Mr. Tommy Hilfiger will visit Beijing, China, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his namesake brand. Between May 24 and 26, Mr. Hilfiger will host events throughout Beijing including an exclusive recreation of his Fall 2015 Hilfiger Collection runway show, which marks the first time the brand is bringing the event to an international setting. Debuted at New York Fashion Week in February, the Fall 2015 collection is inspired by American football, fusing stadium spirit and varsity motifs with Hilfiger’s classic American sportswear designs. The complete show experience will be transported to Beijing for the runway event, which will include looks from the men’s and women’s collections and take place against the backdrop of Hilfiger’s football stadium set. “For the first time, we’ll transport our entire New York runway show to a new setting abroad,” said Tommy Hilfiger. “I’m excited to bring the spirit of an authentic American football game to China and share the unique experience as part of our 30th anniversary celebrations. It’s the perfect platform to share our signature style and brand values across men’s and women’s fashion with a new audience in China, and a great way to celebrate the opening of our largest store in the country.” “Since we entered the Chinese market, it has been an important region for the expansion of our global business,” said Daniel Grieder, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger. “Today, with our solid foundation of over 100 stores across the country, we are able to embark on a number of exciting strategies focused on unlocking the growth potential, sharing our all-American heritage, and expanding our brand presence and business.” Also being launched is a two-story Tommy Hilfiger store at the In88 shopping center spanning over 500-square-meters (5,400-square feet) and reflecting the brand’s “classic American cool” DNA. Bespoke décor reflects the brand’s all-American heritage and is inspired by a blend of tradition and modernity, from over-dyed patchwork rugs, vintage furniture and antiques to digital screens and custom-designed lighting fixtures. The store’s visually striking façade stretches over 30 meters along two sides of the mall, while large windows host high-resolution digital screens that display the latest Tommy Hilfiger advertising campaign videos and imagery, creating an engaging and immersive brand experience. Hilfiger’s 30th anniversary trip to China will be complemented by an extensive digital program designed to engage the Chinese consumer and shared globally via Tommy Hilfiger’s social media channels, including Weibo and Wechat. Friends and followers of the Tommy Hilfiger brand are invited to join the conversation using #TommyChina.
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Gone are the days when you only had one Sunburn festival and one massive queue of electronic dance and music lovers. Over the years multiple EDM festivals like VH1 Supersonic, Enchanted Valley, Karbonn MTV Blockparty, Corona Sunsets have emerged as strong competitors on the basic premise of getting a bigger share of the dance and music frenzied fans. With the increasing number and frequency of EDM festivals across the country, we ask industry insiders whether EDM festivals are racing towards a point of saturation. Siddhartha Chaturvedi, CEO, Eventcrafter says, “I do not think that we are overdoing EDM festivals at all. A small country like UK has hundreds of festivals happening only in the summer and each of those are growing in terms of the various genre of music, various form of performing art needs it’s patrons to get together for it to grow. However, the problem is too much of commercialization of these festival brands. It’s smarter to keep the sanctity and aspirations of one Sunburn to happen once a year rather than making god knows how many sub properties of it. We need more quality experience.” Harshal Kothari, Director, Rising Events said, “The fact of the matter is not that we are doing more of EDM festivals in the country but that it is a tremendously successful event genre that is loved by the youth and hence everyone is trying to come up with their own versions of it. If you look at the college festivals also most of the students demand for an EDM DJ rather than a Kailash Kher, KK or Honey Singh who not only charge lavishly but also require a greater production value. The EDM DJ’s are not only affordable but also require lesser production value and hence more and more of these properties are coming up to cash on the young crowd and their demands.” Sharad Mathur, CEO, EMG Entertainment responds by saying, “We are completely underdoing such genres of events in the country. If you look into the European countries and other developed nations you will find that there are so many things happening and numerous avenues to get entertained. In India looking at the population size, the condition of the bread earner and the overall per capita income of the country I don’t feel we are completely utilizing all avenues of entertainment. So definitely more of such events are required.” On being asked upon to share their choices if asked to develop an IP event, Sharad said, “India is a vast market and a growing economy where you can be experiential as well as experimental. I particularly feel that there is space for so many more IP’s because as an events fraternity we have just started and there is a long way for us to go. I would personally love to call a motivational speaker or a knowledgeable personality like Philip Kotler and create an event around that.” Harshal Kothari completes his stance by saying, “I think an event property surrounding kids would be a fabulous idea as that is a genre I feel has never true been capitalized upon.” Siddhartha Chaturvedi completes his stance by saying, “It’s all at a very complex stage in our country. People want to go to such experiences because it’s more of a cool thing rather than a passion and it is these people who come in herds and make numbers go larger. What then happens is that in the process the community which is passionate patrons of the festival start shying away as they find it uncomfortable amidst these wannabes so they start seeking newer boutique experiences. And I fervently believe that this is the reason why you are witnessing a drop at Sunburn or Supersonic now.
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When BCCI in 2008, formally made the announcement of India’s very own T20 cricket tournament, Indian Premier League to be held every year, the decision was welcomed with applause all over the world. For a country like India where cricket has almost a holy quality, IPL came as an ingenious decision. Now the blue eyed fans would not have to wait four years for ICC One-Day International World Cup to cherish their favorite sport. Also with IPL promising to be a blooming opportunity for young cricketers within the country, more money and support was pumped into the idea by Bollywood and honchos of the corporate world. Thus, in the first year of its inception itself the sport became an unprecedented conglomerate of Cricket, Bollywood and Entertainment and the entire nation went crazy for it. Events from the bidding of cricketers to even the making of IPL sets and production value were all sellable quotients now and marketers capitalized on every single opportunity to ride on the soaring high popularity waves. The UK-based brand consultancy, Brand Finance, valued the IPL at US$2.01 billion in 2009 and then at $4.13 billion in 2010, the reasons of popularity were obvious. Brand marketing reached a new level all together with multiple brands ranging from diverse genres of lifestyle like Moov (pain relief medic) to educational institutions like Amity University becoming sponsors of the IPL. Also brands like India’s biggest property developer DLF Group paid 2.50 billion (around US$50 million) to be the main sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2012 and from 2013 season, the American food and beverage company PepsiCo took over title sponsorship for five years valued at 396.8 million, and also became the exclusive beverage supplier for the IPL teams in the 2013 season. However, the tables today have been turned and over the years with the inception of more controversies and preference to entertainment over the spirit of cricket itself the Indian Premier League (IPL) has embraced the sobriquet of the ‘Indian Problem League’, and is seen to be doing more harm than good for Indian cricket and cricket in general. Speaking of the controversies, The Indian Premier League has always been about the abundance of Cash, Cricket and Controversies. While cash and cricket were the essence, controversies like the suspension of Lalit Modi, speculations over the match fixing row with cricketers like Shreesanth being involved and the infamous SRK scuffle at Wankhede added to the degraded spirits to the game and the trust of high spirited fans in their favorite sport was somewhere lost in the glitz and glow of the format. Till 2012, IPL remained a big threat to most Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) as it meant a significant drop in viewership and a dip in ad revenues. But Post 2012, there’s been a change in the modus operandi of Hindi GECs. As a huge low in the ratings of the IPL had been witnessed and the GEC channels seemed not to be bothered by the sporting extravaganza anymore and upped their ante to bring on more content oriented shows that have managed to steal the limelight from the gentleman’s game. Taking the example of 2015, they have gone ahead and launched ambitious, high investment television shows bang in the middle of the IPL season. From reality shows (India’s Got Talent 6, Indian Idol Junior 2 and Nach Baliye 7) to fiction (Dostiyaan, Yaariyaan Manmarziyan, Reporters, Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman, Fear Files, Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani, Gulmohur Grand, Mere Humnawa, Rangrez) the programming platter of 2015 seems more crowded than ever before. The low phase of the game has also had significant changes in the attitude of key marketers who were left in a precarious situation with the sudden downfall of the game but recently with the development of unique and creative intellectual properties like the Indian Soccer League, Pro Kabbadi League, Super Fight League and others they too are seen jumping off the IPL bandwagon and are investing in more sports and content oriented genres of properties. Not only are such marketing experiences for the brands less expensive than the IPL but the growing popularity of these sporting properties have also led to a possible end of the monopoly of cricketing dominance existing in the country for years. With a shift in focus and clearly visible low ratings it is only a matter of time before the property goes back to its roots and re-iterates its focus, but until that happens we wonder if pumping any more money into it is a good idea.
