Build Up to India Pakistan WC 2015 clash

          BUILD UP TO THE EPIC INDO-PAK CLASH WC CLASH

When India clash with Pakistan in their first group match of the 2015 World Cup at the Adelaide Oval, they would surely be looking forward to maintain their sweet record of never being defeated by their arch rivals at this grand stage. This clash has always been a fascinating one for the fans, bureaucrats and every possible human being that follows the game, even in a slightest manner. A recent video published by Star Sports is a perfect example of how anticipated this clash is and the hype that is being generated out of it. The anticipated number of viewers for this clash is mammoth 15% of the world’s population. Jesus!!! Both teams would fancy their chances as neither have been putting their best foot forward coming into this world cup.

India have been playing cricket down under for the past couple of months now but are yet to register their first win. After suffering a 0-2 series loss in the Test matches against the hosts, the no. 2 ranked side in the world was expected to fare much better in the triangular series which also featured England. But the team displayed a sorry figure and lost three matches while one match was washed out. Though the perennial poor performers, our bowlers, have held their reputation in the entire series by leaking runs too easily, our batsmen too have not held their forte and display the same aggression and application that was on show during the test series. The middle order looks brittle and shallow while the top is too reliant on Virat Kohli. Even the presence of experienced duo of Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni fails to bolster the lineup. Three early wickets and India seriously lack the resilience to bat out the whole quota of 50 overs. As a result, the openers are bound to play a vital role if the defending champions are to reach anywhere close to their previous feat in 2011. Dhawan has been a shadow of himself during the entire tour while Rohit Sharma’s injury woes seem unending. Both the batsmen need to click together to bolster our chances as was visible during the Champions trophy in England.

On the other hand, Pakistan too has its own stock of worries (they should have for Christ sake). After being recently thrashed 2-0 by New Zealand, this unpredictable side had a major boost when ICC cleared their ace spinner, Saeed Ajmal of bowling. Ajmal was reported of suspect action and had earlier withdrawn from the mega event to undergo corrections in his action. However, the good news did not last for long as Mohd Hafeez was ruled out the event due to a leg injury. Hafeez had been a mainstay for the team and was among the top allrounders currently before he too was reported and suspended for illegal action. Pakistan already have lost premier bowlers Umar Gul and Junaid Khan owing to injuries and Hafeez’s exclusion does not send a right message for the team’s fortunes. PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) has named Nasir Jamshed as Hafeez’s replacement which diminishes Ajmal’s chances of making to the squad.

Both sides have a lot on their table which makes this contest more exciting and a must watch. So, mark your calendars and wait in excitement for this epic clash only on Star Sports Network. Listeners can also tune into All India Radio for match commentary. The match starts at 0900 Hrs on 15^th February at the historic Adelaide Oval.    

  

6 bowlers to watch out for in World Cup 2015

            

"Make 'em hard and fast." This is the simple message that has been given to the Australian pitch curators. Going by this, one can expect feisty and spirited efforts by some world class bowlers in the midst to shape their teams’ fortunes. Apart from the ground conditions, use of two new balls from each end will surely encourage captains to prioritize quicker bowlers. So it did not come as a surprise when most teams (Including ones who usually depend on spinners) decided to pack their squads with pacers. Let’s have a look at the 6 bowlers who are more likely to inch their team closer to winning the ultimate prize, the CRICKET WORLD CUP 2015.

    1. Mitchell Johnson (Australia)

The dream destroyer and menace creator, Mitchell Johnson, is expected to repeat the havoc that he has wrecked in the last 18 months. Possessing such a champion bowler who more often than not takes a wicket in his first spell and returns with fruitful result even in the middle and slog overs is likely to prove a vital cog in boosting home team’s chances. Early wickets are the key in any format and Johnson’s exploits along with Mitchell Starc would provide an added advantage to already talent rich side. Apart from his fiery pace and control of line and length, the tension that he creates in the opposition’s mind does most of the damage. Johnson, the spearhead of the bowling attack, might very well inspire his team to lift their 5^th title and 1^st on the home turf.  

    2. Trent Boult (New Zealand)

Trent Boult has become a major asset for the co-hosts in recent times and along with his new ball partner Tim Southee, the pair is likely to wreck havoc and create the same kind of impact which is expected from the Australian pair of Johnson and Starc. Bolt, who idolizes Wasim Akram, can swing the ball both ways and the very fact that he gets rid of the batsmen with strong technical aspects with his late swing makes him even a bigger threat going into the world cup. With New Zealand being touted as a major title contender, Boult’s performances will surely put the co-hosts on right path.

    3.  Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)

Now this might come as a surprise. Guys, don’t be bewildered by my choice. Of late, Herath has been a mainstay of the Sri Lankan bowling line up and more importantly, a genuine wicket taker.  The possession of ‘carrom ball’, where he flicks the ball through his fingers, makes him even more potent. Herath has the uncanny ability of breaking crucial partnerships as well as drying up the runs in the middle overs with his precise and immaculate line and length. The common worry among all Sub Continent teams would be defending totals on the huge Australian grounds. This is where, Herath, in tandem with Malinga, can see Sri Lanka through difficult times and enable smooth progress at least to the semis.

