Season 13 of the Indian Premier League has opened to a grand start with millions of audiences across the world watching it on their television and mobile screens. It is one of the biggest live sports events that is happening after a gap of nearly six months. The matches are played in UAE.
Star India is the official broadcaster for the tournament and its live feed is available in multiple languages. On the other hand, the network is streaming the matches live on its OTT platform Disney+Hotstar.
The tournament kickstarted on 19 September and the first match was played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
BCCI secretary in a tweet quoted the Broadcast Audience Research Council and mentioned that an unprecedented 200 million people tuned in to watch the match.
Shah further went on to claims that it is the highest ever opening day viewership for any sporting league in any country- no league has ever opened as big as this.
NEW DELHI: Some call it the biggest advertising festival of the Asian subcontinent; others equate it with the Super Bowl of India. Amid the raining sixes, cartwheeling stumps and crowds cheering their respective teams, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is the perfect platform that offers humungous reach, multiple brand integration opportunities and a billion plus attentive eyeballs. Which marketer would want to shy away from this offer if he has the budgets.
Initially, audiences were only watching the game in Hindi and English feeds but now the broadcaster is offering multiple feeds in different languages along with live streaming on Disney + Hotstar. The spectrum is wider than ever.
Despite Covid2019 pushing the the game to stadiums with no audiences in the UAE, the virus has not been able to deter the enthusiasm of audiences as well as marketers. This year multiple brands across categories have already signed on with team, broadcast rights owner, Star Sports and the BCCI to cash in on the pulsating excitement of sticky audiences, who will be witnessing a major live event after a hiatus of five to six months. The expectations in terms of viewership are huge as IPL will be a much-needed breather during these difficult times.
PhonePe, a popular fintech brand, has returned as the co-presenting broadcasting sponsor of IPL 2020, repeating the association it had with the league in 2019. With reason: director of brand marketing PhonePe Richa says it has sky high ambitions. Currently, 230 million consumers conduct transitions with the app; the goal is to take that to 500 million by 2022.
Says she: “The tournament helps to create visibility, reach, and high brand recall for PhonePe. It has also helped us create awareness around digital payments for different user segments in the country. Our IPL sponsorship will help us reach both urban and rural audiences alike.”
In addition to IPL, the digital wallet brand has plans to digitise 25 million offline merchants across all 5,500 talukas of the country in the next 12 months with the mission to make PhonePe a household name across the country.
The digital-first brand shared a piece of insight from its IPL 2019 data and indicated that the reach and viewership of the tournament have increased significantly with each season. During IPL 2019, the app platform launched the #DadduGublucampaign featuring Aamir Khan in an avatar not seen before; that of a doting but confident grandfather. Each TVC concentrated on a single feature of the app. For instance, one of the TVCs talked about how it serves all the payment needs of an individual. Another spot talked about the high level of protection and security that PhonePe transactions are armed with. With its smart marketing tactics, the app also took a dig at its rival brand.
PhonePe competes with Paytm, Google Pay, and several other players in the market. Media reports suggest that it has set aside a hefty ad war chest of Rs 800 crore to make its presence felt through a push both above the line and below the line. This will include a big advertising splash for television and digital outlets.
The over-arching theme that PhonePe has adopted for its advertising campaign for this season’s IPL is 'KarteJaBadteJa.’It includes four TVCs shot in different states and languages earlier this year, featuring Alia Bhatt and Aamir Khan. The ads educate users about the various services availableoin the app be it booking a hotel, recharging bills or transferring money to a friend.
Sharma asserts that in addition to the PhonePe TV commercials, the brand will also be on other media – social and digital, which she believes is essential to help build brand recall and reach.
“This year our campaign focuses on tapping into the large base of Indians who are all digital-savvy but for various reasons have not taken to digital payments yet. Being the category leader, it's our endeavour to handhold each and every Indian and get them to experience safe, fast and convenient digital payments through PhonePe,” she explains. “With that in mind, we launched our campaign almost a month back (18 August) with a series of messages around safety, trust, convenience to help our audiences understand the ease and security PhonePe provides for digital payments. We will continue to break new messages and going into IPL you'll see more new ads on the same creative theme. Alongside IPL on TV, we will also be utilising various social and digital platforms and the varied ad formats they offer to create a more holistic audience outreach.”