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Samsung as a mobile brand has tremendous reputation in terms of its experiential ventures in not just India but across the globe. The company has always tried to push the envelope by coming up with innovative concepts one after the other for marketing its mobile phones in a unique and impactful manner in comparison to competitive brands. The brand stormed onto the experiential marketing scene in 2012 and has continued to pace up. Samsung as a brand has invested into diverse experiential activities that range from mall activations to gala evenings to multi-city pool parties to helping the disabled. A forward step in this chapter has been the recent launch of the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge at Los Angeles and New York on April 2 and April 7. The brand came up with out of the box ideas to provide a hands-on experience for guests who got to experiment with the devices in sleek environments inspired by the phone’s design. EE brings to you the 5 takeaways highlighting the best elements from Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge launch parties that every event organizer must learn from. 1- Mobiles as Place cards Samsung started off each party with a dinner cleverly designed to get a select group of celebrities and influencers to get photographed holding the phone. The guests in Los Angeles and New York found Samsung phones in lieu of place cards at a mirrored table and had to use the device to order the food. Now as prospective customer this move was an experience of its kind to have all his favorite celebrities get photographed with a phone and it naturally builds in a compelling desire to have the phone. Also, by allowing guests to use the phone from the get go the brand allowed the celebrities to actually get engaged in phone rather than just organize a high profile party. 2- Technological way to explain features At every launch party most mobile brands have a specialized video or a spokesperson that takes you through the features of the phone but at this launch the guests learned about the S6 features via mirrored, cube-shaped vignettes. The Cube shaped interiors included digital graphics providing a high-tech feel. The experience was a kind for the guests who were stunned with the thinking that had gone into curating every detail of the launch. 3- Decorative Ideas Samsung wanted its guests to have a better idea about the camera of its galaxy S6 phones and hence it carefully got the guests to be photographed with the mobile phones in hand then posted these photos of guests shot with the phone throughout the party venues. The concept is another innovative way to decorate the ambience with more interests arising from the every corner to explore more of the experiential venue. This idea can also be used by event companies for hotel launches or at an event where they want the customers to carefully scrutinize a venue. 4- Use of Colors The brand carefully used variety of colors to highlight another important crucial element of the phone i.e the screen color quality. The brand decorated the entrance in blue lighting in blue lighting colors that provided the guests a real time experience of the better screen quality of the phones launched. Guests at LA, also had to go through a 30 ft long plexi tunnel and Samsung had also created a black, white, and gray color palette by incorporating reflective and metallic textures as well as jewel-toned lighting meant to symbolize the phone screen’s color quality. 5- Engaging elements The launch also has multiple engaging elements designed for the attendees. Hollywood stars walking into the launch party of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were asked what their “six appeal” was also guests were asked to step into futuristic cubes and try out new features of the mobile phones such as all new Wifi-only charging. Also, the event was filled with music and performances that added another dimension to experience building as performer Chromeo took the stage for a performance, followed by DJ Zen Freeman, who provided beats for the remainder of the evening.
