Do you remember the days when sports for ‘entertainment’ meant sitting in front of a 17 inch black and white TV screen watching a cricket match with half the neighborhood in attendance?In hindsight, sport was watched with the same passion as today but back then advertisers had not yet awakened to the severe possibilities of harnessing all that energy to their advantage. Sure, brands were advertising then too but the relative level of engagement was not only poor but also fleeting. Fast forward into 2015 and sports entertainment has taken a stupendous new meaning. From running contests allowing fans to bowl to their favorite batsman, to frenzied fans sporting branded gear with the utmost passion to thrilling in-stadia games and engagement opportunities, brands are going all out to connect with it’s sports loving consumerand raking in dividends like never before.
A spectator base of 1.28 billion people, over a dozen sports television channels airing sporting content around the clock and a forever mounting list of keen advertisers waiting to invest in emerging sporting platforms, is reason enough to agree that the relationship between entertainment and sports in India is inseparable and interchangeable. Be it ‘KarboonKaamal Catch’ or ‘Vodafone Super Fan’, the immense value presented byexperiential marketing is increasingly being recognized and utilized with a more focused approach.
Since the arrival of IPL in 2008 several parameters and trends have impacted and shaped the sporting industry, numeroussport IPs have mushroomed and unprecedented amount of sponsorship monies have been pumped in. The worldwide popularity and fan following of American sporting leagues such has Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) have served as the main inspiration for IPL, the success of which acted as the catalyst for several similar leagues cropping up in the sub-continent.
The industry has also seen incredible support from the government, largely to favor economic welfare of the country and also to promote the nation on the global front. The conversation around how India is perceived as a one-sport nation finally came to an end and newer fan groups saw an emergence as people began moving their attention towards other, so far under-utilized, sports.
According toa study sponsorship towards sports in India was pegged at 3250 crorein 2014 and is estimated to be around 12500 crore in the next 4 years. While cricket continues to be the driver of Indian Sports, brands have opened up to engagement and experiential opportunities other sports can deliver, creating newer platforms for connecting with newer audiences.
The Changing Sporting Landscape
The last two decades have been transformational for India in many respects. The economy opened up to global markets, with global brands came international standards, career opportunities widened and disposable income increased across segments, the travel industry took off, with more exposure awareness grew, digitization happened, and the list could go on. A multiplying effect of all this change resulted in several other indirect changes and the face of India was drastically transformed in a relatively short span of time. Goes without saying, cricket, considered almost a religion in our country, also underwent a major facelift and, in the process, paved the way for other sports to follow suit.
Ashu Jindal, COO, IMG Reliance comments, “The narrative of sports in India is an ever-changing one, especially with the socio-economic transformation that the country has seen in the past two odd decades. People are not just talking about one sport these days, but several - football, kabaddi, and of course, tennis. This revolution in sports is spurred not by policy change but by the private capital pumped in by sports enthusiasts. In addition to this, there are a whole lot of Indian sports stars shining in international circuits which indicates to younger generations that gaining global accolades is not impossible.”
Now everything that is evolving has challenges but it is also important to realize that this evolution offers immense opportunities especially in a country like India. “While football might still be distant second to cricket in terms of visibility, the participation level for football in the country is promising”, says
Sukhvinder Singh, CEO, Goa FC, Indian Super League. He adds, “The economy and demographics of India are favorable to football. This is something that is being researched well not only by stakeholders like us but also the investors in sports that would include brands, companies and institutions. I would like to look at football as a proposition that still needs that push but our jobs are becoming easier day-by-day.”
The domino effect of the changing landscape is not just restricted to mass appeal sports such as cricket and football but mid scale, upscale and elite sports such as tennis and golf have also been embraced equally by the populace.
Mr. Ihab Sorial, Qatar Airways, VP, India says “The over-whelming response received from the last season of International Premier Tennis League showcases the interest of Asian tennis fans in the region and the success of the format. The partnership with IPTL strengthens our commitment to be associated with large- scale sporting events and sports legends. We are delighted to come on-board as the ‘Presenting Partner’ for this prestigious league and our three-year partnership with IPTL reiterates our commitment to bring people across the globe closer.”
It’s not just the league format sports that have cracked the code, a popular sporting platform to have gained massive momentum over the last decade are running events.