Sharma elaborates that customer acquisition and brand recall among the target audience are a few of the metrics that the PhonePe team looks at while measuring the effectiveness any brand association. “We aim to grow the pie of digital transactors in the country, especially from tier 2, 3 markets and beyond. We aim to drive greater awareness and preference for PhonePe's features and services. The key theme will be to catalyse progress for everyone through our brand platform of ‘KarteJa. BadhteJa,” she says. .
Last month, the brand rolled out a film titled ‘Unstoppable India’ sensitively conceptualized by Leo Burnett. The film portrays the despondency amongst all of us as we battle with the ennui and frustration of the covid2019 prompted change inour lives. But it also highlights the indefatigable, never-say-die spirit of Indians who are finding ways to get back to near normal in the new normal. And of course helping them in the journey back is the contactless payment app PhonePe which like Indians does not how to stop (Ruknatohhumeinaatanahin), which is the tagline of the brand in the film.
According to an ASSOCHAM-PwC India study, the Indian digital payments market is currently valued at $64.8 billion. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2 per cent to reach $135.2 billion in 2023.
Post demonetisaton, in 2016, and the government’s drive towards cash-less India, digital transactions have grown exponentially in the country. The pandemic has further accelerated contactless transactions, across income levels and geographies and amongst all age groups, but more so amongst millennials, for whom it has become a habit.
“We hit a record high in June 2020 in terms of our daily user activity as well as the total payment volume processed through PhonePe. Our transaction volume for July 2020 was at 620 million transactions that surpassed the February 2020 levels (pre-lockdown),” explains Sharma. “This was driven by continued user adoption of PhonePe across core use cases such as P2P payments recharges, and bill payments as well as the opening up of offline and online merchants across the country.”
The good thing is that Sharma is already seeing the signs of revival across industries. She acknowledges, “We are back to our pre-lockdown numbers. June and July have been our biggest month so far in terms of transactions.”
However, she acknowledges that the last quarter of the calendar year is very crucial for every brand due to the commencement of the festive season. “Luckily this year IPL is being held amid the festive season, creating a feel good factor and brands are hoping to get on the path of recovery very soon. IPL is the biggest sporting event in the country and has a lot of mass appeal. We are sure it will help lead to a revival in overall consumer sentiment who will go out and shop,” she concludes.
That would be good news for the economy. And more so for PhonePe if a large part of that consumer shopping is paid for by the digital payment app.
NEW DELHI: The pandemic and downturn in economic fortunes of companies can serve as a good excuse for them to lock away their coffers and pull the plug on advertising spending. Many an advertiser has resorted to that, in recent months. But consumer electronics goods firm Usha International does not belong to that tribe. Instead, it has decided to get into bed with the Mumbai Indians as an official partner once again for the seventh year in succession.
The Usha logo will be seen on the leading side caps and helmets of Mumbai Indians players and on the mat during the toss as part of the agreement. The stadiums will also have massive LED screens running across the perimeter, which will showcase brand Usha during a couple of overs of the game.
The company’s marketing team is also going the whole hog on digital. A series of activations straddling various digital platforms have been planned, including online contests on days when the Mumbai Indians team is out on the green, battling a rival. Through these contests, fans will get a chance to interact (read: meet and greet) with some of their favorite Mumbai Indian cricketers virtually. The brand will also launch a unique digital campaign, featuring select players.
Usha International head- sports initiatives &associations Komal Mehra believes that associating with IPL defines the strength of a brand during these tough times. “The current crisis gives us an opportunity to strengthen Usha’s brand salience,” she says. “The association is not just limited to creating awareness about our product portfolio but expounding Brand Usha and its ethos ‘Play.’“
Almost every product category that Usha is present in will be highlighted as part of the association – right from fabric care to climate control to heating solutions to sewing machines to water coolers to fans to cooking appliances.
“It is a great opportunity to strengthen our consumer and partner connect across categories through on-air and digital platforms,” reveals Mehra. “Contests, virtual meet and greet with select players, online polls are among some of the ways in which we intend to maximize reach across geographies.”
