Hallyu or the Korean wave has been a blessing for Korea, its businesses, culture and country image. For almost six years since early 1999, Hallyu has become one of the biggest cultural phenomena across Asia Pacific. So tremendous has the Hallyu effect been that it has contributed 0.2% of Korea's GDP in 2004, amounting to approximately USD 2 billion. Hallyu is a term coined by the Chinese media which literally means 'Korean Wave'. It is a collective term used to refer to the phenomenal growth of Korean popular culture encompassing everything from music, movies, drama to online games and the Korean cuisine.

Strong brands are fuelled by popular culture and issues related to society, so the Korean Wave is one of the key drivers of many Korean brands on the rapid rise. Hallyu is also helping to build and sustain awareness of Korea and bolster the country's image - a factor which is crucial for all strong brands.

Asian Paints, one of the leading paint brands in the Asian market, undertook a major repositioning of one of its product called Asian Paints Royale. It used the current Bollywood heartthrob Saif Ali Khan, who himself is from one of the pre-eminent Indian royal families, to endorse the product. The endorsement helped the brand to increase its growth by 29% in value terms.

Titan Watches is the leading Indian watch brand that has had a great run in the last few years. Recently, the brand wanted to increase the "consumption" of watches. So the company chose the celebrity endorsement route to portray the brand more as a lifestyle product than as a commodity. Titan Watches used another leading Bollywood icon to endorse the brand. The campaign helped Titan achieve a growth of 45% in volume sales and 52% in value.

These two examples are cases in point to illustrate that celebrity endorsements can contribute to the bottom line of a brand.