    4. Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka)

No team would have ever been as relieved as would be Sri Lanka after Lasith Malinga was declared fit for the mega event. The impact that he creates with his deadly yorkers and clever change of pace is second to none. He is arguably the best death bowler ever to play the game and his ability to change the course of the match on its head in a space of few deliveries is unparallel. I am sure his spell against South Africa in 2007 World Cup where he took 4 wickets in as many balls is still fresh in our minds. Even with their batting prowess, Sri Lanka would have been the half the side in absence of their spearhead. On the other side, it should be duly noted that Malinga is returning from a long layoff and expecting him to set the stage on fire immediately would be too harsh. However, if he performs to even half of his abilities, Sri Lanka would be tough nut to crack given their remarkable run in ICC tournaments.

    5.  Morne Morkel (South Africa)

The 6’5’’ lanky pacer hailing from the rainbow nation is being touted to change the misfortune of his team’s consistent failure to win ICC tournaments. The pace and bounce on Aus and NZ pitches will ideally assist Morkel to devastate opposition’s batting line up in company of Steyn, Parnell and Abbott. Most batsmen find it very difficult to gauge the bounce he extracts from that height and would take some skill to counter him if he finds the right rhythm. Morkel has often been accused of bowling too short and as most people believe, Morkel is yet to showcase the impact that a 6’5’’ bowling at 145 case can create and this might be opportunity for him to make himself count and spoken in the same breath as his champion compatriot Dale Steyn.

6.  Mohammad Irfan (Pakistan)

Mohammad Irfan, at a towering height of 7’1’’, is the tallest player to play international cricket and has not been shy in taking every possible advantage of this feature. Barring his fitness concerns, Irfan is almost unplayable at times when he is at his peak. The loss of key compatriots Umar Gul and Junaid Khan has shifted the burden of getting off Pakistan to good starts with the ball entirely on him. In a recent interview, Irfan said that he wants to emulate what the great Wasim Akram did for the nation in 1992 edition. In order to achieve that feat, he will have to bowl out of his skins with prominent support from the other end and more importantly, stay fit across the whole tournament.

5 batsmen to watch out for in the World Cup 2015

The Cricket World Cup 2015 bonanza is knocking on the door and the fire power with the bat is set to shape each of the teams’ destinies. The current rules in this format such as restriction of fielders outside the 30 yard circle and 15 overs of power play have shifted the balance in the batsman’s favour. In this section, we will have a look at the 5 batsmen that need to be watch out for:

1. David Warner (Australia)

David Andrew Warner, a dynamic (pocket dynamite as he is often referred to) left-handed opening batsman and the first Australian cricketer to be selected for a national team in any format without any experience in first-class cricket has been no less than a revelation for the hosts and puts them in the position of biggest contender to lift the cup along with South Africa. The consistency and temperament that Warner has showcased in the last couple of years by converting those quick fiery 30’s and 40’s into match winning knocks has been simply exemplary and jaw-dropping. He has provided the hosts with a luxurious cushion by laying a solid platform in double quick time. When a team scores  130 in first 20 overs as often as Australia have been doing of late, they are bound to achieve a match winning total at most times. Warner, holds the key for realization of Australia’s dreams of conquering the cup on their home turf and has given a kick start with his brilliant century in the warm up match.

2. Kane Williamson (New Zealand)

Kane Williamson is simply the man for New Zealand, the proud co-hosts. Kane’s ability to acclimatize to any situation and still bring the best out of himself has seen the transformation of his team from being the dark horses to title contenders. In the eight ODIs New Zealand played against Sri Lanka and Pakistan since Christmas, Williamson hit 407 runs at 67.8. Since the start of the test summer, he's hit 657 runs at 93. Since last January, Williamson has hit 1177 ODI runs in 17 innings - three centuries, nine half centuries, only three scores under 25, none in single figures, and is averaging 69.2 for that period. And on it goes.  (Stats Courtesy: NzHerald.co.nz). The fact that Kane plays a perfect foil to his captain Brendon McCullum’s aggressive instincts caters very well to co-hosts chances in the mega event. Kane’s good tournament with the willow could very well see New Zealand lift their first silverware after being ousted at the semi finals stage several times.

3. AB De Villiers (South Africa)

Mr. 360, as he is admirably called, is the arguably the best and most significant player on the planet. His recent fireworks against the hapless West Indies, where he scored the fastest hundred in this format was a treat to watch and I am sure that no genuine cricket fan would have been amazed by his feat. While he has parted away with the wicket keeping gloves, captaincy and being a premier batsman of the team along with Amla has his hands full. It has been often said at previous editions too but the composition of the Proteas in this edition with the likes of AB’s class makes them genuine contenders to lift the World Cup.

4. Steven Smith (Australia)

The resurgence of Steven Smith in the last 18 months has been simply unbelievable. The fact that he recently won the Allan Border medal and being announced as Australia's Test and One-Day International Player of the Year sumps up the rich vein of form Steve has been in lately. His purple patch does not seem to end anywhere near soon and his ability to rotate strike with utter ease at an amazing strike rate makes him an ideal partner for the attacking trio of Warner, Finch and Watson.
   

5. Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka)

The Sri Lankan skipper is the one to watch out inspite the presence of stalwarts like Sangakkara and Jayawardene. The senior players in this team are on the verge of retirement and hence the resurgence of Angelo as a genuine match winner, both with bat and ball (more so with bat, I must add) has enabled Sri Lankans to breathe a sigh of relief. Angelo provides the optimum balance that a side can desire for which in turn, bolster their chances significantly to reach the semis at least.  

