Archive for May, 2011
The Brand Named Indian Premier League
Love it or hate it but you can’t ignore it, that’s Indian Premier League (IPL), the domestic professional Twenty20 cricket competition in India. Since its inception in 2008, initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), IPL has come a long way and has emerged as one of the top sports brands in the world. According to Lalit Modi, the Ex IPL Chairman and Commissioner and brain child behind the event, IPL was the fifth largest brand in the world of sports in two years of operation, just below FIFA and higher than Wimbledon and F1. The IPL has actually become the number one cricketing property in the world.
IPL Brand
IPL was started in 2008 and as per recent study by a UK-based brand valuation consultancy; the brand value of the IPL has more than doubled to USD 4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crore) in 2010 from USD 2.01 billion in 2009. Mainly three factors helped IPL to become a super Brand.
The very essence of the brand is the game of Cricket and as far as India is concerned there is nothing to beat when you have a product mix of Cricket + Bollywood (Most of the teams are directly or indirectly related to Bollywood stars)in terms of entertainment value delivered.
Second major factor is the advertisement expenditure that is made on the brand. Reach of IPL over the years was phenomenal. IPL reached to almost 77 million people in the first 14 matches, and IPL-2 went to 96 million. Around 108 million people watched IPL-3 season. The ratings have also raised team earnings and brand equity of IPL.
When it comes to advertisement, IPL earned Rs 54 crore by selling 150 seconds of airtime on SetMax by carrying ads on the scoreboard during an over. Even the air above a stadium was sold: MRF paid almost Rs 15 crore to have its blimp in the sky for 24 matches. This is going to be even more bigger and better. The international partnership with Google-Youtube was a game changer when it comes to Broadcasting. After the introduction of 3G technology in India, New media rights such as live streaming on mobiles, mobile Internet, mobile scorecards and smart phone applications have exploded.
Brand associations and Sponsorships
The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1.6 billion, over a period of five to ten years. Kingfisher Airlines is the official umpire partner for the series, the deal is106 crore (US$ 24.06 million). This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires’ uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions. India’s biggest property developer DLF Group paid US$50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013.
Other five-year sponsorship agreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one with PepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million.
World famous brands like Adidas, Genesis, Oceanbed, Puma and Reebok have their own range of merchandising for fans.
Merchandising
IPL related merchandising itself is a huge industry. There are two types of merchandising, one IPL level and team level. One of the IPL level merchandising was one Swiss watch brand Bandelier which launched its IPL collection. The company has tieups with watch retailers in ICC countries as well as in countries that have a sizable Indian diaspora. Ladies watches start from Rs. 45,000 while men’s watches start from Rs. 70,000.
When it comes to team level merchandising, major merchandising includes Backpack, Bags, Bandana, Banner, Bat, Bottle Chiller, Bracelet, Cap, Flag, Gym Bags, Horns, Keychain, Keyrings Magnet, Mug, Playing Cards, Slide, Sport Bottle, T-Shirt, Trumpet, Wallet, Waterbottles and Wrist Band. One can search all these products by based on Teams, colours, Brands, price range and category (Men, Women and Kid) Mumbai Indians had almost 31 different pieces of merchandise in season 3 compared to the 20 items in previous seasons. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) came up with T-shirts bearing Captain M.S. Dhoni’s name and his number seven team number. CSK had 28 branded items. Rajasthan Royals launched special turbans for their fans
Mobile applications
DCI Mobile Studios (A division of Dot Com Infoway Limited), in conjunction with Sigma Ventures of Singapore, jointly acquired the rights to be the exclusive Mobile Application partner and rights holder for the IPL matches worldwide. They released the IPL T20 Mobile applications for iPhone, Nokia Smartphones and Blackberry devices. Soon it will be made available across all other major Mobile platforms including the Android, Windows Mobile, Palm & others.
As per Kevin, who did a detailed case study on IPL brand, revenue comes from various sources like Theatrical rights, rights to IPL screening in cinema halls and Bars, Internet rights, after match parties, various IPL branded shows like IPL Rockstar, IPL Awards night, IPL parties and IPL fear factor. There was a huge jump in individual team sponsors from season 1 (40) to season 3 (80 and counting). Kolkata Knight Riders alone had 12 sponsors.