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Experiential campaigns largely have only one primary agenda- to create memorable experiences for consumers in association with the product. And though creating direct experiences for customers is a newer concept, still in a short span of time experiential marketing as a practice has been adopted by brands all over the world and across all categories of brands. All major brands in the country today have made significant attempts to come up with experiential activities and while some have truly managed to captivate a stronghold in the hearts of consumers, numerous others have failed miserably with an over the top and defocused approach. A copious chunk of the marketing budget is pumped into creation of an experiential campaign and hence it is very important for every brand to dwell deep on the concept, theme and execution of the activity. Therefore it becomes extremely crucial for every brand to truly understand its brand identity to execute a successful experiential campaign. It is important for every brand to establish how it wants to be identified in the market and an experiential campaign has to be fabricated accordingly. Lets take an example of Redbull, a brand acclaimed for its innovative experiential endeavors. The brand thrives on the tagline- “Gives you wings”- symbolizing its identity as a cool, adventurous, unique brand that supports the unconventional and adventures. And keeping in line with that it has established experiential activities such as B-Boying Championships, Stunt Chmapionship, Flug-Tag Race, Air Race World Championship, Soapbox race and others. All such activities have further elaborated the brand’s identity and hence have been examples of inspirational experiential campaigns. Another brand whose experience driven campaigns are an extension of its identity is Samsung. The mobile brand is best known to inculcate the latest, the most stylish technological elements into their products and citing examples from their campaigns be it a Samsung Galaxy Edge 6 launch or a dealers meet, a small BTL activation or a concert they have associated themselves with; all campaigns are executed in a manner that showcases and emphasizes its technological edge. Brands needs to understand today, that the eventual success of an experiential campaign is not determined by the amount of investment but by building brand value through it. A great example is Skore condoms which executed a successful experiential campaign aligned with their brand identity of having people speak openly about condoms in the country in form of Skore Fashionista-A fashion show that had all the costumes made only out of condoms. While a bigger brand like Vodafone that has executed some of the best experiential campaigns in the past can be easily spotted struggling to find a perfect idea that defines the crux of all their experience driven campaigns; while their campaigns like Voadfone superstar mela, IPL activations, Fan army and Family day are also successful in their own ways but all of them combined create a blurred image of what is the final concept that the notable telecommunication brand actually wants to convey? Experiential campaigns without realizing the brand’s identity is going to lead nowhere. A hastily designed campaign not only brings in a bad name to the overall brand prestige but also fails to really do anything fruitful for a brand in terms of creating memorable experiences.
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Conceptualized by Live Viacom18 and Cineyug, MTV Bollyland brings together two of the hottest genres in the Indian music scene – Bollywood and EDM – to Kolkata. MTV Bollyland City Concert will feature legends of Bollywood music Atif Aslam and Kanika Kapoor performing to pulsating beats by DJ Chetas and DJ Anshul. Popular Pakistani musician Atif Aslam, known for chartbusting numbers like ‘Tera Hone Laga Hoon’, ‘Tu Jaane na’, ‘Pehli Nazar Mein’ while Kanika Kapoor, one of India’s rising playback singer is known for famous tracks like ‘Baby Doll’, ‘Lovely’ and ‘Kamlee’. MTV Bollyland City Concert will take place in Kolkata on the 2nd of May, 2015 at Nicco Park Big Lawns, Salt Lake City, Kolkata. MTV Bollyland is a property featuring of popular Bollywood soundtracks with heady electronic beats, aimed to create a unique experience meant to keep dancers tapping their feet. An extension of the annual MTV Bollyland, the city concerts will travel across 12 cities PAN India, thrilling audiences with a thumping mix of Bollywood Dance Music
