How did IPL become a Brand!the success story

It’s a new brand world!... Today brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services -- from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants to sports-- are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a brand.

It was in late June 2007 that two men arranged for a meeting for discussing an interesting but different sporting event. It was Lalit Modi (Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India with Andrew Wildblood (International Management Group, the sports management bigwig) who participated in this history-creating discussion. Then in April 2008, the maiden IPL tournament which Modi had conceptualized and ideated was on the way to come on the forefront.

For Indians, the cricket players are our ideals. They are role models for millions of Indian youth. And they’ll continue to be so unless they find more role models in any other sport.There are many factors Which make this game the most loved sport in country and one of the major and most benefiting one to become a commercial sport is the unique opportunity of small breaks that Cricket provides to big companies. After every Over, there is a short period of 20-40 seconds where the bowling end of the pitch is changed. In this tiny break of 20-40 seconds the broadcaster gets the chance of showing commercial advertisement to viewers. After every Over in each innings, commercial companies can show their ads to people. This makes Cricket the most unique game in the history of sports unlike others. Is IPL a brand success? Or should we be more specific and determine whether thisepisode of the IPL is a success?Let’s examine this a little more closely. Any brand, by definition, should have anuncluttered, unique and relevant value proposition to its customers. In addition, itshould be attuned to the culture in which it exists and a strong emotional connectionwith its customers. Does IPL have all this? I think it does. Here is why.

The content is cricket, or rather quality of cricket provided by the best players in business. Showcasing their skills in typical “football” like atmosphere for 3 hours - longenough to keep them engaged and short enough not to be boring - you can compare it with other entertainment avenues viz. a football match of two hours or a movie of threehours. It is like a good thriller with a tight script. It grips the audience. That is the heartof the value proposition; it is unique in its value proposition and perfectly relevant forthe Indian audience. The cricket, as expected, has a very strong emotional connection.Without doubt IPL has all the essential characteristics of a brand in the Indian cultural context.

The other very important aspect of this content is the eight teams based on city loyalties and rivalries. This artificially created rivalry was an important part of this brand. Without this artificially created loyalty (similar to a Man U vs. Liverpool contest with the competition and accompanying drama) the content would fall flat. Without competition no sport is worth watching, whether live or on television. We know that the value proposition of this brand has the uniqueness, appeal andrelevance to the Indian audience. Unlike a product or a service where a certain level of

awareness and trial would be a top line indication of customer acceptance of the brand,a sports brand property would not have the same measure of success.

At the heart of any sports brand property would be a valuation of its ability to attract acaptive audience. It is as much a live event as it is a media event. The biggest share ofrevenue comes from selling television rights. The majority of the value is based on theestimated number of viewers this brand /event is able to deliver. This is a judgment callmade by a television company. In this case WSG paid $ 1.026 billion for a 10 year periodto the IPL for telecast rights across the world, of this $ 918 million for television rights,and $ 108 million for promotions. Sony Entertainment television paid $ 612 million forsimilar rights in India.

Has the brand or the event has been able to deliver a captive audience or adequateviewership? So far a rough estimate of audience measurement shows thatapproximately 130 million people have watched IPL matches, a substantial number byany stretch of imagination. A sign of success? Perhaps. It is definitely high compared tothe cricket world cup or even T20 world cup!Other aspect of brand success would be look at the in-stadia footfall. This ranges from30% in some of the matches in Mohali and Hyderabad to a maximum of 100% in Edengarden Kolkata. A sign of brand appeal!

Key indication of probable success of the brand is the ability to attract sponsors. IPL hasattracted more than one sponsor. It is a bidding process like any other. The highestvalue offered is selected as the main sponsor. This again is a judgment call based onestimated viewership of the event. IPL has DLF as the main sponsor for its brand. Theypaid approximately $ 2 .0 billion for the event.

We all know that success of any television program is largely depending on the content;it has to be interesting, intriguing and relevant to the audience in question. The content,in this case is a “cricketainment” program, provided all the above necessary ingredients.One interesting aspect of this audience is that it was one of the few television programswhich had very low age, gender, income or even regional skews.

It is a media practice that one creates a program or content keeping in view a particulardemographic or psychographic segment, which meant the program waswatched by practically anyone and everyone in the house which had a cable andsatellite connection.

Nevertheless there are impressive numbers and they give us a glimpse ofthe shape of things to come.

IMPACT OF IPL………………………………………………………………….! From cities to Nations

India is a country with varied culture customs and religion and cricket is another religion for us where citizens are worshippers and players demigods. Whenever politicians are not able to handle any situation they blame it on diversity of this country,but that’s what IPL defied ,It infact capitalized on it .lalit modi knew one thing which unites this nation is CRICKET .

IMPACTFUL STATEGIES OF IPL

Marketing strategies in favour of IPL:

Firstly “Packaging of the Event” from day 1 as entertainment is the biggest strategic hit. Secondly to keep it focused in 20 over and inviting International players, not only enhanced theentertainment value but also factored in the fastest growing segment of high income youth. This segment is short of time and wants everything to be packaged small. It structured teams around states thereby ensuring team and brand loyalties and assuredeyeballs when it comes to media. By following a well tried international model of clubs and player auctions, it got playersinterests and their willingness to give the tournament their 110%. Knowing that players aregoing to play attacking entertaining cricket attracts paid audience to the stadium and draws them towards other forms of media like TV, internet and print press.The public and press relations during the first two versions meant media hype wasmaintained and that has lead to immense unpaid publicity. Interestingly in IPL3, the organizershave offered strict terms for freebies for non-official media. The initial purpose having beenachieved, the official TV channel is getting its due. That again hints to a well planned strategy.Then getting International Cricket Council to keep a window for IPL season was the biggeststrategic coup. Now cricket boards all over the world want to have similar event but may not beable to get well known players for their events!BCCI ensured that the event got all international recognition and gave it the required financial backup to conceive and execute the event.Another very important strategy was attracting the movie stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty along with highly placed industrialist as team owners, ensured ample media and public interest which further contributed to the success of the event,and finally, organizers packaging of all above and ensuring the event was always incontroversies and news, meant branding exercise of the kind that has not been seen in sports.

