FinFloww

Shubman Gill, the poster boy of Gillette, is growing a beard. But why is the face of India’s biggest shaving company refusing to shave? Because the beard actually protects him from the biggest risk to his brand: Being trapped as a youth icon. Youth icons are valuable, but they are also replaceable. Every few years, a younger, cuter, more explosive player arrives. And brands naturally start moving towards them. Gillette itself did that by going after Abhishek Sharma while Gill was already their ambassador. Which reveals the real problem. “Clean-shaven young Indian star” is not an identity. It’s a category. And categories are replaceable. This is the exact trap Gill wants to escape. For years, Gill has been perceived as the future Indian captain. So much so that now when he’s actually entering that era, people don’t feel emotionally overwhelmed by it anymore. Because audiences already consumed that fantasy years ago. That’s why Gill cannot compete on freshness anymore. Freshness is crowded. There will always be another young batter with a viral innings, sharper social media presence, and newer aura. Gill instead has to compete on stature. And stature requires a completely different visual psychology. The clean-shaven Gill looked like potential. The bearded Gill looks like responsibility. The beard adds so much authority apart from the visible visual difference. For the first time, Gill looks less like Indian cricket’s “next big thing” and more like someone expected to carry Indian cricket itself. And this transition matters far more than style.

Zero-posting is signalling higher status than someone who is too much out there. When everyone is an influencer, nobody is. That exclusivity and less posting is also being rewarded by the algorithm apparently. Someone who is posting a lot is getting okayish reach. But someone who seldom posts is more sought after. This goes against traditional thinking of consistency on socials. Just a few insights we collected from our own Insta and our some of the brands we work with.

When asked about buying an IPL franchise in Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, Kumar Mangalam Birla said he’s not really into it because it’s a question of capital allocation. There’s better opportunities elsewhere. Probably what changed is the fact that RCB’s brand at the $2 B mark might be a great value buy.

RCB might have to change its name. Because the name Royal Challengers Bengaluru was supposed to promote the Royal Challenge Whiskey sold by its current owner Diageo. But now RCB is on sale. And whoever buys it next will end up in a dilemma. It's the legacy trap Vijay Mallya set at the start of the IPL. If the new owners keep the name Royal Challengers Bengaluru, they’ll basically be running a free marketing campaign. That too for an alcohol brand they don’t even own. But if they change it, they risk a steep collapse in brand value. Because you can’t recreate the same connection fans built with the original name.  At least not that fast. But there’s a way around this problem. See, most people relate with the abbreviation RCB. So why not retain that but change the full form to Royal Champions of Bengaluru. It’ll take away the explicit connection with Royal Challenge whiskey. And it's actually the perfect way to describe the team’s journey. Because when they are already the reigning champions of IPL, there’s no better time for Royal Challengers to become the Royal Champions of Bengaluru.

Flipkart is sponsoring Namibia’s jersey in this T20 World Cup But why is a local Indian e-commerce company sponsoring the jersey of a nation where it doesn’t even operate? You see, 90% of cricket viewers are Indians. Most people who’ll watch the T20 World Cup will be Indians, even if it’s some other country’s match. So to be in front of them, you don’t need to buy the super expensive jersey slot of the Indian team. You can simply buy any other country’s jersey slot which is much cheaper. In fact, it’s better for Flipkart. Indians are more drawn to companies that are global brands. So when we see their logo on the Namibia’s jersey, it would cement a local brand as a global brand in our minds. That’s brilliant because it’s like ek teer se do nishane. This has actually happened before with Nandini Dairy sponsoring Ireland and Amul sponsoring USA’s jerseys. And it's definitely not a coincidence that all of them very smartly sponsor teams that are in India’s group. If you want more such pieces on your feed, follow @FinFloww for more.

The most successful politician isn't PM Modi, Indira Gandhi or Nehru It’s Nitish Kumar who is taking the CM oath for the 10th time after serving Bihar for more than 20 yrs What did he do right that Bihar keeps voting him again? THREAD: How Nitish Kumar transformed Bihar🧵