Abhinav Bindra is new face of Samsung India

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Mumbai
After Walther, Germany based arms manufacturer, which is not a known brand to the Indian masses, it is now the turn of one of the popular consumer durables companies Samsung to leverage brand Bindra. The Olympics shooting gold medal winner is now the face of Samsung.

Samsung has signed an new contract with Abhinav Bindra as the brand ambassador for Samsung Electronics India. Bindra, who is the lone Indian Olympian with an individual gold medal in the recently held Beijing Olympics, signed his first contract as a brand ambassador of Walther.

"Samsung Electronics is in the process of launching a new campaign for their durables goods over the next 10 to 15 days with Abhinav," an source close to the development said to Televisionpoint.com.

Bindra recently broke the tie-up with the management agency Collage Sports Management owned by Lathika Khaneja. Earlier this year, Samsung had roped in Aamir Khan as the brand ambassador for their mobile phones. But the company for long did not have any celebrity brand face for their consumer durables.

Notably, Samsung was the worldwide Olympic partner and sponsor of the Indian team to the Beijing Olympics. The company also hosted the send-off event for the Indian Olympics contingent. Samsung had also announced cash rewards of Rs 20 lakh for the gold medal winners, Rs 15 lakh for silver medallists and Rs 10 lakh for bronze medal winners at the Beijing Olympics.

Samsung India kicked off its Olympic Programme for Beijing Olympics 2008 in November 2007 by launching its Olympic Ratna Programme under which it provided scholarship support to six top Indian athletes for preparation for the Olympics.