Vivek Singh, Co-Founder, ProcamInternational states, “In 2003 I and my brother Anil visited the London Marathon and saw the phenomenal London Marathon unfurl in front of our eyes where young, old, professionals, businessmen, traders, grandmothers were all running together with a certain look in their eyes saying they were different. We said, this phenomenon, this magic must come to India. Whether India was ready or not wasn’t something we could put our finger on. Since February 2004 after it kicked off in India this running phenomenon has grown into a movement and is easily the fastest growing sporting activity in urban India. There is no other activity growing at the pace of distance running. More people from across the socio-economic bandwidth and across the generation divide are lacing up their shoes and getting out there to run.”
Vinit Karnik, National Director, ESP Properties(formerly Group M ESP) adds, “It is true when they say sports is a great leveler. The sheer competitive power and the ‘viewer hook’ is testimony to how powerful sports event can attract people. Sports Marketing has undergone a huge transformation from vanilla in-stadia advertising to integrated content campaigns and structured sponsorships and deals. In a perpetual state of evolution and moving towards a more systematized sporting economy, India is at the brink of a much larger wave that consists of varied hues of content, sponsors, fans, in-stadia experiences and sports as a whole. From single screen views to the ‘second screens’ and content airing to content ‘sharing’, the landscape of sports has become a channelized stream of messaging, revenue and a serious business. There is tremendous excitement on sports in the market today.”
Beyond Cricket
In mid 2000’s the Premier Hockey League was formed in India that actually gained a lot of traction. It was the first hockey league that attracted players from all over the world.
NavrozeDhondy, Founder and MD, Creatigies comments, “Every league needs a strong governing body for survival. Because the Premier Hockey League system and the board itself were fragmented, and it did not have a strong support system like BCCI is for cricket, it died an early death.”
In 2008 IPL gave a template to other sports by providing the impetus to monetize cricket and initiate a process. And with BCCI at the centre of all affairs, the property has grown from strength to strength over the years. “It is a beautiful example of sport-tainment where in for 8 seasons IPL had the biggest names, players and imbibed the team spirit through regional sentiment. Kabaddiis another great example where a traditionally ‘rural’ sport changed perceptions, drew popularity and created a fan base of its own. Year 2014 could be well labeled as the year of the sporting leagues as Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League and International Premiere Tennis League came along offering crisp content and a short duration stickiness. Multi-lingual feeds across different screens helped in elevating the status and reaching out to many more households”, says Karnik.
But with so many new and emerging sporting platforms how does a brand decide which one to bet on? Karnik adds, “The business of Sports can be looked at from ‘viewer’ and ‘on-ground experience’ lens. Depending on the key objectives of brands and the desired goal, properties may differ. For a premium real estate or a luxury car category brand, golf may work well as it helps connect with a niche audience in a captive manner where as FMCG and telecom may prefer cricket or football that has a larger fan base and following. The deal structure, content elements created within it and targeting the audience with minimal wastage is the key before opting which vehicle of sports to use. The idea is to see how leagues can build them up as successful properties.”
Seeing the success of sporting leagues in India, a new entrant to jump aboard the bandwagon is ProSportify with the Pro Wrestling League slated to be held in December 2015. Speaking on this subject
Vishal Gurnani, Director, Pro Sportify says, “We believe Indian audiences are changing, the approach of marketers towards sports, other than cricket, is changing and the numbers that the other non- cricket sporting platforms have achieved over the years are extremely encouraging. Sports offers brands and advertisers integration and interaction opportunities like no other medium can. We believe that the kind of euphoria induced amongst consumers during a sporting event is unmatched, and advertisers are increasingly capitalizing on this captive audience”.
In response to how the Pro Wrestling League will be differentiated from all other leagues in the country, Vishal says, “The Pro Wrestling League sees representation from maximum countries around the globe as compared to any other league in India. The GMR Group has taken over the Delhi team, JSW has taken over the Bangalore team among other industrialists and business conglomerates who would be announced in the coming few days. The league offers a strong entertainment quotient, novelty factor, structural diversity and a bouquet of on-ground and on-air marketing solutions for associated brands. We feel marketing has moved beyond branding and signage, therefore we want brands to be woven into thedna of the league across its various touch points.”
