MxMIndia

Tag: Bunty Sajdeh

  • The agency will exclusively manage her brand endorsements, appearances, digital activations, and other potential business opportunities

    Cornerstone to manage Sania Mirza

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading talent management agency Cornerstone has signed Indian tennis player Sania Mirza. The agency will exclusively manage her brand endorsements, appearances, digital activations, and other potential business opportunities.

     

    Said Bunty Sajdeh, CEO, Cornerstone: “Sania has been a world class athlete and a fantastic human being both on and off the court. She is one of the most recognisable and aspirational sporting icons India has produced till date. I’ve known and followed Sania for many years and we as an agency are delighted to work closely with her.”

     

    Cornerstone shot into fame with the management of cricketer Virat Kohli’s endorsement interests.

     

     

  • He's much loved for his on-field performance and he's much sought after by corporates for endorsements. Bunty Sajdeh reasons why

    4 reasons why Virat Kohli is a winning endorser for brands

     

    By Bunty Sajdeh

     

    India is a young, passionate and very emotional country. Only a select few exemplify these characteristics. At 27, Virat Kohli is among them. After Sachin Tendulkar, Virat has given not just India but the rest of the world someone to look up to, someone to be inspired by and perhaps even emulate.

     

    Hard work & Commitment

    His untiring hard work, commitment and dedication to his craft are the very things that define Kohli. Attributes that most brands would find very hard to ignore. Virat has become bigger than his sport.

     

    Youth Icon

    Virat Kohli has become a youth icon. He wears his heart on his sleeve and isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. Much like the youth of our country. Virat takes as much care of himself and his image off the field as he does on it. He is well-read, opinionated and is never afraid to voice his thoughts. All of this makes him an impactful athlete and a larger-than-life personality that brands can capitalise on very easily.

     

    Balances time for business interests

    Virat is also very cognisant and realises that his cricketing career will not last forever, and is therefore very mindful of the brands that he chooses to endorse (or not!) He is a smart businessman, too, and carefully balances his time off the field between endorsements, businesses and his love for sport in general. And after all this, he still manages to make enough time to support several social causes that are close to his heart.

     

    Relevance Rules

    Over time, we have developed brands and businesses that are relevant with Virat’s personality. With him, we have looked at a healthy mix of categories — fashion, licensing and merchandising, and sporting ventures, to name a few. Wrogn is quirky fashion; Chisel is about holistic fitness. Associating with sporting leagues, apart from being lucrative business opportunities, is also to promote a sporting culture in India. We have invested in these properties as they are a natural extension of Kohli’s personality and profession. Staying relevant is the key. The fans relate better with the brands as they are a seamless reflection of Virat himself.

     

    Bunty Sajdeh is CEO, Cornerstone Sport & Entertainment which manages Virat Kohli’s endorsement interests. This article first appeared in dna of brands on April 4, 2016.

     

  • "I have not received any notice yet. So I cannot make any comment. If it (notice) is received, my lawyers shall attend to it. It would be inappropriate to comment on a matter that is subjudice," said Amitabh Bachchan

    Is it right to indict celebs for endorsing FDA-approved products?

    By Nandini Raghavendra & Ravi Teja Sharma

     

    With a Bihar court directing police to file an FIR against Maggi brand ambassadors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta, celebrity endorsers are in a tizzy.

     

    Many celebrities refused to comment on record, but said that they have become a soft target in this fiasco. “It’s sad and true that known faces get targeted for the wrong reasons and agendas just to seek attention. It’s unfortunate because it becomes like a cry wolf syndrome; the day there will actually be someone with a justified reason and cause, it will not be given the importance it possibly deserves,” said actor Arjun Kapoor, who recently faced public ire over his participation in the AIB Roast. “Fame is a double-edged sword,” said actor and singer Ayushmann Khurrana.

     

    Madhuri Dixit’s lawyer Anand Desai, who is managing partner at DSK Legal, said the actor had not received any Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notice. Asked if a star could be arrested for such an offence, Desai said that an arrest is made only to prevent a star from not co-operating or not perpetuating the crime further. Custodial investigation definitely reveals more than non-custodial, but what are the stars going to contribute here, he asked.

     

    “I have not received any notice yet. So I cannot make any comment. If it (notice) is received, my lawyers shall attend to it. It would be inappropriate to comment on a matter that is subjudice,” said Amitabh Bachchan.

     

    So have stars really become soft targets? The fact that such a big MNC has been accused does not seem as important to people as discussing the brand association with film stars, said social commentator Santosh Desai. “The primary responsibility lies with the FDA, who have still not been able to figure out what is wrong. Then how do you expect the stars to do it?” he asked.

     

     

    “If a product has been passed by the FDA, why would a celebrity not believe that all is in place? Yes, it merits an investigation but in the case of anything being amiss, the primary responsibility lies with the FDA not the stars. It is a completely irrelevant fact, it is just that everyone feels important by association with the stars,” Desai added.

     

    “Celebrities are protected by their contracts,” said Indranil Das Blah of celebrity and sports management firm Kwan. He found the situation grossly unfair. “You cannot hold a celebrity responsible or liable for something that’s not in their hands, they are not in charge of the product development in the first place. They are not going to get into the R&D of a product or the brand promises that it makes,” said Blah.

     

    Bunty Sajdeh, CEO of Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment said that it is unfair and opportunistic and the stars are being targeted just because they are celebrities. “If it’s a reputed brand, if it is FDA approved, legally approved and legally in the market, we will take it on its face value. Besides, we protect our celebrities very stringently in our contracts, wherein we are completely indemnified from any such untoward incidences and we also have the right to terminate,” says Sajdeh.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish