Bollywood's leading ladies have pipped their male counterparts on the visibility score on the telly as more brands lapped them up for advertising campaigns in 2012. Female actors saw their presence increase from 40% to 46% in the overall celebrity endorsement market on TV even as male actors stagnated over the last two years with a 38% share, reveals latest data collated by TAM, a television audience measurement agency, and exclusively shared. Not surprisingly, sports celebrities saw their visibility decline by 8% from 2011, largely due to the lacklustre performance of the Indian cricket team.

Cricketers form the biggest chunk of sports endorsements in India. Among companies, FMCG biggies Hindustan UnileverBSE -0.95 % ( HULBSE -0.95 %) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) emerged as the two biggest advertisers using celebrities followed by Brooke Bond Lipton and L'Oreal India. Notably, top ten advertisers using celebrities comprised only FMCG brands. TAM AdEx takes into account advertising volumes for its analysis and tracks the visibility of the celebrities on television. The data is not representative of ad spends or how much the celebrities earn per endorsement.

Shahrukh Khan remained the most visible face on television with an 8% share followed by Kareena Kapoor. Other women actors among top 10 celebrities according to ad volumes were Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Kajol and Anushka Sharma. "FMCG brands have to differentiate themselves in highly penetrated categories like soaps and shampoos. The more undifferentiated your product is, marketers need to bring in a clutter breaking tool and celebrities are a big part of the plan in that case," said Basabdutta Chowdhury, CEO of Platinum Media, a division of media buying group Madison that buys media for FMCG majors like P&G, MaricoBSE -0.14 % and Godrej. FMCG brands contribute almost 55% to the overall advertising spends in the country.

Celebrity management firms said with a new brigade of female actors in the endorsement market, more brands are willing to get on board these young faces to tap into the youth factor. Neeraj Garg, VP, juice business, Coca-Cola India, said after signing on Parineeti Chopra for Maaza, "She is a young achiever who epitomizes the young India as someone who is go-getter, energetic, wanting to make a difference and sure of themselves." Others like Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma and Nargis Fakhri have also made an impact on the endorsement scene, mostly in the consumer goods space. However, new faces among the male actors such as Ayushman Khurana and Ranveer Singh have not found the same success. "For younger female actors there are many categories in the beauty and consumer goods space which are suitable for them to endorse unlike how it is for the male actors," said Anirban Das Blah, chief executive & MD, CAA Kwan, a celebrity management agency.