NavrozeDhondy of Creatigies, comments, “Today there are leagues being planned for billiards and snooker and basketball. When ISL came in last year no one thought that in a match where Guwahati is playing against Kerala it would be a houseful. The average attendance last year was 26,00 people. Which is phenomenal. Even in Delhi 20,000 people attended the match. The finale in Mumbai had 48,000 people viewing the match.”
Big Spenders
“Sponsorship of cricket began in the 80s and cigarette brands were among the first category of products to get attached to this sport”, says Navroze Dhondy of Creatigies. He adds, “Wills was the first sponsor of the Indian cricket team. Then in the late 90s there was a huge ban on cigarettes associating with any form of sports. Suddenly interest of booze companies grew and McDowell’s and Bagpipers found their interest in sports and a nice way to remain in the system. The McDowell’s cup, sponsored by McDowell’s, was among the first few branded cricket events in India. Cold drinks Thrill, Sprint and Rush, manufactured by McDowell’s group, were also marketed at the event. Till the late 90s although money was coming into cricket it was still very small, but it was showing signs of becoming bigger in the long-run.”
Brands are increasingly recognizing the value of event sponsorship as a driver for overall brand amplification over traditional unilateral techniques of advertising. VinitKarnik states, “Brands need to understand the finer nuances of the business and look at it from a strategic investment than a short tactical result for maximizing returns. A Pay-TM –BCCI deal is the perfect example of leveraging sports sponsorship. While earlier brands which were just flirting with the sport through ad-hoc deals, this association suddenly gave Pay-TM its share of voice, recall and stand vis a vis other big spenders with equal alacrity.”
According to the 'Group M-Sportzpower Indian Sports Sponsorship Report 2015, total brand spends have increased by about 10% to INR 48 billion as compared to 2014. The same report in 2014 reflected an increase of about 92% as compared to the late 2000s when brands collectively invested about INR 22 billion into sporting events.
The moment Pepsi retracted its partnership from IPL no one could have imagined the Vivowould pick it up in les than 24 hours. “When DLF decided not to continue their 5 year deal people thought IPL would die, but Pepsi came and doubled the amount and Vivo matched it this time around”, says NavrozeDhondy. “DLF held the sponsorship for five years after which Pepsi held it for three years and now Vivo has snatched it for two years, so clearly there is no dearth of brands marketing through sports”, he concludes.
Debabrata Mukherjee, Vice President- Marketing and Commercial, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, adds, “We feel that the time has come for India to truly become a sporting nation. All of the sporting nations are multi-sport in nature. Hence, we believe that sports like tennis will start getting a wider acceptance and traction in this country. Like around the world, Coca-Cola in India has been associated with several marquee sporting events and also grassroots sports in the country. Apart from tennis, we have been associated with hockey, squash, badminton and football amongst others. Our partnerships with these sporting events have brought us closer to our consumers, who love and cherish watching and enjoying these premier sporting spectacles. In the same vein, Coca-Cola IPTL is one of our most prestigious partnerships, which seeks to provide an opportunity to witness the global sport of tennis and its superstars battling in an exciting format.”
The initial investment put in by Standard Chartered into the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was 5 crore. Today that amount has grown multi-fold with a range of brands waiting to jump on the opportunity incase it becomes available. Vivek Singh, Co-founder, Procam, comments, “We have been fortunate that our sponsors Standard Chartered, Airtel, Tata Consultancy services and Tata Steel have stayed with us year after year because they are reaching people directly and making a difference directly in their lives whether its through health and fitness, or charity and communal harmony. Today brands are looking at connecting with the consumer at an emotional level andnot just through branding, signage and mileage.”
Traditionally most sporting events would have one title sponsor, a presenting sponsor and a handful others. While the cost of ‘front of the jersey’ branding for an IPL team ranges from 7 to 18 crore, the ISL front of the Jersey can go from 2 to 7 crore, For HIL it ranges from 75 lakhs to 2.5 crore. The league format works well as it allows each team to secure its own brand partners and brands get to create innovative marketing solutions. Since brands can opt for unique initiatives they do not feel overshadowed, their image isn’t diluted and they feel they’re getting their money’s worth even in a cluttered environment.
