OPPO — the Chinese consumer electronics brand founded in 2004 in Dongguan and now operating in over 70 countries with 300,000 retail spaces worldwide — entered India in 2014 and established itself as one of the country’s top five smartphone manufacturers through a combination of camera innovation and aggressive celebrity-driven marketing. OPPO’s brand ambassador strategy in India is one of the smartphone industry’s most celebrity-intensive — having worked with over 15 high-profile personalities since launch. In 2025-2026, OPPO’s ambassador ecosystem spans two distinct dimensions: a global dimension anchored by Spanish football prodigy Lamine Yamal as global brand ambassador announced in January 2025, and an India-specific dimension where Ranbir Kapoor has been the continuous face of the Reno Series since 2019.

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OPPO Brand Ambassador Portfolio — India and Global

Ambassador Domain Period Campaign / Product
Lamine Yamal Football — FC Barcelona January 16, 2025 — present Global ambassador — Make Your Moment — Find X8 Pro, Reno13
Ranbir Kapoor Bollywood — Actor 2019 — present (six-year association) Reno Series India — Your Everyday AI Companion 2024
Siddhant Chaturvedi Bollywood — Actor Reno13 (January 2025) Live in the Moment campaign — Reno13 Series
Ishaan Khatter Bollywood — Actor Reno13 (January 2025) Live in the Moment campaign — Reno13 Series
Vedang Raina Bollywood — Rising Star Reno13 (January 2025) Live in the Moment campaign — Reno13 Series
Pooja Hegde Bollywood — South India Reno15 Series Live it Your Way + Live the Aawara Life campaigns
Hrithik Roshan Bollywood — Superstar 2016 — 2018 First officially appointed India ambassador
Sonam Kapoor Bollywood — Fashion 2016 — 2018 South Asia ambassador — launch era

Lamine Yamal — OPPO’s Transformative Global Ambassador

OPPO’s announcement of Lamine Yamal as its global brand ambassador on January 16, 2025 represented one of the year’s most ambitious celebrity brand partnerships in the global smartphone industry — placing OPPO’s Make Your Moment brand philosophy in the hands of the 17-year-old Spanish football phenomenon who had become the youngest player to win the UEFA Euro Championship and whose energy, authenticity, and youth cultural relevance made him the natural global face for a brand seeking to connect with younger smartphone consumers worldwide.

Billy Zhang, President of Overseas Marketing, Sales and Services at OPPO, articulated the selection with precision — describing Yamal as not just a gifted footballer but an inspirational young man with incredible passion for the game, and noting that like countless young people worldwide, he refuses to be held back by anxiety or uncertainty about the future, instead focusing on his passions and concentrating his energy on the present. This description captures precisely the Make Your Moment philosophy that OPPO’s brand refresh initiative was built around — the idea that every moment matters, that authenticity is more powerful than perfection, and that self-expression in the present is more valuable than anxiety about the future.

The appointment represented a strategic evolution in OPPO’s ambassador thinking — extending a football partnership that already included UEFA Champions League sponsorship through 2027 into a genuine player-brand relationship that creates content, community initiatives, and AI-powered fan experiences. Yamal’s stunning images feature on OPPO’s AI Studio platform, allowing fans to become his teammate through AI-generated imagery — creating interactive ambassador content that conventional celebrity endorsement cannot generate.

Ranbir Kapoor — India’s Most Enduring OPPO Ambassador

Ranbir Kapoor’s six-year continuous association with OPPO’s Reno Series in India — from 2019 through 2026 — makes him one of the most enduring celebrity-smartphone brand partnerships in Indian marketing history. His most recent campaign, the Reno12 Series Your Everyday AI Companion campaign in July 2024, demonstrated that the partnership continues to evolve with the product rather than repeating static associations. His persona — versatile, creative, youthful, and style-conscious — aligns with the Reno Series’ identity as a premium, camera-first, design-forward smartphone range for urban professionals and content creators.

The Reno13 Series Live in the Moment campaign in January 2025 added Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ishaan Khatter, and Vedang Raina alongside Ranbir — creating an ensemble of next-generation Bollywood talent that communicated both the established premium positioning through Ranbir and the fresh energy of a new generation through his co-stars. This generational layering within a single campaign series demonstrates OPPO India’s sophisticated understanding of how to maintain momentum across different audience age cohorts simultaneously.

OPPO’s Ambassador Strategy — Product-Series Focus

Product Series India Ambassador Positioning Target Consumer
Reno Series — premium Ranbir Kapoor Camera, design, premium lifestyle Urban professionals, content creators
Find Series — flagship Lamine Yamal (global) Cutting-edge technology, football culture Tech enthusiasts, global consumers
Reno13 — youth campaign Siddhant, Ishaan, Vedang Live in the Moment — authenticity Gen Z, millennials
Reno15 — regional reach Pooja Hegde South India + pan-India South Indian market penetration
F and A Series Digital influencers Accessible feature phones Value-conscious first-time buyers

OPPO’s ambassador ecosystem in 2026 — with Lamine Yamal’s global youth energy complementing Ranbir Kapoor’s Reno Series premium positioning in India — creates one of the smartphone industry’s most complete multi-level celebrity strategies, addressing every market segment and geography simultaneously with precisely calibrated ambassador voices.

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