Mehra hopes that Mumbai Indians will go through at least 14 matches like the team has done over the years. “It is the days when the Mumbai Indians are on ground that will see the majority of the activities – like contests and polls. We are in the midst of fleshing out all the details with the MI team,” she adds. .
Even as the effort will be to create fresh content for all digital platforms to engage fans and consumers through the IPL, last year’s TVC will be given air play across all channels. It featured skipper Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard having a great time with children at a 'learn and create' workshop with Usha sewing machines.
Mehra is quite confident that combined with the IPL, the coming festival period is going to rev up demand for its products in the home and kitchen appliances and lighting categories.
She explains: “Since work-from-home has now become the ‘new normal’ for people, it has made ‘multitaskers’ of each of us, leading to a need for products that make tasks easy while saving time as we work for home and from home. Exclusive consumer offers and finance schemes around the festive season will see a pent-up demand growing further. The festive period typically contributes almost 30-40 per cent to the annual sales for this business. Already, indicators are showing a very promising time ahead. We are confident of healthy sales in the coming quarter.”
Media observers approve. “Usha has almost become synonymous with the Mumbai Indians which has proved to be one of the top two teams in the IPL over the years,” says a senior media planner. “The company has also been further amplifying its association by running its TVCs featuring Mumbai Indians cricketers on various channels. Then this year’s initiative of focusing on digital initiatives and even a digital video campaign should get it an even greater return on its investment.”
Sony Pictures Sports Networks (SPSN) is running a campaign to promote the ongoing Australia tour of England. The campaign “Asli Fans ke Liye” (for real fans) sparks the age-old funny debate of real fans versus fake fans.
As the cricket frenzy nation missed the action for the last four to five months, SPSN is embracing the excitement of the live sports not only through the campaign but with a contest. The ‘ Asli cricket fan’ contest is a fun banter between “Asli cricket fan” and “Naklicricket fan”. Sony Pictures Networks India sports channels marketing and on-air promotions head Neville Bastawalla elaborates more on the campaign.
Talking about the ideation of the campaign, he reminds us of the cliched truth that observation is the key to any creative process. According to him, SPSN’s marketing team relies heavily on a combination of observations and deep-rooted consumer insights.
He spoke about a commonplace incident which also helped to form this campaign. While there are discussions on sport in almost every office each morning, many of the group members do not actually watch the matches. Rather, they check online updates in the fear of missing out. This sharp insight has been married with SPSN’s old conviction “love for cricket knows no boundaries.”
“If you scan an office environment, you will see there are die-hard fans of every sport especially cricket fans in India who watch ball-by-ball play of every match. We wanted to create a provocative communication which would hit the heart of cricket fans, especially the fake fans who don’t watch but only follow updates on non-India cricket,” Bastawalla says.
The campaign’s core bull’s eye is 25-40 age group which is consuming content across Sony Picture Network India’s channels and digital platforms. While one of the films has been shot during this crisis period, he adds that they had taken additional steps along with implementing the SOPs.
He also notes that it is very rare for any broadcaster to go for Hindi commentary on international non-India cricket, SPSN is doing so for this series. He also adds that twelve brands have already come on board including Dream 11, My 11 circles, HDFC Life, Maruti Suzuki, Skoda, Dafa News.
“To be honest, I am not seeing any change. We are just being true to the consumers. As a marketeer, my job is to get consumers to watch my content. Everybody is trying to win the heart of consumers,” he comments on post-Covid communication.
KOLKATA: India and Indian Premier League (IPL) fans are all gung-ho as preparations are on for the country's biggest sporting spectacle. The latest edition of the Indian Premier League is set to bring with it a new ray of optimism and cheer for millions across the country who have been homebound courtesy Covid2019. While social distancing norms have disrupted the way live sports are enjoyed, Disney+ Hotstar VIP has innovated to bring home an in-stadium experience that is unparalleled in the world of sports – fans can join a virtual community that will allow them to enjoy the matches with their friends and fellow cricket lovers real-time, whilst sharing selfies and videos.