Vinodh Bhat, Co-Founder and President of Saavn- sponsor of team Mumbai City FC comments, “While professional cricket is currently India's ‘national pastime’, we believe that football is more accessible and actually played by more people. In addition, there were also many natural integration points with Mumbai City FC, such as supporting the team and the players using our advertising inventory, working with existing sponsors to promote their association with the team, and most importantly, getting fans excited about the season. Furthermore, sports and music naturally go hand in hand. People listen at the gym, while on a run, or to pump them up before a game.”
Another brand that has a history of partnering with sporting events globally is Renault.
ViratKhullar, Head of Marketing, Renault India adds, “In India we do have a presence across sporting events as advertisers, but Mumbai City FC is the first sponsorship for us. We are not only analyzing both the tangible ROI in terms of the chatter on social media, enquiries at our showrooms etc. but also the intangible ROI which will be the equity that we derive as an automobile partner for Mumbai City FC.”
Indranil Das Blah, CEO of Mumbai City FC says, “My opinion is that the sports pie in India today is large enough. Brands have multiple options across sports, across price points, across audiences and that works both for the leagues and the sponsors. We are a very nascent market but evolving quickly. I don’t see the Indian sports industry developing too differently from the European or US sports markets, where you have multiple successful sports leagues while two or three leagues are more successful than the others. As of now, I don’t see any cannibalization happening between the various sports properties.”
CEO of Goa FC, Sukhvinder Singh, confirms that the sponsorships towards ISL are at a very encouraging level. These are the highest ever values that I have seen for football in India. I also believe that the numbers will grow as and when the clubs start putting a longer orientation towards their commercial partnership where the values won’t be limited by the 3 months of the competition but by 12 months of activation that includes community outreach, fan engagement and most importantly grassroots and youth development.”
While the tournament itself spans a few weeks, the opening and closing ceremony are full-fledged events in itself. Encompass organized the opening ceremony of IPL this year with Modern Stage services handling the stage and production set-up, Sound.com managing the sound system and local support from Edge Events. Showtime Events won the mandate for the opening ceremony of ISL this year.
AvikPrabhu, Managing Director & CEO, Showtime Events, stated, “10 years ago this would have probably been a press conference in a 5 star hotel. The concept of opening ceremonies for private sporting events had not yet become critical to the business model. However, now in a crowded sporting calendar with the number of Leagues competing for consumer attention it becomes critical to announce one self to ensure that eyeballs are on you.”
Celebrity Alliances
If cricket is considered religion in India then Bollywood celebs are nothing less than demigods. The association of celebrities with sporting events gives it a certain acceptability and marketability. From Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkatta Knight Riders to PreityZinta’s Kings XI Punjab and ShilpaShetty’s Rajasthan Royals, ever since the Indian Premier League took off Bollywood celebs have come to develop a keen commercial interest in sports. While AbhishekBachan owns Jaipur Pink Panthers in the Pro Kabaddi League, RanbirKapoor with his love for football bought into the Mumbai franchise of Indian Super League.
Indranil Das Blah, CEO, Mumbai City FC says, “Having an entertainment celebrity as an owner of a sports franchise definitely helps as we have seen with the IPL. Ranbir is someone who is passionate about his football and he knows his football. At the same time, he trusts his team and doesn’t get involved with the technical decisions. He is there whenever he is needed and is also a big inspiration for our payers, especially the Indian ones.”
“Saavn’s partner, creative collaborator and friend, RanbirKapoor, is a passionate football fan and owner of the team”, says VinodhBhat, Co-Founder and President, Saavn, a sponsor with Mumbai City FC. “When his agency CAA-Kwan briefed us about their plans for the team, we immediately aligned with their vision and felt that we could help create hundreds of millions of more football fans over time given Saavn’s user base and growth”, he concludes.
It seems celebrities lend a certain credibility to a cause since they have a public image to maintain and are expected to be visibly accountable for their actions. IDBI has recently announced its commitment to support all cricket in Bengal. On the development
Vighnesh Shahane, CEO, IDBI Federal Life Insurance shares, “Our partnership with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) is an exciting opportunity for the organization. Through a comprehensive association like this, the company will gain immensely from the high brand visibility opportunity it offers. Also we feel confident about the growth strategy that CAB is working with. Their Vision 2020 surely has immense potential given the pedigree of its various mentors and coaches. And above all, SouravGanguly being at helm of affairs at the CAB gives us immense confidence that the state’s cricket board and administration will truly gain from his captaincy acumen.”
