika games!
Exclamation marks kis liye bhai. Are Malaika games and wallpapers the ultimate in excitement? But wait, there's more...
"Malaika's expression in the advertisement was able to convey the key product feature and its utility to a celebrity like her."
Well, I haven't seen the ad on TV but sure hope the expression was an improvement on the Pizza Hut ad - where Malaika's 'expression' conveyed the impression of a large marble stuck in her mouth.
I may be completely wrong. Maybe all the research and deliberation yahoo had done was right and there were thousands of starved young men out there (the kind who post ads on dating sites like:"hi i m jayes and i like to make friendship with girls!") who appreciated this campaign and signed up in large numbers.
Yahoo not so long ago was the undisputed king in terms of brand recall and prominence on the net. This dominance came under threat with the runaway success of Google. Gmail is superior to Yahoo in my opinion not just for the enormous space but also for the nifty features that continue to get added to their service as it is in beta.
I suppose many are deserting its service for Gmail and it could fade away into the sunset as an also-ran.
Malaika Arora symbolised glamour. Her appeal was used to garner attention to Yahoo Mail. That is all.. no more analysis required.. Whether or not Yahoo succeeded was another matter. Personally i believe Gmail has grabbed the cake..
Does anyone need invitations to open a gmail account ?
But my personal view is that while celeb endorsements may work for a soft drink or a clothing company (if at all they do work!) they do nothing for a brand like mail providers except cheapen it.
But full marks to Malaika's publicist. If anything, the yahoo campaign put her on a far higher pedestal than she actually occupied!
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