Upping the ante from the previous tournaments, this year Disney+ Hotstar VIP has added new features to the interactive Watch’N Play social feed that allows a nationwide virtual community of cricket lovers to share excitement and support while watching the matches live on the platform. Replicating the exhilarating roar of the stadium, fans will be able to determine the mood of the nation using an interactive emoji stream.
In a global first, cricket lovers will be able to join in the action by expressing themselves using ‘Hotshots’ selfies or a new video feature ‘Duets’ that lets fans create customized videos showcasing their rendition of famous shots and reactions of their favorite Dream11 IPL Heroes; the best of which will be broadcast on Star Sports.
The Walt Disney Company APAC president & Star and Disney India chairman Uday Shankar said: “Over the past few years, IPL has become the most loved sporting tournament in the country. After several months of the lockdown, we believe that this tournament can be a catalyst in ushering in new optimism and smiles in India, with millions of fans cheering together from all parts of the country. Our use of technology in presenting this immersive experience will not only set a global benchmark but also redefine the way we watch and enjoy sports in the coming years.”
The Dream11 IPL 2020 will only be accessible to new and existing subscribers of Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Disney+ Hotstar Premium. Notably, Starting 19 September, all live matches will be exclusively available to new and existing subscribers of Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Disney+ Hotstar Premium.
Additionally in an attempt to make it easier for people to subscribe, Disney+ Hotstar VIP has tied up with leading telecom companies in India – Jio and Airtel. Both partners will offer exciting prepaid recharge plans bundled with a 12-months subscription to Disney+ Hotstar VIP along with the convenience of buying these across either millions of Jio and Airtel retail stores using cash in or digital payments.
he Board of Control for Cricket in India has brought CRED, an online credit card bill payment platform, as the official partner for Indian Premier League 2020.
The other brands that have associated with IPL as sponsors include Dream11, Unacademy, Paytm, CEAT, and Tata Motors. Interestingly, a lot of startups are backing the tournament this year.
CRED is a well-funded startup that enables its users to pay their credit card bills and helps them earn rewards for it. It was launched in 2018 and has raised several rounds of funding. The app has over 3 million users and offer features such as CRED RentPay, CRED Stash and others.
The 13th IPL is scheduled to be held in UAE from September 19 to November 10.
MUMBAI: Disney Star India chairman Uday Shankar seems to thrive in crisis moments. The ongoing pandemic seems to have brought out the best in the former journo. The world’s most prestigious and valued cricket tournament the Indian Premier League (IPL) – on which he had betted big three years ago by bidding unheard of acquisition fees – is taking place in the UAE come 19 September after it was aborted in March end. For only the third time in its 13 years of existence it is being held in a foreign land.
And it's taking place in very trying circumstances: Covid 2019 is on a rampage in India and cases are rapidly rising every day and the CSK team has reported that one of its players and many of its staffers have contracted the SARSCov2 virus – that’s even before a single ball has been bowled.
Hence, Uday and his team are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it runs smoothly at least from the broadcast end. Speaking to The Times of India, he said that “Star has been working on its own bio-secure bubble. The challenge that has been presented to my team is to deliver an exciting IPL, while keeping every crew member and team member totally safe from the pandemic. That remains our top priority. It’s not an easy one because there are no global role models for something like this.”
The Disney Star India team has put in place the bio-secure bubble in Mumbai to accomodate 400-plus staffers across six floors of the production facility which has been set up for the IPL. Staffers will be rigorously tested – pre-screened, tested before taking them in and periodic testing will be resorted during their stay in the production hub. “Stringent sanitization and social distancing protocols at production facilities and multiple zones are being set up to keep teams separated,” explained Uday.
He added that the same stringent Covid-related protocols will be followed for 65-70 days at the three stadiums with around 700 plus crew and around 90 commentators working across UAE, India and globally.
The crew’s output will reach 100 countries, result in seven fully customised broadcast feeds across languages and 18 hours of daily live and special programming around the IPL, Uday further shared.
“IPL has gone out of India twice, but this exercise is going to be phenomenal… The BCCI is the umbrella under which everybody operates, and they have a right to expect full safety and reassurance from us …The onus is on us to take the responsibility,” he said. “The protocol we’ve designed for this IPL can become a global benchmark for any tournament to be held safely….In the end, we all know, it’s a virus and anything can happen, but we would like to have a very clear conscience that we put our best foot forward.”