The Waving Flag of FIFA WorldCup 2010

Coca Cola has been a corporate partner to FIFA since 1978 and has now extended this partnership till 2022. It has been profitable brand association for the company and continues to be with the awesome global following for the FIFA WorldCup and other events organized by FIFA. But, brand building is just not advertising, in such partnerships its a massive involvement in all the campaigns that FIFA plans like encouraging young talent which are an equal responsibility of an associated brand, and majorly a top brand like Coca Cola.

Now,lets talk about the "OPEN HAPPINESS" campaign by CocaCola which captures the iconic moments in the Football WorldCup of players celebrating their goals,the moment when all supporters cheer and there is a sudden burst of emotions.This prominent TV commercial briefs more about the campaign



CAMPAIGN REVIEW

An excellent campaign that positions CocaCola as the drink for celebrations and targeting moment of celebrations in a WorldCup when we hear the commentator say - And Its a GOOAAALLLLLLL!!.The TVC is again a fantastic creation that targets the global markets potraying almost all the teams participating, and the popular music track - waving flag which sends across a motivating social message to all the young footballers that encourages young talent.
So to this complete package of global branding and perfect brand association Brandistics rates 9/10

FIFA WorldCup 2010 - The Marketing Game Begins !!

FIFA WorldCup is the biggest global sporting event followed by millions across 200 countries, so probably the best brand to talk about in our Brand Of the Week segment. The sponsorships are hard faught for this mega event but, only a few get to eat the pie.
But, the bigger challenge than getting the sponsorship right is to be able to utillize it completely. In this context, Brandistics gives you the Big 5 rules of the game (marketing with FIFA WorldCup) that helps marketers/sponsers design the gameplan

1. Marketers get a huge field to play on i.e. the success of their campaign depends on how they ideate non-traditional promotions (other than traditional print, television etc..). The more innovatie and engaging campaign, the higher the brand recall achieved. So, it depends on the skills of the marketer if he is able to do the tricks with the ball and impress the audience.

2. Huge Target Market : The marketers get to capture all the segments as according to the top three most-cited TV viewing habits: "mostly watched with friends and family," - not only soccer crazy audience but also their pals get targeted
"watched even if my national team was not playing," - the non-playing nations get targeted
and "liked watching other players from other nations competing" - the national brand ambassadors are now global brand ambassadors for example, Indians like Cristiano Ronaldo rip through England defence to score a goal, Castrol the brand association of Ronaldo gets to target Indian market.

3. The goals are defined - According to the FIFA framework for sponsorship they are categorized under 3 levels:

4. Localization matters : Blending the local culture into your campaigns is important. This how you get more association to the bigger game, that is, when worldcup comes to Africa get all the celebration, dancing, noise into your campaigns.This gives an insight of how closely your brand is associated to FIFA WorldCup ,which has been an important consideration for audience to elevate the brand's image.

5. The final rule says follow the 4 rules stated above .period

FIFA 2010 Sponsorship - Importance to USA, Germany, India, China, Japan and South Korea

FIFA 2010 is on, and Brandistics is trying its best to report on the World Cup, whether it comes to the schedule or the betting odds (see widget at the top). But considering that we are a sports marketing blog, my attention on FIFA 2010 has involved the sponsors to the FIFA 2010 World Cup, more than a lot of things.

Figure this:

FIFA Sponsorship can be broken down into FIFA event partners and international sponsors apart from the local sponsors. Considering that the local sponsors should be belonging to the African continent, we decided to find out which countries do the other sponsors belong to. It is a huge event after all, the returns on this investment for the companies, might as well make or break them.

FIFA Partner	Home Country
Adidas	Germany
Coca Cola	USA
Emirates	UAE
Hyundai Kia	South Korea
Sony	Japan
Visa	USA

FIFA WC Sponsor	Home Country
Budweiser	Germany
Castrol	UK
Continental	Germany
McDonald's	USA
MTN	South Africa
Mahindra Satyam	India (Yeah!)
Seara	Brazil
Yingli Solar	China

Now, you see what I meant with the title. USA has got 3 companies, Germany has got 3 companies, UAE, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, UK, South Korea, Japan have each 1 company. Certainly, FIFA World Cup 2010 is more important to these countries than the other ones like Argentina or Spain who are poised to fight hard this World Cup!

Football in India

The idea to write this post came into my mind when I was having a look at different groups of the World cup. I was really overwhelmed with a patriotic feeling and found myself wondering on the fact that, how is it possible that a country with population of over 1 Billion cannot produce 11 world class football player.

The primary reasons being:

• The first thing which struck me was the lack of infrastructure in our country. I tried to compare the number of cricket grounds to the number of football grounds present in our country and believe me the ratio was as low as it could get.
  
• Having left heartbroken from the government's side I turned towards the corporate India. I found out that the craze for football is immense in the corporate world. The Big Cats have already selected their sides and are backing them, but I was not able to find any answer as to why not even a single company is coming forward to sponsor our Indian Football team. I am not against Hockey or our Indian Hockey team but even they have got a loyal sponsor in form of Sahara, no matter how they perform.
  
• Then I turned towards the common man or the mango people or the aam aadmi of India and found that the following which cricket has in India is far more than that of football, but somehow I was not able to find good enough reasons to blame them because they buy what they see and at present the visibility of football in India is as low as it can get in a country like India.
• The improper functioning of the organization handling football in India is also a factor for such a pathetic condition of a beautiful game like football in our country. Consider the recent case of the Indian coach Bob Houghton, the organization did not had money to pay for the hike in salary requested by him.
  

