Brands
Virat Kohli stays most valuable celebrity in 2021 with brand value of $185 mn: Report
Mumbai: Cricket and Bollywood celebs continue to rule the roost when it comes to brand endorsements in the country, as indicated by data & insights company Kroll’s latest report on Celebrity Brand Valuation – a study of India’s most powerful celebrity brands. Cricketer Virat Kohli retained the top position for the fifth consecutive year with a brand value of $185.7 million, while actor Ranveer Singh secured the second position this year coming up one place from the previous year’s third rank, with a brand value of $158.3 million.
Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, who had taken the second spot in 2020, settled for the third position this year with a brand value of $139.6 million, according to the report.
Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business, announced the release of the seventh edition of its Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2021 titled ‘Digital Acceleration 2.0.’ The study provides a ranking of India’s most powerful celebrity brands based on brand values derived from their brand endorsement portfolios and relative social media presence. Alia Bhatt became the most valued female celebrity in 2021, ranking at the fourth spot with a brand value of $68.1 million, with Deepika Padukone being the only other female celebrity to make it to the top ten at seventh rank.
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Cricketer MS Dhoni entered the top-five club this year with a brand value of $61.2 million, even as his fellow cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma came in at eleventh, and thirteenth positions.
The overall brand value of the top 20 celebrities in 2021 is estimated at $1.2 billion, as per the study – an increase of about 12.9 per cent from last year.
The study recognises the impact of the second year of the pandemic on the overall celebrity endorsement space and the evolving Indian media and entertainment industry.
“While prominent Bollywood celebrities continue to feature in our list of top 20 celebrity brands, this year we saw some notable changes,” commented Duff & Phelps managing director Aviral Jain. “Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, and MS Dhoni witnessed a stellar jump in their brand values and they seem to have hit the right chords with the audience in 2021. We also saw more sportspersons rising in the top celebrity rankings, including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, and PV Sindhu. This significant jump was because of the lesser competition from Bollywood celebrities since there were fewer theatrical releases in 2021.”
“Businesses and brands have heavily leveraged social media and other online platforms for brand endorsements this year, too, with below par weightage to traditional platforms,” stated Duff & Phelps APAC head for valuation advisory services Varun Gupta.
2021 also saw the emergence and growth of several startups in the fintech and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business segments that significantly contributed to the overall number of brand endorsements undertaken by the top 20 celebrities.
“As traditional as well as upcoming industries adopted the digital route to continue engaging with their consumers, we observed greater traction in fintech, social media and OTT platforms, and D2C platforms from a celebrity endorsement standpoint,” Gupta added.
The list of the top ten celebrities in the Celebrity Brand Valuation Report is as below:
|
Celebrity – Top 10 |
2021 Brand Rank |
Brand Value ($ Mn) |
2020 Brand Rank |
|
Virat Kohli |
1 |
185.7 |
1 |
|
Ranveer Singh |
2 |
158.3 |
3 |
|
Akshay Kumar |
3 |
139.6 |
2 |
|
Alia Bhatt |
4 |
68.1 |
7 |
|
MS Dhoni |
5 |
61.2 |
11 |
|
Amitabh Bachchan |
6 |
54.2 |
9 |
|
Deepika Padukone |
7 |
51.6 |
5 |
|
Salman Khan |
8 |
51.6 |
8 |
|
Ayushmann Khurrana |
9 |
49.3 |
6 |
|
Hrithik Roshan |
10 |
48.5 |
10 |
Brands
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen to step down after 18 years in role
Board begins CEO search as Narayen prepares to move to chair role
SAN JOSE: After nearly two decades at the helm, Adobe’s long-serving chief executive Shantanu Narayen is preparing to pass the baton.
The company announced that Narayen will transition from his role as chief executive officer once a successor is appointed, ending an 18-year run that reshaped Adobe from a boxed software seller into a global cloud and AI powerhouse. He will remain chair of the board following the leadership transition.
Adobe’s board has formed a special committee to oversee the succession process, led by lead independent director Frank Calderoni. The committee will evaluate both internal and external candidates.
“Shantanu’s leadership has been instrumental in Adobe’s transformation and in positioning the company for the AI-driven era,” Calderoni said in a statement. “As we begin the next phase of succession planning, our focus is on identifying the right leader for the company’s next chapter while ensuring a smooth transition.”
In a note to employees, Narayen described the moment not as a farewell but as a pause for reflection after a long journey with the company.
“I love Adobe and the privilege of leading it has been the greatest honour of my career,” he wrote, adding that he will continue to work closely with the board over the coming months to ensure a seamless leadership change.
Tributes from the technology industry quickly followed the announcement. Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella congratulated Narayen on what he described as a “legendary run” at Adobe.
“Congrats Shantanu, on a legendary run at Adobe! You’ve built one of the most important software companies in the world, and expanded what’s possible for creators, entrepreneurs, and brands everywhere,” Nadella wrote on LinkedIn.
“What has always stood out to me is the empathy you’ve brought to the creative process and the example you’ve set as a leader. Grateful for your friendship, mentorship, and for all you’ve done for Adobe and for our industry.”
Narayen’s career at Adobe spans nearly three decades. He joined the company in 1998 as vice president and rose steadily through the ranks before becoming chief executive officer in December 2007.
During that time, he orchestrated one of the most significant reinventions in the software industry. In 2013, Adobe made the bold decision to abandon traditional boxed software sales and move its flagship creative tools such as Photoshop to a subscription-based Creative Cloud model. The shift initially rattled investors but ultimately transformed Adobe into a predictable recurring revenue business and a case study in digital reinvention.
Narayen also pushed Adobe beyond creative tools into the world of marketing technology and data-driven customer experience, spearheading acquisitions such as Omniture and Marketo. Those moves helped build Adobe’s digital experience division and broaden its reach far beyond designers and photographers.
The numbers tell the story of that transformation. When Narayen took over in 2007, Adobe generated roughly $3 billion in annual revenue. Today the company reports more than $25 billion. Over the same period, its workforce expanded from around 3,000 employees to more than 30,000.
In recent years, Narayen has steered Adobe into the generative AI era with the launch of Adobe Firefly, aiming to keep the company ahead in a rapidly evolving creative technology landscape.
Born in Hyderabad in 1963, Narayen studied electronics and communication engineering at Osmania University before moving to the United States for a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University. He later earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Widely regarded as one of Silicon Valley’s most steady and effective leaders, Narayen has earned multiple honours during his career, including India’s Padma Shri in 2019.
For Adobe, the upcoming leadership change marks the end of a defining chapter. For Narayen, however, the story is far from finished. As he told employees, the company’s next era of creativity, powered by AI and new digital workflows, is only just beginning.