Even though there won’t be spectators in the stadia in Abhu Dhabi, Sharjah and Duba, Uday expects TV viewership to cross 550 million in India across live broadcast and beyond live programming. “There’s been a massive drought of live sport. People have been in a state of mind where they need a break from the last few months and IPL is ideally positioned for that. We are very focused on making sure the fan experience at home is not impacted. Technology has only made the engagement of the fans deeper and wider,” he averred.
Uday further highlighted that the IPL coming back could be viewed in a more positive light. “At a time when the country has been gripped by concerns, and people have mostly been spending time locked indoors, something as important to their lives as the IPL coming back is highly symbolic of the triumph of things positive over things negative,” he expounded. “IPL is India’s only global brand and one of the top sports properties globally too. This year’s IPL is a professional and personal commitment.”
MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League governing council (IPL GC) announced India’s largest learning platform Unacademy as official partner for IPL beginning with the 2020 edition which will be held in the UAE from 19 September onwards. The partnership will cover three seasons of the IPL.
The Bengaluru-based edutech firm, Unacademy, aims to build an online knowledge repository for multilingual education by bringing expert educators together from across the globe.
IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said: “We are pleased to have Unacademy on board as the ‘official partner’ of the Indian Premier League 2020 to 2022. IPL Is the most watched cricket league in India and as a homegrown Indian edutech company we believe that Unacademy can create a huge positive impact on the aspirations of the audience watching, especially the millions of Indian youth who are seeking inspiration in their careers.”
Unacademy vice-president marketing Karan Shroff said: “We are delighted to become the official partner of IPL. Unacademy is a high-intensity brand that has disrupted the education and learning market with innovations and broken geographical barriers for Learners and Educators. The IPL has a similar history of disruption and innovation that have not only brought cricket fans closer to the game but also catapulted it to become one of the top sporting events in the world. With this partnership, we will double-down on our efforts to make Unacademy the biggest brand in the consumer-internet space in India. We thank the BCCI and IPL for the opportunity and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.”
MUMBAI: 2020 has been a different year, what with the pandemic totally putting things out of kilter for the economy, for business. And it continues to be different even as the festival season comes up in India.
Normally, the fiefdom of India’s general entertainment channels which launch new seasons, and shows to indulge their viewers and attract a large chunk of the advertisers’ dollars and their own annual revenues, August to November, this year features a party pooper, in the shape of India’s biggest sports extravaganza, the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Set to take place in the UAE between 19 September and 10 November, the league – which is usually held between April and May every year – corners close to Rs 2100 odd crore of ad spends and is expected to better those numbers in its 2020 season .
Hence, the question being asked is: will the IPL’s overlap with the festive season lead to a drop in viewership for the GECs and to advertising dollars being sucked out from them towards the league?
OMD MudraMax EVP & principal partner Navin Kathuria believes that viewers who are looking for refreshing content will find that in the IPL. Says: ”Due to Covid2019, only 17 per cent of the total sports events took place and that too pre-Covod2019. Secondly, there is a fatigue in viewers due to the plethora of mythological programmes, overdose of Covid2019 news, repeat movies etc.”
He says what will aid its viewership is the fact that majority of the working population will be at home during the IPL as many organisations will not be fully functional or will be working with shortened hours / reduced staff strength / alternate days of the week. “With bars and clubs shut, people will be watching more from home, reading to an upsurge in home viewing.”
The Media Ant co- founder Samir Chaudhary echoes Kathuria. Says he: “The lines were clearly demarcated that April-May would be for cricket and festive seasons would be for GEC, but as IPL is coming now the viewership of GECs will be impacted.”
“The audience is hungry for IPL and cricket so the performance in terms of ratings could be unprecedented or amongst the best in the recent seasons,” shares regional language network Enter10 chief operating officer Deep Drona.
The belief is that with matches scheduled at 3:30 pm and then at 7:30 pm, single TV homes – of which India has a majority – will opt for the IPL, with GEC shows being watched between the match breaks or viewers tuning into them when the matches end.