Sukhvinder Singh, CEO, Goa FC, comments, “ViratKohli is the co-owner of our club and has invested not only the capital but also his time and energies for the brand. VarunDhawan has been an excellent ambassador who is incredibly passionate about football and connects deeply with our fans. Their presence and association is benefitting FC Goa at all levels i.e. fan engagement, commercial and credibility.”
There is also keen interest from B-town celebs for the upcoming Pro Wrestling League in December. Veteran actor DhramendraDeol has bought into the Punjab team for a price of INR 8 crore as revealed by sources. Other celebrity tie-ups for each of the six teams of the league would be announced within this month.
Be it an international rock star or the next DiaegoMaradona, celebrities all over the world have an immense capability to influence consumer habits for a multitude of products, and celebrity evaluation services provide updated, relevant market intelligence to identify key markets that account for maximum celebrity brand impact. Instruments like Repucom’s Celebrity DBI are driving celebrity marketing science in the global marketplace via data and actionable insights. Celebrity DBI is an index that quantifies and qualifies consumer perceptions of celebrities.
It is a global celebrity evaluation service designed to provide brand-relevant insights to identify the right talent and assess impact of celebrities for endorsement deals.
Ravi Chavan, Vice President – South Asia, Repucom comments, “Celebrity DBI helps strategically identify individuals that will enhance brand messaging initiatives and maximize campaign ROI via a data-driven approach that quantify and qualify a celebrity’s marketability and potential to impact consumers brand behavior. The CelebrityDBI study measures consumer perceptions of over 7000+ celebrities worldwide covering athletes, actors, musicians, models, politicians and more by evaluating them on 8 key success factors – awareness, appeal, breakthrough, trendsetter, influence, trust, endorsement and aspiration.”
Catch ‘Em Young
Brands realize that targeting the young consumer may not help them achieve immediate sales but will earn them significant dividends in the long run. By imprinting the brand in the minds of the youth from an early age it converts them into brand loyalists so when they acquire purchasing power they are already emotionally invested in the brand.
Coca Cola’s Debabrata Mukherjee comments, “With a view to promote active healthy lifestyle, we have promoted grassroots football, where we have partnered with All India Football Federation (AIFF) to organize The Coca-Cola Cup for Under-15 football players. AIFF’s partnership with this tournament is instrumental towards identifying young talent for the India national Sub Junior team.
Says VighneshShahane, “In the month of August we announced the launch of country’s largest ever student direct contact programme, Star Sports Young Heroes. The programme aims to discover the most dynamic next-gen football talent across various schools in India. The programme aims to provide guidance and a platform to under-15 footballers from over 650 schools across 15 cities in India. The mega-activation programme will reach out to about 4, 20,000 students. JamshidNassiri, Ex-Iranian striker is the Head Mentor for the Star Sports Young Heroes initiative. Despite the fact that we have a very large TV fan base for international football, India has a distinct lack of footballing prowess, at least for its home-grown talent. With the world's second largest population, many feel India is under-represented in the world's most popular sport. As an organization we were keen to partner the discovery and training of football talent across the country at the grassroots level.”
In context of football,
Ronnie Screwala, Founder, U Sports stated, “With the Indian Super League, the changes are positive in Indian football, but there needs to be an effort to develop the game at the grassroots level to actually help improve the standards of Indian football.”
Giving Back
Brands, in all their attempts to connect with their consumers, know one thing for a fact that the most lasting and deep impact happens when they are able to create emotional equity for the consumer with their service or product.
A spokesperson from Tata Steel comments, “Besides promoting health and fitness, it is an opportunity to deepen our engagement with society for a noble cause. Funds generated from the event go towards supporting the cause of underprivileged cancer patients in eastern India. Proceeds generated also go towards funding the expansion of Tata Medical Center at Kolkata. The idea is to promote a culture of fitness and deepen our engagement with society while at the same time raise funds for various charities.”
The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon is India’s largest charity platform for
non-profit organizations to raise funds. Participation by 292
NGOs in SCMM 2015 represented causes such as arts, culture and sports, civic and community development, disability, education, environment and wildlife, health, human rights, social services, vocational training, and women, children and the aged and collectively raised INR 24.71 crores from the marathon last year.
