According to experts, the clean slate screams opportunity for brands. The move might be a part of a planned strategy, they said Deepika Padukone's mysterious social media disappearance has puzzled brands and experts alike. Backed by earnings through brand endorsements and a high popularity quotient, the 35-year-old is one of the most-followed celebrities on digital media. According to experts, at a time when celebrities have everything from their gym wear to coffee mugs under endorsement contracts for social media, Deepika who has a 52.5 million follower base on Instagram and 27.7 million followers on Twitter has created quite a stir by getting rid of her entire feed. “It is a great message that endorses choice. Brands have nothing to worry because Deepika’s stature remains the same without even without her timeline. She has no where announced she is not open to new opportunities. Her move is more about a ‘fresh start’.  The industry has welcomed this change and it would be disappointing to see her come back in three days and announce this as part of some gimmick,” said Lulu Raghavan, Managing Director, Landor & Fitch India.

“A tweet or post that is done even a week back loses its worth. Deepika not having any feed on her timeline is a welcome move that gives brands a new kind of opportunity,” said film media analyst, Girish Johar. According to experts, a clean slate screams opportunity. “The first brand that gets on her empty timeline will have a huge advantage and will stand out instantly amongst the competition,’ said a brand strategist. Remember Kareena Kapoor Khan’s debut on Instagram earlier this year? According to some, it was all part of a digital marketing strategy for Puma to garner impact and reach. The actor’s debut on the photo-sharing platform coincided with her becoming the brand ambassador of Puma as they launched their Studio Collection. The first three posts on Kareena’s page are posts promoting the brand: PUMAxKareena. Interestingly according to Shradha Agarwal, COO and Strategy Head, Grapes Digital, there can be a possibility that Deepika might have archived her posts and not deleted them. Looks like, both ways it works for her. “Deepika is an exceptionally articulate person who has not let the paparazzi take random pictures of her, and the biggest example is how she managed the media and the pictures of her wedding, to the extent that the same images were posted from the wedding on her and Ranveer’s page. If we see Deepika's Ranthambore pictures, they also have not been randomly uploaded from the phone, but rather strategically posted and crafted in the form of a scrapbook. Another testimony is of her recently starting a social property called “My Audio Diary”. None of the moves is pointing towards an account being deleted. As per me, this is an extremely smart and strategically thought out move because all her pictures already exist on other public platforms and deleting them won't serve any purpose,” Agarwal said. Deepika Padukone at the moment has a host of brands she endorses that includes L’Oréal Paris, Axis Bank, Tanishq, Lloyd Nestle and many others. Celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing is at its peak, especially in the present times. According to the Influencer Marketing Report 2020 by influencer marketing agency Influencer.in, Instagram continues to be the most popular channel among the influencer community where 42% of Influencer partner with more than 3 brands in a given month with fashion, lifestyle, beauty, travel and entertainment ranking among the most popular genres. Celebrities are known for charging as high as Rs30 lakhs for a single post on social media which is over and above their overall endorsement deals with brands. Some experts, however, are sceptic about the sudden move. According to Harish Bijoor, brand-stratrgy specialist and founder at Harish Bijoor Consults Inc this might have some implications with the actor’s approachability as an endorser on the digital medium. “When a mega celeb like Deepika Padukone switches off social media, it sure does affect every aspect of the persona's digital presence. This hits monetization for sure. The persona becomes that much more physical and that much less digital,” he said.