As the adrenaline-pumping IPL plays out its fifth innings, it’s not just not the cricketers who’re hogging the limelight. Some of India’s biggest brands too are padded up for a season of high-octane, action- packed marketing and branding campaigns across media. From Aircel and Gulf Oil (who are sponsoring Chennai Super Kings) to Hero MotoCorp (team sponsor of Mumbai Indians), brands—big and small—are out to grab eyeballs.
It’s not just cricket. Betting big on the branding and marketing benefits of leveraging India’s first F1 Grand Prix last year, Bharti Airtel announced a range of brand engagement initiatives to build a buzz around the event and connect with its target audience.
With hockey witnessing a revival in the country following the national squad’s impressive performance in the Olympic qualifiers, the recent World Series Hockey tournament was a great platform for sponsors Bridgestone, Vodafone and Pernod Ricard to leverage their brand.
Sports and sponsorships are old bedfellows. While music, cinema and other art forms do get their share of sponsors, sport is in a league of its own. For one, it offers tremendous reach (consider the number of people who watch a football or cricket game, or—if you’re thinking really big—the Olympics or Fifa World Cup); two, there’s an emotional connect with the target audience that’s difficult to duplicate.
No wonder, even a newbie like Micromax is going the Pepsi, Coke, Visa, Vodafone, Hero MotoCorp, Sahara, Bharti Airtel and Western Union way in scouting for new sporting ventures to associate with. “Our association with sports events has opened several opportunities by increasing the company’s visibility. Additionally, sponsorships have contributed a lot in the shaping of consumer attitudes and generated a positive reaction in the minds of our consumers,” says Pratik Seal, marketing head of Micromax.
“The opportunity is big and companies—both domestic and multinationals—are opening up to sponsorships more aggressively,” explains Kiran Khalap, co-founder, Chlorophyll, a brand and communications consultancy firm in Mumbai. They seem to have every reason to do so.
According to Octagon, a sports and entertainment marketing company, corporate sponsorship of sports in India constitutes only 1 per cent of the $40-billion global market, but is estimated to touch 5 per cent by 2019.
“Sports viewership in India runs into millions and is growing. Sports cuts across languages and cultures. So sponsorship helps companies establish an emotional connect, build brand visibility and recall,” explains Kamlesh Sharma, general manager, public affairs & communications at Coca Cola India.
Visibility is key. By displaying their logo on team apparel, in the stadia and all official merchandise, sponsors ensure that their brand stays prominent through the event. The results are there for everyone to see. Sahara, which has been associated with the Indian cricket team for more than a decade, is now a household name.
Orhan Abbas, vice-president, India and Nepal of Emirates Airlines, which recently bagged a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Deccan Chargers, says: “We see this as an opportunity to support a sport that Indians follow passionately. The sponsorship is also a way of telling our Indian customers that we are investing in India.”
Advertisers, media planners and event managers agree that sporting events as a marketing tool have great potential. But zeroing in on a sponsorship isn’t easy. An event has to be evaluated in terms of visibility and return on investment (ROI) before a sponsor signs a deal. “It should offer good integration, placement opportunities, provide national visibility and help us engage with audiences,” explains Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki India.
Measuring ROI has become more accurate in recent years. Companies typically track how long their logos and/or names are exposed to the public during an event and work out how much it would cost to buy that amount of visibility through advertising. Next, they calculate the activity’s effect on sales.
To get the most out of a deal, some sponsoring companies use the event as a platform to launch or promote a new product. For instance, Maruti launched its Estilo during the SAFF Football tournament in Delhi last December.
In the current IPL season, the Deccan Chargers and My Rewards International have agreed to market membership-based programmes under a co-branding arrangement. During one of the earlier IPL seasons, Tata Motors ran an on-ground activation programme across Tamil Nadu both to cheer the Chennai Super Kings and to connect with the audience. It specially designed three Tata Ace vehicles for the roadshow and went around the city drawing eyeballs.
The idea is to get a big bang for the buck. Justifiably so, because the bucks involved are enormous. DLF, for instance, bagged the five-year title sponsorship rights for the IPL for $50 million. Bharti Airtel’s three-year deal for the F1 Grand Prix is reportedly worth $30-$35 million. And mind you, it’s not always a one-time affair. Emirates earmarks one per cent of its total revenue of $15.6 billion (as of 2010-11) for sport sponsorships. Domestic companies are not behind. Home-grown mobile maker Micromax has also got into the act, and begun allocating 10-12 per cent of its revenue as its annual marketing budget for sponsorships.
On the starting day of the fifth edition of IPL, the national dailies carried an advertisement that said, Aisa Mauka Aur Kahan Milega (Where else will you get this sort of an opportunity?). Sports can probably use that as its selling line to corporates.