Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone are the most influential personalities of India

YouGov Influencer Index 2018 reveals consumer perceptions of leading Bollywood celebrities and sports personalities in India

Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone are the most influential personalities according to YouGov Influencer Index 2018. The study expands to cover consumer perceptions of around 60 top Bollywood celebrities and sports personalities and measures their awareness, likability, trustworthiness and influence in the following categories- Health, Wellness & Beauty/ Personal care, Technology/ Automotive, Fashion, Apparel & Accessories, Food, Drink & Travel and Financial services.

The overall influencer index is an average of awareness, likability, trust and individual sector influence score. The top ten list is dominated by male Bollywood celebrities and cricketers, however, Deepika Padukone is the top ranked female celebrity in the list.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar are at the third and fourth spot, respectively, above Virat Kohli, who is parked at number six. It is refreshing to see Alia Bhatt secure a place in the top ten ahead of global stars, Priyanka Chopra and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. It is also interesting to note that Olympic winner and Badminton star PV Sindhu has made her way into the top 15 influencers of India, suggesting the increasing popularity of sports personalities, other than cricketers, amongst people in India.

Looking at individual sectors, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan are the strongest celebrities in the Health, Wellness & Beauty/Personal care category.

Deepika Padukone is currently the reigning queen of Bollywood. Not only is she one of the highest paid actors but is also one of the few female celebrities with the highest number of brand endorsements. Her current endorsements include brands like L’Oréal Paris, Jio, Oppo, Goibibo, Axis Bank, Tanishq, to name a few. Deepika clearly dominates the Fashion, Apparel and Accessories space and is most likely to influence consumers’ decisions to buy/ use a product within this category.

Mega star Amitabh Bachchan has a stardom which only few can fathom. His popularity is supreme and his mass appeal cuts across all age groups and segments. He is the first choice of corporates, government organisations, awareness campaigns and tourism bodies. According to YouGov Influencer Index, his influence is paramount in the Food, Drinks and Travel sector as well as financial services category. Not just this, he has been voted as the top public figure whose political opinion people are most likely to pay attention to. Amitabh Bachchan also enjoys huge public support in the Technology and Automobile sector, along with MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar.

Although financial services category in India is dominated by male influencers, Deepika Padukone makes it to the top 5 and is the most influential female celebrity in this category. She has been the brand ambassador of Axis Bank since 2014 and seems like people have a favourable perception of her.

Another interesting insight is that the Bollywood wives are way ahead of their husbands in the Influencer Index list, with newlywed Deepika Padukone taking the lead at number two while Ranveer Singh is at spot eleven. Even Kareena Kapoor is ahead of Saif Ali Khan and so is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan before Abhishek Bachchan.

Commenting on this, Deepa Bhatia, General Manager, YouGov India, said, “A brand endorser is a very important representative of the brand. Trustworthiness, mass appeal and statesmanship are some of the qualities companies look for while finalising a face for their brand. YouGov Influencer Index would enable brands to fine tune their endorsements strategies and amplify the impact of a campaign. By being able to view a celebrity from the eyes of consumers, brands can gauge the influence of a celebrity on the consumers and can target their endorsements accurately.”

Data collected online by YouGov India among close to 1,948 respondents in India in November 2018 using YouGov’s panel of over 6 million people worldwide. Data is broadly representative of the adult online population in the country.