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The bugle for the marketing wars has been sounded and with the kick off of a new financial year, the competition amongst the mobile phone category is heating up. A study by Statistica suggets that the number of mobile phone users in India is expected to reach more than 730 million by 2017. Thus with the opportunity of magnificent growth looming ahead of them no mobile brand wants to leave any stone unturned towards getting a leg up through intelligent marketing. Multiple strategies are being devised and numerical metrics are being worked upon. If we look closely into the market share of mobile vendors in the country the figures further elaborate on how interesting the mobile battle is; In August 2014, Counterpoint, a technology market research firm, reported that Micromax with a 16.6 percent market share overtook Samsung (14.4 percent) as the largest mobile phone supplier in Q2 2014. Micromax and Samsung were closely followed by Nokia (10.9 percent), Karbonn (9.5 percent), and Lava (5.6 percent). However, the latest statistics have a different say all together; as per a report released by The International Data Corporation for India mobile phone market for Q4 2014, Samsung stayed on top with a 17 percent share, followed by Micromax with a 15 percent share, Nokia with a 10 percent share, Lava with an 8 percent share, and Intex also featuring with an 8 percent share. So with the rapidly changing market environment what can a mobile brand do to not only have a stronghold on their existing market but also expand its share in the process? Industry experts are of the opinion that experiential is going to be the key differentiator in this category as the behavior of a traditional Indian buyer are determined by factors like price, value, advertisement and mostly “experiences”. Experientially the observation seems to be bang on as taking in consideration all the mobile vendors brands in the country Samsung clearly remains the top investor, followed by brands like Gioni, Karbonn, Micromax, Motorola and Google Nexus. So while experience generation and creation might not be a sure shot success mantra for the increasing brand popularity of a mobile vendor however it is one of the most crucial ingredient for the same. But what determines the kind of experiential campaign a brand should invest in? What is an ideal spent for a brand into experiential today? And, how can a marketer be sure that an investment in an experiential campaign will positively benefit his product. Well, the answers to all these questions lie clearly when one begins to study the experiential campaigns of these brands. Experientially speaking Samsung as a global mobile giant obviously has the upper hand and dwelling into the history of their experience based campaign their position as the top market player seems well earned. Whether it’s the execution of BTL activations or a star studded launch of club Samsung, targeting the youth through contests with MTV to technological savvy new launches and from the initiative of a customer service plaza to ‘party on with chaton’ campaign, the brand has cleverly created a diverse range of experiences for their customers and hence is the most popular and trusted among the Indian mobile buyers. It is without a doubt clear that the brand takes Indian market very seriously and hence wants to experiment within at multiple levels to maintain their top spot. The result of experiential ventures of Samsung makes evident the reasons behind the failure of other global mobile vendor giants such as Motorola, Apple and Google Nexus to capture a significant share in Indian Mobile Market. Since the latter brands have not contributed towards any significant experience building activities to their prospective customers their reach can be termed limited to the elite few. However, an interesting highlight of this race will be the entry of ASUS with Zenfone 2 which promises to be high to experiential activities this year. And while most global giants have refrained from taking the route of experiential in the hearts of their customers it is the India mobile brands that are making significant attempts towards the same. While Gionee has recently associated with campaigns like Indian Digital Superstars, India Beach Fashion Week, Tour EDM and others its rival brand Micromax can also been seen investing in VH1 Rock Rules Concert, Mall activations, Telegram Service campaigns etc. The results are slightly visible as the brands are successfully climbing up the popularity and trust ladder among their customers. Karbonn as an Indian mobile brand can be proclaimed to be the dark horse among the race as its unique experiential ventures such as Karbonn MTV Bloc Party, Fly Festival, SAFF championship and campus programs are not only targeted towards the youth but are also successfully resulting in its growth in overall market share. With the targets ahead of them clearly outlined, the interesting aspect of the race will be the next marketing moves by these International and national mobile brands. And since the world of experiential full of possibilities and opportunities it can be safe to say that the ultimate success of the brands in the country is going to be strongly decided by experiential.