Says Vivek Singh of Procam, “Our sponsors are associating with the consumers at their point of sweat and are not merely as spectators.That emotional connect that you build has a lasting impact on the consumers mind.” He adds, “The SCMM platform is large and open and allows for many experiential initiatives. One which comes to mind very quickly is the Good Deeds program that Standard Chartered created last year for SCMM. It encouraged people to go online and post their good deed of the day. I think it was fabulous that people across the country could log in and put down their deed for the day, thus, how it made them feel.”
Road Ahead
Between 2008 and 2013, while on-ground sponsorship in football went up from INR 8.5 croreto INR 14.2 crore, in marathons it rose from INR 28.5 crore to INR 42crore. According to a white paper released by Group M ESP and IIM Ahmedabad the size of the sporting industry in mature and emerging markets as of 2011 was termed to be $620 million and is growing at a rate of 6%. Our findings suggest that, specifically in India, the sports industry is growing by an averageof 10 per cent– up from *
INR 4102 crore in 2011 to INR 5740crore in 2015.
“The badminton league, IBL, will be re-launched in 2016”, says VinikKarnik of ESP Properties. He claims, “With players like SainaNehwal, PV Sindhu, AshwiniPonappa and JwalaGutta, the sport has become more popular in recent times. With channels and web-casts, the lesser-popular sports will now have a stage to showcase, reach and package befitting content that a population like ours is happy to devour.Early adoption of digital media, shorter and newer formats to engage audiences and regional commentary are areas where broadcasters have already made strides. These will shape the future of sports broadcasting in India.”
Mahesh Bhupati, ace Indian tennis player and founder of International Premier Tennis League comments, “The response from Season one of International Premier Tennis League was overwhelming and Season 2 can only exceed expectations. The addition of a new franchise and stars like Rafael Nadal and Leander joining the ranks will surely make for some wonderful tennis on the cards. Ultimately it is about connecting tennis fans in India and Asia with some of the world’s best across the singles and doubles format.”
CEO of Goa FC, Sukhvinder Singh, believes that we haven’t even scratched the surface when it comes to creating competitive environment for sports in India. He says, “While the influx of the leagues indicates the optimism within the sporting fraternity, it is critical to have a sustenance plan around the concepts. Brands on the other hand evaluate and support any sporting property not only from immediate ROI perspective but also long-term leverages. The brand managers are getting smarter with their sports marketing bucks and prefer investments on solid foundations.”
“No other nation in the world has the potential we do because of impending demographic dividend so if clubs and leagues are able to successfully mobilize local fan support then the future is bright”, says AvikPrabhu of Showtime Events.
Tom Annear, Tournament Director, Aircel Chennai Open,opines, “I was taught many years ago that there are four partners in making any sports property a success- the players, media, sponsors and the spectators. You need to stay focused on all these partners. You cannot stay idle in the event world with any one partner or you will not “earn” their business in the future. We are constantly being pushed to offer these partners a better experience than the year before. A couple of examples - we moved to a great hotel, improved the food service and hospitality areas for players, VIPs and the spectator; increased the visibility of the ACO by taking the tournament to the people – a road show that featured a trophy tour, exhibit and fast serve challenge at local colleges, schools and malls, the stadium and site had a makeover this past year thanks to GOTN funding so the players had better facilities – inside the stadium and on court. A lot of improvements have been made over the years.”
With the whole fitness and wellness movement gaining steady traction, sport in India is certainly headed in the right direction. More categories are opening up each year giving more opportunities for wider engagement with consumers.
The report by Group M and IIM also suggests that the upcoming times will be beneficial for sports marketing and entertainment as the average spending by households on education and recreation are expected to grow from 5% to 9% between 2005-2025. An added bonus to the figures is the expected average salary increase for every household that is expected to increase from 4%-41% between 2005-2025. Thus, the more entertainment served will lead to more profits earned.
Size of Sports industry in India
Year 2011
INR 4102 crore
Year 2015
INR 5740 crore
Total sponsorship in events
Year 2014
INR 4320crore
Year 2015
INR 4800crore
(The article first appeared on Oct-Nov '15 issue of BW APPLAUSE)