But saying that Fifa will never be able to make into India and draw a significant amount of audience towards it will be totally wrong. Infact it has already started to form a grip on the Indian markets. Many Indian companies are launching their products in Fifa World cup instead of launching it long back in IPL season 3. The reason being that Fifa provides a global audience as against IPL.

Now I will be listing some of the factors which will play a significant role in laying a strong foundation for football in India. Who knows once we get a good enough fan base in our country we might be able to get a team who can qualify for the world cup.

• 20-20 cricket format has changed the preference of people to the shorter version of different games. Football is one such game which is getting an advantage due to this.
  
• Rise of sports marketing in India with the advent of large scale events like IPL. Who knows in future a major corporate house bids for the sponsorship of our football team. That day will change the way football is treated by the Indian masses.
• The Youth. Yes I am talking about you, me and the others who are in their late teens or early twenties. I have seen an immense following for football in these people. And I can bet you on this that they will act as a major driver for the upcoming of football in India. That time is not far when India will be having its own Ronney, Ronaldo and Messi.

There is hardly any reason as to why football will remain out of our focus for long. The driving factors are far more than the restraints and challenges faced by it. So lets wait and watch....

"With a little less than 36 hrs for the World cup to kick off, the excitement level in the Fifa fans is really worth seeing. I along with my team members at Brandistics will be supporting this mega event, with a wish in our hearts to see the Indian Flag flying high in the Fifa World Cup 2014."

"May the Best Team Wins" - (our apologies to all the die hard fans of different teams)

Stay tuned as Brandistics takes on the Fifa World Cup 2010...

Brand Ronaldo - CR9

CR9 is the trademark for brand Cristiano Ronaldo, an aggressive,talented,furious young footballer from Portugal who rose to be a 94 million euro player brand (as at brandistics we treat players as brands).A brand with such exuberant soccer skills and popularity across the world that he gained mainly with his association to world's best football clubs, an opportunity that few football talents achieve made him the most valuable player in the club history. This was exactly the thought put behind the unprecedented purchase done by Real President Florentino Perez ,his major objective was to increase the club's revenue and its brand value which could only be done by buying in the best of the existing brands and surely Ronaldo was one.

As a result, Real Madrid jumped up to no.2 from no.5 on the media brand list of advertisers (research done by University of Navarra's Economics, Sport and Intangibles Research Group who assigned 83 pts to Real Madrid based on their analysis, leading the list was Barcelona FC with 96.6 pts)and Real Madrid had taken over from Barcelona and Manchester United in some key markets, especially in South America, where the English club was no longer the leader in any country.Also,The sale of Ronaldo to Real had contributed to United losing their position of dominance in 13 out of 21 countries in which they were previously number one, including the United States, China, Brazil and Portugal.

The CR9 label has been created by Real Madrid for the promotional activities of the club as they position their brand asset in promotions pertaining aggression, youth , success, skills, and the hero who is now a soccer icon for a lot of markets around the world. This helps brands like Nike, Castrol and Pepe Jeans to position their products with this brand personality. Apart, from being a fierce footballer he is also very talked about amongst the girls so that helps brands like Emporio Armani and Clear Shampoo to position their products for the young machos. This has contributed to Real Madrid being regarded as the most profitable short term success in the media industry is and a valuable proposition to associate their brands to. Now,what else lies in the box will be revealed in the FIFA World Cup 2010 as it is a great opportunity for marketers to promote their products in the Portuguese markets, target the Portugal supporters worldwide and obviously the player's huge fan following.

And maybe this was the point in time from where it all begin.

"After we played Sporting last week the lads in the dressing room talked about him constantly, and on the plane back from the game they urged me to sign him. That's how highly they rated him!"
-Sir Alex Ferguson on C. Ronaldo

Brand Sachin Tendulkar - I

We have spoken about how big brand sachin is in the world of sports marketing. There have been some remarkable brand associations with brand Sachin for the last 20 years of his career.We will talk about some of them in our coming posts for this week, and understanding the marketer's mindset and the content they produce to utilize this association to its full potential.


PEPSI

A cola brand is sold on the basis of impulse buying by the customer,which requires high brand recall.Now,what a global brand like Pepsi Co does is to optimize this brand recall by associating theor brands with some big stars around the world. In India, a cricket crazy nation Sachin Tendulkar is the best brand to associate with inorder to earn high brand recall.So, what did Pepsi do ; lets take you back to the famous worldcup 2003 campaign by Pepsi - "iski to gai" the perfect placement of famous Sachin-Warne rivalry that earned them huge revenues and great brand recall.





MRF

Yes, a tyre manufacturer that should position themselves with a F1 driver, chose brand Sachin. Why?? A product like tyre is reflected by its quality, durability and performance which are all synonymous with only one sportperson in the country who has consistently performed (performance) for years(durability) and is a genius(quality) at what he does. So, a perfect association that continued for long till last year, when the Genius MRF bat went out of sight of the cricket fans and got replaced with Adidas that promotes ST logo of UNEP (United Nations Environment Program)



AVIVA Life Insurance

This association in my perception is the best promotional campaign.Why ?? because by this campaign the marketers were able to give an insight of Sachin's personal life and how he is also the common parent who cares about his son's future and plans for his well being. A perfect depiction of Dad-son bonding in the content and how AVIVA insurance helps you plan your son's future. If Sachin does the planning even yo need do it and what better than AVIVA.

