Spotted: Shoes try on Kriti Sanon

Four months ago, mass market shoe brand Campus dropped a peppy number starring Hindi film actor Kriti Sanon. The ad tried to bust myths about “strong” women, by literally bursting balloons bearing phrases like “too ambitious” and “know-it-all.” Sanon, clad in a casual red outfit, stamps on these balloons, while also showcasing the Campus line of casual shoes. The ad ends with an empowering “You Go, Girl!”

Why are we bringing up an ad from October last year? Because earlier this month, equities brokerage analysts in an earnings call for Campus Shoes asked: why did the company appoint Kriti Sanon as its brand ambassador?

“Now, Kriti Sanon was a brand ambassador for [a] competitor retailer for 3-4 years,” Ankit Kedia, analyst at Phillip Capital, said in the call. “And in that time, if I look at that retailer’s revenue, it didn’t move significantly. In fact, they lost significant market share. So, what made you sign her as a brand ambassador for the new women’s product?”

Kedia was referring to Bata, which appointed Sanon as brand ambassador in 2018. In fact, an old ad for Bata’s ‘9 to 5’ range of comfortable heels for women features Sanon in the same red clothing and warm visual palette as the Campus ad, along with an emphasis on supporting women to be independent and comfortable in their skin. Instead of balloons, the Bata ad featured a conversation between Sanon and actor Sayani Gupta, who plays a doctor. Gupta says she can’t wear heels because they’re too uncomfortable for a working woman who’s always on her feet. But when she tries the Bata heels, she is surprised by just how comfortable they are.

It is interesting that Sanon has moved from one mass-premium shoe brand to another, yet the overall pitch of her ads has remained largely similar. Perhaps it is a testament to the fact that women are still an underserved set of customers for shoe brands, and feminist themes remain a powerful pull for comfortable shoes.

More importantly, can a brand ambassador alone make or break a brand in a highly cluttered consumer category like shoes? Bata’s sales have been struggling for several quarters, and clearly, the company did not extend its collaboration with Sanon. But the Campus management says she’s doing well for them.

“Well, we think she resonates very well with the long-term brand-building aspiration that we have,” Nikhil Aggarwal, the company’s whole-time director and chief executive officer, said in response to Kedia’s question. “And she has significantly contributed. The campaign has done incredibly well. So, I am not sure of her past, or whatever happened in the previous company. But she has done extremely well—in terms of consumer pull, it has been significant as the women category, as you know, has grown by almost 40%. So yes, some share of that credibility, we will have to credit her also to that.”