In the shift from test matches to one-day and then to Twenty-20 formats comprising of Indian
Premier League, there has been a profound reworking of the internal biology of
cricket. From being a sport to be played in a time of leisure, cricket
has transformed in not just a profession and an industry, but also as an enterprise
that acts as a platform for advertisers, celebrities, businesses, and even consumers.
With cricket’s transformation into the politics of velocity, the game now races
beyond the boundaries of sport and becomes integral to the shaping of “brand India”.
Vaishali Sharma, VP-Marketing, Sony MAX, in an
interview recently said,“IPL draws people across age groups, gender and
language. This year’s campaign 'Come On, Bulaava Aaya Hai’ stems from the
insight of how the passion for IPL overtakes every aspect of people’s lives.”
To attract new viewers to the T-20 leagues, the broadcaster is rolling out the
campaign on TV, print, radio, digital, outdoor and on-ground activities with
emphasis on smaller towns and cities. The advertising and
marketing managers plan creative methods so as to attract maximum viewers
towards their brand and products. V Shyamal Kumar, Manager at Videocon D2H
(which is a sponsor of IPL tournament) says, “The increased
viewership of the tournament every year shows that we made the right choice by
investing in IPL.”
Indian Premier League has set new dimensions when it
comes to the commercialization of the sport. It isn't surprising to see that
IPL is seen as a boon for the advertising and marketing industry. Adv
ertisement rates for a 10-second spot on the channels are being sold
for Rs.4.5-4.75 lakh this year.
One can see a player walking on the
field who appears more like a walking billboard instead of a cricketer. With around six sponsor logos on an average on the
jerseys of the players like that of Aircel, Videocon D2H, Orbit, Usha, Quickr,
etc. it would not be incorrect to compare the players with walking billboards. The game acts as a link between the player’s talent and a brand’s image.
Even the established brands are using this platform for increasing their market
share. The brand becomes a part of “the
action” and imbibes the characteristics of the team. A hard-core sports fan
is like a religious fanatic. Most brands hope that some of these fanatics cross
over and move from supporting just the team to supporting its team of sponsors.
Even the commentary in the
sport, the main aim of which is to inform the viewers about the
minute-to-minute update of the match, sounds like advertising. For example, each six a ‘DLF maximum’, ‘Karbonn Kamaal Catches’, each critical
point in the game a ‘Citi moment of success’ focusing different brands and
companies. It becomes a matter of humor for the core fans of the sport who now
hear commentators announcing bathroom fittings brand names in case they are
taking a restroom break.The misery of the people watching
matches on the television sets is heightened when the screen suddenly splits into
two; sometimes loses a horizontal quarter to ads, sometimes a vertical,
sometimes both along.
The glitzy and glamorous IPL-Indian Premier League
importing the idea of privately owned franchises from a combination of
soccer’s EPL (English Premier League) and the American NFL (National Football
League) became a super hit when launched in the year 2008. The first season got
the highest TRP ever for any cricketing event in India. Media buying agencies
pronounced IPL as the biggest advertising revenue spinner for every year. It
created a television-centric, cash-rich, celebrity-driven, non-national,
cricket-based product that was intended to sell to the world. The trend of
successful IPL seasons is continuing this year too and it is visible that
social media has also jumped into the business. Not just that, a clutch of
e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Amazon and Go daddy, etc. are also seen
investing heavily in the current edition of the Indian Premier League for
buying on air advertising space. Media planners believe that either good
or bad, there is no other property on television which can give the kind of
mileage that the IPL delivers. The tournament has built so many brands over the
last six years, especially mobile handset brands like Micromax and Karbonn that
IPL can be considered as a free hit
to advertisers.
The idea of an association
between personalities from entertainment industry and business leaders taken
from the football league worked wonders and helped in enhancing the brand image
of IPL. It is neither just cricket nor its just entertainment, it nowadays is Cricketainment.
When Bollywood and cricket met, the result was beneficial for all. The addition
of entertainment-inspired glamour extended to creating
theatre and spectacle at matches. Undoubtedly,
it is very entertaining to see one’s favorite cricketer as well the Bollywood
stars on the same platform. Superstars like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Shilpa
Shetty, Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone were seen endorsing and promoting
various players and teams, which provided a lot of glamour and added value to
IPL. Even the celebrities and businessmen are an important factor in the entire
process of image building of the team as well as the brand. In Season 1, the
total number of brands advertising in IPL was 40. In Season 2, it grew to 69
and this time it has already crossed a total of about 90!
IPL is definitely not a
purely cricket oriented concept rather it can be seen as a coming together of varied
professions; a package that includes the
traditional building blocks of players looking for quick money, administrators, specialized coaches, along
with politicians, businessmen, nutritionists, statisticians, videographers,
public relations managers, film stars, physiotherapists, engineers
who design analytic software, film stars who seek publicity, businesses
looking for a better advertising platform, and television channels trying to
improve their ratings. It is the
stitching together of the best practices in the world for combining sports with
entertainment.
This form of cricket, the
IPL, has brought more razzmatazz and speed to the sport than had ever hitherto
been imagined. But, at the same time all these advertising and marketing efforts raise the need to strike the
right balance between entertainment and sport, and between drawing in crowds
and maintaining the credibility and quality of the sport on offer. It’s a well
known fact that the Indians’ love for cricket is inevitable. The sport is
considered no less than a religion in India and despite of the innumerable controversies
that grow year after year, nothing has deterred the brands from putting their
money in IPL. And it’s visible that IPL and brands go hand in hand!