Sach(in) Ka Saamna

I still remember the first cricket bat bought by me was a bat having a MRF logo on it. Any guesses as to why I went for tht bat and not any other bat..... The reason is that at that time SACHIN used to play with MRF bat. This is one such example which shows how blindly we Indians follow Sachin, I can quote hundreds of other examples which will prove the power of Brand Sachin and the day Sachin scored 200 in an ODI he got the status of GOD by us and brand Sachin became an undisputed champion.

So the question arises that how can one value a brand like Sachin??? Well in an interview Sachin himself mentioned that he should be valued in runs and not in rupees, thus setting up a perfect example of the fact that he is true to his profession. Because the more the runs scored by him the more space will be acquired by him in the hearts of people. Big brands like Adidas started with some small endorsements with him (during the earlier stages of Sachin's career) and have move on to create private labels with him. This evolution of his brand association in a way reflects the role played by him in the Indian team.

The list here mentions various record deals associated with Sachin.

In order to give a more appropriate view of the power of brand Sachin we would like to present you with the stats of Share of Voice (SOV) for some of the Indian players (Share of voice is the percentage of advertising of one brand in a particular category as compared to other brands in the same category).

Most of us will be startled to know that the SOV for the brand Sachin gone below 30% just once or twice in his whole career (Its just AWSUM, a boon for the companies who are associated with this brand). Tendulkar very rarely gets associated with a negative brand, instead he always gets associated with niche products and premium brands an that is the reason why he is not above Dhoni.

According to us Brand Sachin will become even more powerful in the coming days the reason being current form of Sachin and coming up of Cricket World Cup.

With this we will end this post. We will soon be coming out with more such analysis for our readers.
So Stay tuned......

Brand of the Week - Season II

Brandistics is back with a bang - we had an exciting reporting of marketing in IPL season #3. And, now we have new segment of posts highlighting the some of the biggest brands in the world of sports. Yes, indeed they are legendary players of their games but at the same time have been legends for the marketers across the world.

In these posts we will take up each of these players (brands) weekly and update you about how these players developed as a brand and how the big brands (companies) developed brand associations with these legends creating some historic campaigns in the world of advertising and promotions. These posts will also throw light on the various markets these brand associations target on and how they are able to convert it into success. And, then we leave it on our readers to decide weather these players are Brand Ambassadors or Brands themselves !!

So, we start the journey with Brand of the week - Season II exclusively only on Brandistics.

IPL: A Black Swan Event

Just a thought……Does IPL come under the umbrella of Black Swan Events? or Is it a scripted tournament, if yes than I must say it is better than even most of our Bollywood movies (to avoid any controversies I will not be talking about the latter here). Well according to me it is a Black Swan event the reason being:

IPL 1 Rajasthan Royals won the trophy. (At no point in time one could have said that they will emerge as winner)

Then in IPL 2 last year’s toppers came down and last year’s bottom two teams were put in the final.

The sudden shift of IPL from India to SA in season 2 (but everything was managed in such a way that it felt like they knew it was going to happen…U cannot make an event of such a big scale happen in about a few weeks time).

In IPL 3 when everything was going in favour of IPL, it was struck by a controversy (I think we all are well aware about it THE LALIT MODI CASE). Now the question in front of us is that, will IPL still enjoy the massive support it had managed to get in past 2 years?

And last but not the least: Will Lalit Modi regain his lost position? We here at Brandistics support Mr. Lalit Modi and hope to see him back in action. Because according to us: If IPL is ‘Manoranjan ka baap’ then Mr Modi is ‘IPL ka baap’. Well whatever the result may be we think it will again be a random one, which will come as a blow to us.

We have already seen in our previous posts that IPL stands way ahead among all the other sporting events. Now let us see how this greatness of IPL has lead to growth of various things with respect to India. They are:

Emergence of Brand India (As it is promoting itself as a game played by the Indian mass. Ad campaigns like Saare Jahan se Achcha are helping it to achieve the milestone)

Emergence of a business within cricket, thus making it a very lucrative option for Indian business houses who are ready to invest in sports.

At the game level, it has provided the young talented players of India, a stage to showcase their talent (I think this is the main reason why most of us are seeing cricket as a career).

It has promoted cricket as a commodity rather than a brand. This has brought down the emotional attachment of people with the game as a whole, but it is exploiting there emotion by targeting different states/parts of India by forming different teams representing different parts of India.

It has lead to the emergence of cricket as a competitor to football and basketball.

With this we will end this post. Stay tuned.....

Lalit Modi - Man behind the Brand IPL

Well everyone remembers the climax scene of the movie GURU ,where the witty businessman gets away with all charges just by the dialogues and the thought that whatever this man is doing is for the betterment of the country as a whole. But, this is no real life. Not in the case of, Mr. Lalit Modi the man who idealized the brand IPL and has worked diligently for 5 years now to make it to the list of most innovative global brands.

Lalit Modi, a great visionary who rose from the backdrop of his bad college days, to be a part of around 5 businesses that also include the mega-brand IPL has been asked to clear his image of all charges in the governing council meeting of the BCCI. This is what politics does to some bright careers in business. Personally, (being a bit positive and with all respect that I have for the brilliant mind in Lalit Modi) I think that though the man is minting money, so are the other business houses in India - now majorly because he went against the government to hold IPL out of India the last season in South Africa, does not allow everyone to fire all guns at him. He surely is involved in the charges raised on him, but I would list some brilliance of the man that cannot be overshadowed by the criticism he receives.