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Located behind Huda City Mtero Station, Oysters Beach, Entertainment District, Sector 29, Gurgaon, has opened its gates on April 16, 2015. The beach shall remain open from 11am to 6pm on all days and shall have a special Inroductory offer price of Rs. 599 for senior citizens and children below 4 feet of height and Rs. 799 for guests above 4 feet of height. In the evenings the beach becomes an entertainment hub where you can dine and tap a foot late into the night. Oysters Beach is a unique experience nestled in the heart of the concrete city of Gurgaon and spread over 10 acres offering a total of 15 water rides. Besides 4 multi-speciality restaurants in its food court, a World Cuisine restaurant and a bar, one can indulge in activities such as Volley Ball, Soccer, Interactive Cinema, Rain dance, Sand castles, other Beach sports like Tug of War. There is also a gaming arcade, spa and a flea market. Varied background music will be played across the venue. So whether one is at the ticket counter, food court or in the pool a different beat shall accompany. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ravi Madan, Project Director, Entertainment District said, “Young adults and young families today demand new experiences, In Oysters Beach we have created a unique social hub that’s not simply about exciting water rides but a complete experience full of music, fun, sports and excitement. I want the young citizens of the NCR to say Life is a day at the beach.”
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Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) as an industry body was established in 2005 with the objective of promoting, improving, developing and strengthening the cause of Rural Marketing in India. Amounting to 12.2% of the world’s population, rural market today, represents the single largest potential market and accounts for 53% of FMCGs and 59% of durables sale in India. Thus, in an attempt to highlight and reflect upon the challenges and opportunities in rural India, RMAI engaged its various stakeholders- corporates, rural agencies, media, academicians, and influencers, in a knowledge sharing and thought provoking platform with the Rural Marketing Conclave 2015 on May 8-9, 2015 at The Grand, Vasant Kunj. The Rural Conclave 2015 kicked off with a welcome address by Sanjay Kaul, CEO, Impact communications and President, RMAI, who highlighted the importance of marketing in rural for brands in the competitive brand driven business environment today and some effective measures on how community building and business development as two integral aspects should work hand in hand. Keynote address of the conclave was delivered by Pradeep Kashyap, CEO-Mart, who spoke about the emerging opportunities in the rural areas of the country. “Defining the Rural Consumer 2.0” was a panel discussion that followed next. The session included Gurpreet Wasi, Principal Consultant, IMRB, Alpana Parida, President, DY Works and Puneet Vidyarthi- Head Rural at JCB India as key speakers. The session highlighted upon the aspirations of the rural community and people towards an urban lifestyle and the phenomenon had resulted in a coinage of “ruurban” as term defining the fusion between the two. The first day of RMAI also featured sessions on “Geo Marketing” by Sapna Ahuja, Sr. VP, Strategic Operation and Alliance at Map my India, “Path Breaking Execution in Distribution” by Geroge Angelo-Executive Director at Dabur India, “The Advent of Mobile in rural” by George Paul-Director and Head of Marketing at Ericsson India Ltd and “Mobile as a new media engagement” by Vipul Mathur, Category Head and Head Mobile & Rural Marketing at Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Other important highlights of the first day were sessions on “Public Private Partnership in Rural Sector” headed by Sanjay Panigrahi-CEO at Sahaj E Village Ltd, Dilip Chenoy MD & CEO at NSDC, “Rural in Digital Space” by Anurag Banerjee, Founder, and Director-Digital Empowerment Foundation. The Flame awards case study for Best Channel Development of the Year and Best Use of Technology featuring Mahindra and Mahindra Financial services and Project Disha by Dabur India Ltd marked the end of day one of the RMAI Rural Conclave 2015. Day 2 of the conclave began with the special theme address by Dr Shivkumar, Chairman and CEO Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd who spoke about the future opportunities and unexplored ventures of rural marketing in the country. Following him were case study presentations by Vijay Sharma, GM, GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd and Siddhartha Choudhary-Headm Marketing at WaterHealth International. Both the presentation dwelled on how marketing campaigns initiated by both brands aimed at creating a community impact and marketing of the products came as a natural output. “Rural is more about doing it the right way” was the theme of another insightful presentation by S Shivakumar-CEO of ITC. S Shivakumar during his presentation spoke about how marketers should try to fill in the missing elements in rural to better market themselves. Following next were sessions on theme “Where does Creativity Begin” and “E- Commerce, Entrepreneur Case” featuring Sangeeta Talwar, MD, Flyvision Consulting, Raj Kr Jha, National Creative Director at Geometry Global and K S Bhatia, Founder & CEO Pumpkart.com The post lunch sessions of Day 2 also featured case study presentations of GoodKnight Fast Card, Marico Ltd, Greenlight Planet and Nerolac that enabled the audiences to get a glimpse and absorb the nuances of the successful journeys in the domain of rural marketing. The end of day 2 was marked by the announcement of Corporate Excellency Awards wherein India Post bagged the Corporate Excellency Award in Government Area. In other categories the award for Excellency in services was given to Sate Bank of India, Hero Motor Corp was adjourned as the winners in Automobile category, LG Electronics bagged the honor in the category of Durables and it was Hindustan Unilever that won the corporate excellency award in the FMCG category.
