Indiantelevision.com Team

(24 December 2007 3:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Nokia has tied up with Shahrukh Khan for a new TV commercial (TVC), in a bid to connect to more consumers. The Finnish company, with a tagline of "connecting people," recently signed a deal with Khan's film Om Shanti Om as well.

The TVC directed by Pradeep Sarkar shows Shah Rukh in various roles, on and off the sets, trying to balance life and work, with Nokia being the device that connects it all up. Previous Nokia ads were more product specific and thematic without a celebrity.

Since Nokia has not so far shown any celebrity in their ad campaigns, the commercial with endorsement from Khan is supposed to match the marketing initiatives of competitors Motorola and Sony Ericsson who have Abhishek Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan, respectively, as ambassadors. However, Nokia India's director of marketing, customer and market operations, Devinder Kishore denies any such connection.

On his association with Nokia, Khan said, "Since I am personally using Nokia phones for the last 10 years, I have no problem to be its brand ambassador."

"Nokia does not need me to push sales, and people are not going to use it just because my face is there," Khan modestly added.

Kishore added, "There is synergy between the brand Nokia and Shahrukh as both have a youth connection - both are tech-savvy and trendy."