• The vision to take IPL global through international partnerships with Google-Youtube.
• His strategy to keep the IPL alive even after the season by organizing international off season matches to keep the audience engaged and boost the brand recall of IPL.
• The inspiration that he imbibed in every youngster in India who dreams to be the next generation Sachin Tendulkar,Kapil Dev or a Saurav Ganguly. He provided the platform for players like Asnodkar, R. Khan who could not even dream of earning such huge sums from their cricketing abilities. IPL inspired them to believe in themselves and put in their hard work so that they get the chance to play for their nation and this dream has been realized by players like Manpreet Gony, Murali Vijay, Ravinder Jadeja who have got their bright chances.
• Lalit Modi provided us the ultimate product mix of Cricket + Bollywood which has no other match in terms of entertainment value delivered.
• And, ultimately to take on the other commercial sport events of the west like the American Baseball , the English Premier League or may be other soccer leagues in the Europe. As, the growth rate of IPL in the sports industry clearly poses a major threat to these leagues in the coming future. So, he is making India shine on the world map as ultimately it is the INDIAN premier league and an INDIAN running it successfully for the last year( which has now been acknowledged by all management thinkers worldwide).

Yes, the ethics are necessary in the business you do - but such an attitude by the government raises questions on the sustainability of such brilliant innovations. The kind of environment that has now been created by the government with their "media partners" surely leads to degradation of the brand and the vision of the man seems to be all dark.

To end up probably my last post of this IPL season, I would quote Sachin on his 37th birthday. Probably, the only hope who will save this commercialization of cricket through hi true cricketing skills.
Sachin in a recent interview said -

"At the end of the day the competitiveness on the field is what the audience want to see, what happens off the field doesn't effect the cricket on the field and Indian cricket is strong enough to cross all these hurdles".

It is also true that no such controversies can ever stop an IPL fan to watch the master or any of their favorite player play on the field.

Deccan Chargers - The Brand for The Week

We started with the brand leader in IPL- Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and now we discuss the brands relatively lower in the valuation table

The Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad Team)

The DC was regarded the best team on paper after the first auctions, attracting a lot more followers with a legendary lot of international hitters - Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, and others. But, gave a lackluster performance in the first season, which failed not only the cricket strategies but also the branding strategies.

The team Deccan Chargers, in the first season was placed as a performance oriented team with the best team players that were the major brand equity of the team. A blistering hitting by these top of the league hitters was what got people excited about the brand. At the same time the owners Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd are not a well known brand by themselves.This all failed and thus called for a major marketing step up by the brand. The facts say that :-

Owners:	Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd.
Franchisee Fee:	US $107.01 mn
Sponsorships and Brand Associations	Idea,Puma,Odyssey,Kingfisher,McDowell's,Pepsi,92.7 FM
Income in Sponsorships (2008 and 2009)	Rs. 70 crore.
Income in Central Pool	Rs. 111.5 crore
Eyeball Factor	The foreign hitters - Gilly,Symonds,Gibbs,Afridi
Team Logo

Source : livemint.com

Now, in the last 2 seasons still the brand has concentrated more on performance, with no major steps in adding to their brand value. There have been no glamour, no controversies and not much of marketing tools applied by the owners - probably the team's performance spoke for it in the last season by winning the IPL and in IPL-3 they rocketed to semis with consecutive wins.So, wonder what the Deccan Chargers' vision to earn profits because its just not cricket, afterall its sports marketing and we at brandistics tell you this week ,how the Deccan Chargers have still developed as a brand.

Positioning IPL

Ok..... let me start this post with a question....What is the first thing which comes to your mind when an advertisement says: “We’re number two; we try harder”? Yes we think of only one company that is AVIS. This advertising campaign made us forget all about the number 1 company in that field that is Hertz, and all our focus shifted to Avis which positioned itself as a number 2 and promised to work harder so as to satisfy us.

Positioning has now become a process by which marketers try to create a distinct image in the minds of the prospect for its product, brand or organization. We will not be wrong if we say that Positioning is a game which companies play in the today’s me-too market place. Before the launch of IPL the only thing which would have been in the mind of Mr. Modi would have been that how to position this event in the mind of people of India.

So in 2008 Max came up with a wonderful concept in the form of an advertisement which placed IPL as “Manoranjan Ka Baap”. The idea here was to show that the IPL was better than anything and everything which was in existence at that time. It was a pure source of entertainment for the audience and had everything in it drama, action, emotion etc. All in all it was like a 3 hr blockbuster movie which could get audience bounded to their seats.
So looking at the facts mentioned above I would like to give this advertisement a mighty 8 out of 10. Because it left no stones unturned to seek the attention of the audiences and made the event a true hit.