Impactful Sponsorship

1. INDIVIDUAL TEAM SPONSORS: In Season 1, the total number of brands was 40. InSeason 2, it grew to 69 and has already crossed 80 and growing exponentialy.

2. SPONSORSHIPS: India’s biggest property developer DLF Group paid US$50 million to bethe title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013.Other five-year sponsorshipagreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one withPepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million.

3.SPONSORSHIP OF THE BLIMP: Sold to MRF for Rs 15 crore for 24 matches where itappears over the stadium

3. ADVERTISEMENTS BETWEEN OVERS ON STADIUM SCREEN:IPL owns 150 seconds of air time on SetMax devoted to ads appearing on the screen which also gets covered on TV. At Rs 6 lakh per 10 seconds, it is Rs 90 lakh per match, a minimum of Rs 54 crore for 60 matches.The amount is shared with the teams.

5. MOBILE RIGHTS: This includes live streaming sold to Appalya Technologies, mobileinternet opportunities sold to July Systems, Cric Zenga for mobile scorecard and SIEL for smartphone applications on a revenue sharing basis.

6. GROUND SPONSORSHIPS: The four strategic time outs have been sold to Maxx Mobile forRs 17-20 crore for the year. A fourth central sponsor, Karbonn Mobiles, added to the existingtitle sponsor DLF (Rs 200 crore for five years) and associate sponsors Hero Honda, Vodafoneand Citibank, who pay around Rs 25 crore for five years each. Fifty-four per cent of this isdistributed among teams.

7. TELEVISION RIGHTS:On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India’s SonyEntertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the globalbroadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The record deal has duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 millionfor the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of thetournament. This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling onits side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contractwith BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying a staggering Rs. 8700 crores for 10 years.Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies.Below is a summary of the broadcasting rights around the world. On 4 March 2010 ITVannounced it had secured the United Kingdom television rights for the 2010 Indian PremierLeague. ITV will televise 59 of the 60 IPL matches on its ITV4 free to air channel. Sony chargesRs 4-5 lakh per 10 seconds, (top soaps charge Rs 1.5 lakh per 10 seconds). According toTelevision Audience Measurement (TAM), the average Television Rating Points (TRP) of thefirst 14 matches in Season 1 was 4.97; in Season 2 it was 4.52, and in Season 3 it’s grown to4.69. If IPL-1 reached 77 million people in the first 14 matches, IPL-2 went to 96 million andIPL-3 is at 108 million. The ratings have also raised team earnings.

8. OFFICIAL IPL APPLICATIONS: DCI Mobile Studios (A division of Dot Com Info way Limited), in conjunction with Sigma Ventures of Singapore, have jointly acquired the rights to be the exclusive Mobile Application partner and rights holder for the Indian Premier League cricket matches worldwide for the next 8 years (including the 2017 season). Recently, they have released the IPL T20 Mobile applicationsfor iPhone, Nokia Smart phones and Blackberry

devices. Soon it will be made available acrossall other major Mobile platforms including the Android, Windows Mobile, Palm & othersTeam wise sponsorers and Brand Ambassador of IPL (refer to table )

Impact of IPL on International Cricket

Taking a cue from ICL, BCCI successfully capitalised on the idea of city based rivalry and brought to the fore the rivalry that was only spoken of but never witnessed.

The ‘Big Daddys’ of the international arena came together to play for the same team and a Delhi resident supporting the home team, Delhi Daredevils, cheered and celebrated when Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed. Such has been the impact of IPL on international cricket that an Indian prays for Andrew Symonds’ century and a third umpire decision in favour of Shoaib Akhtar. What more can be said!

If, on one hand, IPL forced Indian supporters to cheer for the Symonds and Watsons, it weaved the cricket playing nations closer too, and it undoubtedly did. After the Sydney fiasco, who would have thought Indians would be cheering for Ricky Ponting’s success? Indian Premier League can well be related to the English Premier League football where the concept is the same. Players from every country are traded for huge sums to play for various clubs and thus every club comprises of the giants of the game from different countries and states.

Impact of IPL Everywhere

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

IPL 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.

Impact of IPL on Indians

IPL has not only just brought people together in a beautiful way but during this difficult time of India it has transcend race colour religion culture ,that is what a purity of sport is.

There has been a surprising rise in number of females watching and following IPL,a new segment improvisation has taken place But the biggest proof of success came from debates it generated across the country, on drawing rooms, pubs and offices etc. The "buzz" was all encompassing. Even strangers in planes, airports, trains and buses chat about Daredevils and Super Kings.

For every Indian ,IPL has managed to don a sense of belonging .Everyone eagerly waits for next IPL to hear the crack of bat as chakka is hit and the subsequent roar of the crowd unified by their love of the game .