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Cricket is no longer the only dominant sport in India as the country with its citizens have opened up to the idea of accepting other sports not only in the form of an interesting career option but also in the form of the content that they would love to watch on television. As a result numerous other intellectual properties apart from the Indian Premier League (IPL) such as India Super League, Super Fight League and Pro Kabbadi League have come up challenging the game of cricket on every sphere be it the entertainment that they offer or in the terms of the flamboyant content. While IPL is a brainchild of BCCI and was launched in 2008 in form of India’s very own T20 cricket tournament, other intellectual properties like The Super Fight League is an India based mixed martial arts promotion formed in 2012 by Sanjay Dutt and Raj Kundra, The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is a professional kabaddi league in India managed by Mashal Sports Managing Director Charu Sharma and India Super League is a professional football league in India launched in 2013 with the objective of catering to the avid football lovers in the country. In terms of Participation, The Indian Premier League clearly has the upper hand as the majority of India still celebrates cricket throughout the country. However, the passion and the quality of talent witnessed on the Pro Kabbadi League and India Super League platforms has truly outlined that in the presence of required resources and proper guidance the two sports can also establish themselves in the same fan following league as Cricket. Also the successive editions of these intellectual properties are likely to only add up to the interest of future sportsmen to reflect upon these as a choice for a successful career option ahead. The Super Fight League too, seems to be steadily catching up on the pace and is expected to grow further in the upcoming years. However in terms of affiliation, the monopoly of cricket seems to be coming at an end with most advertisers demarcating their budgets to thrive on the audiences growing interest in other sporting events of the country. Also small and medium scale advertisers who did not had the budget to associate themselves with cricket earlier can now be seen openly promoting the new IP’s as it gives them more branding opportunities in the same investment figures. While India Super League has leading brands like Hero, Maruti Suzuki, Amul and Pepsi co India as its prime sponsors, the Pro Kabbadi League also is managing a lot of advertising revenue from the Future Group and its entities. The Super Fight League has also roped in a sponsor in form PACL India Ltd and is garnering more advertiser attention with every edition. Another important aspect that determines the overall success of a sports intellectual property in India is the revenue being generated from viewership on television. And as far as this aspect is concerned though de-regulation in television has brought a significant amount of exposure to other sports and their properties but the generation of revenue by them in this regard is minimalistic and cricket seems to be the only sports resulting in profits. However industry experts are of the view that the new intellectual properties cannot be expected to take on the popularity of cricket at such an early stage and the generation of television revenue is a milestone they will hopefully achieve in the next few years. So is IPL the clear winner among sports IP’s in India? Well, the situation is more complex than what it looks like. Though currently all the interrelated elements and intricacies of revenue generation root for the continued success of IPL for now but a clear shift in the audience interests from the sport of cricket can be easily witnessed symbolizing the growing success of India Super League, Pro Kabbadi League and Super Fight League as well. With the organizers adding more interesting elements to each new edition making it better from the previous one it is only for time to tell which sports IP in India will register the ultimate win.
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