Then in 2009 Max came up with a 60 second commercial which was a series of shots which showed different people from all over the country doing the same thing at the same time. In the first shot we saw, many people are sitting in a park, reading the newspaper and turning the pages of it at the same time. In the second shot cooks in a restaurant twirl rotis in the air at the same time. In the third shot, a class room is full of kids and all ask for permission to go to the washroom at the same time. Then we see people at Mumbai’s VT station are hailing a taxi at the same time. Then a final voice is heard which says – ‘Ek desh ek junoon, DLF IPL sirf MAX par’. This advertisement was a true classic because this created a binding between the people of India and IPL, which was being projected as an Indian entertainment event (the significance of this advertisement also increases because this was the year when the venue of IPL was shifted to SA due to security concerns, so coming up with such a concept of promoting an event as a nations event was wonderful).
I would like to give this advertisement 9 out of 10 because this was successful in holding the Indian audience’s attention even though the event was shifted to South Africa in a limited span of time. And hadn’t this commercial been successful the whole existence of IPL could have been under a major threat because of a simple fact no audience means no sponsors.

Then finally we come to this year’s IPL which is again back with an interesting commercial which says – “Saare Jahan Se Achcha Hindustan Humara” which shows captains of different teams standing in a stadium.
This ad campaign acted as a medium to get IPL back to India and position it in the mind of Indian audience as an event which is truly Indian in nature. The background music of the ad further exploited the patriotism of Indian population. So I would like to give this ad campaign a 8 out of 10 because of the wonderful concept of clubbing an ad with the nations tune of “Sare Jahan Se Achcha”.

With this we end this post of how did IPL positioned itself amongst the Indian mass. Stay tuned....

Brand Kolkata Knight Riders - Positioning

Well, the team of the week requires an extension to another week folks !! .. just couldn't post the last week a hectic one for both of us.

So, it is KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) an excellent brand nurtured by high face values of ShahRukh Khan ,Juhi Chawla and bollywood star power. Plus, the cricket crazy( or say "DADA" crazy) Kolkata crowd,one of the best cricketing grounds in India - The Eden Gardens and yes a successful brand positioning.

Brand Positioning, is what I would emphasize in this post.

• The team KKR is positioned to be the "People's Army" - an army of soldiers with their king as the "Badshah of Bollywood" and their commander as the "dada of Kolkata"
• The Armour designed jersey of the team further positions it right as an army.
• The battleground of EDEN GARDENS.

This is exactly how the company want to position the brand, but it is important to know how to position it the way you want; so let's put up some efforts of SRK through these 3 IPL seasons

It all started with the 'Dubbing the Knight' ceremony ( an ancient ritual in which the knighthood was presented to a soldier by gifting him a sword) when all the players of the KKR team were presented the gold plated Knight helmets as was done in ancient days by the kings to their knights.

Next, the team song "kerbo,lodbo,jeetbo re" , the video and the lyrics both inspiring the army to victory !!

Finally, the arena of battle - EDEN GARDENS ,a well decorated ground with iron grills at the boundary as it used to be in the ancient arena.Then, the king inviting his friends and foes to view the battle - his bollywood star power.
All have positioned it right as the people's army - the bengali army - KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS.

IPL: Mecca for Marketers

Mecca is the holy pilgrimage for Muslims, where once a year, the Hajj, the greater pilgrimage, takes place in Mecca and nearby sites. During the Hajj, three million people of all races worship in unison.

So, I am right in stating a cricket extravaganza, held once a year in the holy country of cricket INDIA; that engages millions of followers of their cricketing gods – a Mecca for marketers. Where else, will you find such an engaging audience and viewership to display your products.

I have been talking about IPL boosting the internet audience so a fantastic potential to get viewership on social networking sites, sports blogs and the sports websites. Next, it was the television media where the ad agencies are trying hard to gain the primetime slots on high TVR IPL matches that are beating the viewership of GEC (general entertainment channels like Star Plus , Colors etc..)

[In Television media the ad agencies usually estimate the high TVR (TV Rating) programmes and book their slots so IPL being a high rated TV show is always on their cards] .

But, how do they do that? Is something we need to learn and understand in the subsequent posts.

IPL hits the box office hard !!

Yes, this is what we have been hearing since IPL started 3 years ago.

But, on the other side of the coin actors are earning huge with appearances at IPL matches and the movie theaters earning high with match telecasts. Hence, the lone suffering parties left out are the production houses (barring Red Chillies who opted the idea to co-exist )

We need to figure this out and choose one side of the coin. First, I throw some light on the heading that IPL has actually hit hard on the box office. This holds true as in general, the success of the movies releasing on the box office determines the revenue that industry generates. With virtually no big banner movie releasing during the season, the success is far off to talk about.

This IPL season 3 the only movies released have been Well Done Abba’, ‘Hum Tum Aur Ghost’, ‘Mittal V/s Mittal’, ‘Prem Kaa Game’ and ‘My Friend Ganesha 3′,LSD, Right Yaa Wrong.

So, the main box office earnings have been by LSD (love,sex aur dokha) and atithi tum kab jaoge who have leveraged the situation

• these are low budget movies so that the investments are easily recovered with small earnings of around 6-7 crores.

• had no competitions from big banners so got their credits too, by acceptable occupancies of 20-30%.

• would have gone un-noticed amongst the biggies, if were not released during this period.
  

Even the coming month has nothing much to cheer for the movie buffs as they have to settle with small banner movies Paathshala, Phoonk-2 and Prince.

Apart from this even production houses have agreed to the fact that releasing big banners around 8th week of IPL is mere foolishness so all have pocketed their money till IPL ends.The reason have been the past 2 years which have seen real beatings on the box office.

• 2009 was a black list season for bollywood with the combined effects of the economic slowdown, elections, strike by producers and IPL.So, the industry faced a delay of around 25 films costing around 150 crores to industry.