Like the Christmas, Diwali or Pongal, IPL season has now become a major event. This is the clear demonstrates the power of IPL Branding. Now with any other shopping seasons, mainly festival seasons, in IPL season also many companies have come up with offers, some regular and unrelated ones and some innovative ones that’s really connects to the IPL brand. Here are some examples of how various industries have encashed the IPL brand in Chennai.
Fast Food Chains
This one, ‘meal pe free hit’ offer from MacDonald’s, buy one meal and you get another one free is the same old BOGO (Buy one get one free stuff) but in cricketing language. But Offers like this “Cricket Crazy offer”, buy Medium / Family Pizza and get Garlic bread and 7up free, from Pizza Hut is surely for the name sake. BOGO again (Buy one get one free) Cricket is only in the name and no way connected to the spirit of IPL or even cricket. Now Pepsi, during the IPL season was eyeing at the T20 World cup but the offer was another usual stuff. Buy 2L Pepsi; complete the slogan (how many times in our lives we will keep on completing the slogans?)And win tickets
Cafe Premier League
Cafe Coffee Day, a chain of coffee shops in India having its headquarters in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, came up with a different game that went very well with the IPL season
The game is you order, score runs based on bill amount, register in CPL, answer questions and win tickets to the IPL matches. If you order CPL super six menu (caught behind, cheer leader, power play)you can score 50% more runs. They also displayed a wide range of Official Dhoni merchandising like Tea cups and bottles. Some CSK souvenirs, autographed bats and caps. Apart from this, CPL had the usual stuff, Third Umpire: to spot 20 differences.
Odyssey Prize Loot!
Odyssey, Chennai based premier leisure store chain, came out with OPL contest Odyssey has complete range of Deccan Charges merchandising.
Apparel Industry
Peter England is one brand that utilized the IPL brand to the best. They had all new cricketing avatars for CSK fans, with danglers of interesting caricatures of Dhoni and Suresh Raina hanging all over. Peter England had a whole lot of fan gears (CSK fan gear). Right from T-shirts to Binoculars to wrist bands to Caps
Hotels and restaurants
What’s the easiest and cheapest way for hotels/restaurants to get associated with IPL? Put up a banner, then set up a big screen, print a banner and invite all! To go a little further, try to put some catchy phrases like ‘tasty matches’ and delicious scores. One of the restaurants specialized in sea foods put up a banner having Dhoni’s image and wrote ‘A Great catch!’, now that’s interesting But the one who got the real taste of IPL was DC, (not to confuse with Deccan Charges) ‘Dosa Calling’. DC has whole set of IPL special items like bouncer bonda, inswinging idli upuma )to name a few. DC has done some homework and put lots of efforts to embrace IPL season. There was a big screen where one could enjoy the IPL matches.
Offers
All the IPL teams have official partners and for them IPL season is a real celebration. Various offers pour during the match season. Some being “Twenty days, Twenty cars free offer” and you get a cricket kit signed by a Bollywood super star (he is also a co owner of an IPL team) when you buy a car.
This is going to get bigger and better in the coming years to come with more teams and matches getting added.
Image of the week
King never bargains
Found this interesting poster in a shop in Bangalore! But this never stopped us from bargaining!!!
Social Media Analytics
My take on Social Media Analytics
Featured in The Business Enterprise
Osama Bin Laden And Social Media
I have been watching various Social Media Channels since the death of Osama Bin Laden and I see a celebration of the news everywhere. There was this guy named Sohaib Athar, who live tweeted(unknowingly) the “Operation Geronimo”
Then there were pages all over on Facebook,
“Osama Bin Laden is dead”
and “Osama Bin Laden not dead”
Mashable, one of the leading Social Media blog posted a detailed study about reactions of Osama’s death in various Social Media channels
Facebook also had spam based on Osama’s death
On the fun side, how Osama was traced through Facebook
Then there were several bloggers who shared their views on Osama’s death news.
Why They Killed Osama bin Laden Now
Conspiracy theories about Osama’s death
And I am sure Osama is going to rule the social media for some more time.
The Paper Man
My Article appeared on Inbox 1305, featuring interesting people