• 2008, the first season was the one which gave them the hint to the storm that was about to hit the industry and hit it hard.

So, the market understanding says 'during IPL big budgetflicks take a side and allow for free playing grounds for low budget to compete and gather their collections and recognitions'

IPL makes it miserable for the TV industry

I would like to start my post with Lalit Modi’s statement on 24^th March 2010

“IPL will do billion dollar business this year”

And I was not shocked as this is what I have been highlighting in my previous posts; but the transition has been huge this year as compared to last year’s revenue of $450 million. So, the new ideas have been received well by the audience.

These new ideas have surely made it miserable for our very own primetime soap oper

as. This time, statistics will speak more than me.

• There has been a decline of 11 per cent in the share of general entertainment channels in the second week of the IPL telecast.So, some alarming signs for the TV industry and with around 30 days more to go for the season, the coming month is going to disturb them more.

• The opening match between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL3 recorded an average TVR of 7.0(C&S 4+ yrs) season, held in South Africa, the opening match recorded a TVR of 5.6 and 7.2 for both panels respectively. Though, it has not beaten the first season yet.

• The first match this season clocked 45 minutes in ad volumes, four minutes higher than that of the opening day of IPL-1 and IPL-2.

• The first 3 days of IPL3 have earned an avg. TVR of 7.0.
  

The share of Hindi movie channels has seen a rise of 42 per cent, owing to the telecast of IPL on SET Max, a movie channel.

So, basically with IPL Set Max has been topping the TVR charts; just have a look :

Click on the image to enlarge.

The major attractions this season so far have been:

• The IPL’s ‘Back in India’ ad campaign – because cricket does not excite us Indians, until there is stadium noise dubbing the TV commentary and backing it stars with roars of Sachin!!.... Sachin!! Sehwag!!.... Sehwag!!

• The hype of the Mongoose Bat, this has made the sport special. With special gears only made for IPL and you get to watch them exclusively in IPL.

• The new venues for matches (namely, Ahmedabad, Cuttuck, Nagpur, Dharamshala) that have been added, have further nationalized the game and have attracted more audience which is no more restricted to only the parent venues.

• Lastly, Sachin Tendulkar’s awesome form. Now , this is something that stops India when Sachin is on 99 and even world leaders have something to say on this:

I dont know about cricket but still I watch cricket to see sachin's play. Not because I love his play, its because to know the reason why my country"s production reduced to 50%, when he is in batting – B. H. OBAMA, President of United States of America

This is just the trailer, picture to abhi baaki hai mere dost. Next year with 2 new teams Team PUNE and Team COCHI there will be 10 teams with 34 more matches, which might be extending the suffering period to about 20 more days. So, the horrifying part for other channels awaits.

IPL boosts the Internet

You all must be ready with your 5 most common online activities and majority of you must have thought of atleast 2-3 out of the activities listed below or may agree to the list.

THE MOST COMMON 5 ACTIVITIES ON INTERNET:

1. Check E – Mail 
2. Search for Jobs 
3. Access Social Networking sites that also includes reading & writing blogs
4. Surf news sites or check sports sites for score updates 
5. Online gaming

Now, just have a look at the figure below:

Click on the image to enlarge

What I mean to say is that the internet experiences a natural increase in the number of users at the time of IPL, because of a simple reason that people are more engaged in 3 of their most common activities. This opportunity is leveraged by various websites and blogs by initiating activities based on the IPL themes. Taking each of them separately:

1. Social Networking Websites: We have already heard that Twitter is the third most popular platform for IPL discussions. So this tells that there is an increase in the

• Number of social networkers(social media traffic)
• The time spent by people on social networking sites
• Number of pages created on Facebook, number of communities created on Orkut, number of tweets re-tweets on Twitter..etc..

2. Cricket Blogs : The IPL is the favourite topic of discussions on majority of the blogs starting right from the player auctions, pre/post match analysis, team probabilities, comments on comments and controversies (How can one forget the infamous blog of KKR’s ‘FakeIplPlayer’). These blogs get a huge hype at the time of IPL and professional cricket bloggers like Brandistics' parent blog AllPaddedUp the following

• High readership
• Benefits their page ranks
• Gets them advertisements
• Provide immense pool of content to write on and for readers to enjoy.

3. Sports Websites: They get a bit overloaded during IPL with almost 2 matches a day from just 1 tournament you got to be on your toes. Live scores, live text commentary, mobile versions of live scores and the comments of cricket experts are the major services these websites bank on. These websites have got a huge traffic from:

• The corporate world that can only access these sites for live updates or are mobile most of the time.
• The travelling audience who has their GPRS enabled mobile phones to access the internet and no access to television (I am targeting very specifically).
• And the ones who access the SMS scoring services.

4. Online streaming of match videos: This one is the latest in the block and has shown a huge potential. I have lot to talk about it, so I keep it safe for my future posts.

A true innovation is the one which benefits the innovator and the environment as a whole. IPL has definitely boosted the internet industry and (If you still not buy this) the prospects are huge in the coming future. So now, are you getting a feel of why I started with IPL as the 22^nd most innovative company, globally? There is lot more left to tell you about the other verticals of entertainment viz. Television industry, Bollywood (film industry to be more precise) and the very own News industry (print + television channels). Keep reading and would love to have your comments and suggestions on my outlook.