Zee TV business head Aparna Bhosle does not support this viewpoint.
According to her, Hindi GECs have over many years has managed to sustain viewership and even grow despite the IPL. She says, “Long running fiction or non-fiction shows have, by and large, not seen an adverse impact on viewership due to existing fan bases and the loyalty channels’ command in terms of appointment viewership.”
She further adds: “The viewership of television has increased by 34 per cent during lockdown. There is a growth of 10 per cent in average daily reach as well as 22 per cent growth in average daily time spent. (Source: BARC| 2+| HSM (U+R)| Wk 12-20’20 vs Wk 1-11’20). With the best of content across our primetime, we want to ensure that our shows act as a great binder that brings families together during this period of social distancing.”
In fact, so confident is she of it being business as usual, that Zee TV is gearing up to premiere four big-ticket family targeted shows during the festive season.
Ditto with the Enter10 network. It is planning to have a robust line up starting from the end of August until November end with a slew of original new series planned.
Estimates are that marketers signed checks to the tune of Rs 24,000 crore during the festival period last year. The pandemic and the lockdowns over the past six months have resulted in Indian advertising expenditure shrinking by as much as 39 per cent over last year. Soothsayers predict that 2019’s festival adex of Rs 24,000 crore will not be breached this year.
Not everyone agrees. Havas Media CEO Mohit Joshi says, “There has been a revival of sorts from June, July with spends going up gradually. We expect brands to press the accelerator pedal in September-October-November.”
Drona believes the fact that the IPL and GEC launches are coinciding, will lead to an overall expansion of the ad pie in the festive season, benefiting both. According to him spending has been subdued for a large part of the year, and this will be the time when it will be all systems go for categories such as FMCGs, ecommerce sites, gaming platforms, the OTT sector and what have you. “Yes, there will be a scramble for marketing and ad budgets but that will lead to a growth in the overall spends,” he added.
Chaudhary points out that may not come to be true as budgets have been slashed and with smaller budgets, advertisers would prefer to park it with a big bang event. Says he: “Disney Star India has priced its spots at Rs 10-15 lakh per 10 seconds. Only the big companies can afford these price points. So they will mostly park their spots with the IPL, leaving aside smaller spends for the GECs.”
Will the GECs then be forced to shave their FCT and sponsorship rates? Kathuria would like to wait and watch. “Normally, GECs don’t discount big properties,” he says. “The challenge they face is that consumer sentiment has been subdued due to Covid2019 and it has impacted consumer spends. And hence the propensity by brands to spend big.”
Clearly, for both the IPL and GECs, the festival season 2020 is bringing with it interesting and testing times.
NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricket team captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, announced his retirement from international cricket last week via an emotional video on Instagram.
As soon as the news broke out, social media was abuzz with his name trending on top, not only netizens but brands also paid tribute to the iconic cricketers in their style.
The ‘Captain Cool’ has always been a darling of brands and been able to attract audiences. He has endorsed brands across all categories. These include soap, insurance, two-wheeler, engine oil, used cars, and others. However, his brand value has taken a slight dip in the last few years. The announcement of Dhoni’s retirement brings us to the next big question – What will be the impact on the equity of brand Dhoni? Will this be the end of an era, or brands will continue to invest in Dhoni?
As per reports, between January 2019 to November 2019, Dhoni associated with 44 brands. If going by this year trend from January to March, Virat Kohli regained the top spot, while Mahi bagged the second spot in the list.
Several experts believe that his brand value might not be affected as he will continue to play IPL. The former captain also has plans to associate himself with the international leagues, which may increase the brand value, depending on the situation.
Dhoni was excluded from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) annual contract list for October 2019 to September 2020.
Even though he retired from Test cricket in 2014, but it never impacted his brand value.
Let us closely look at how brand Dhoni has fared in the advertising world. In 2010, he topped the chart for celebrity endorsements on television during the first six months. According to the Adex survey of TAM Media Research, during the January to June period of 2010, Dhoni endorsed 24 brands on TV. As per Forbes data, Dhoni made $26.5 million (about Rs 200 crore) in 2010, and only a small portion of that payout, about $3.5 million (about Rs 26.4 crore), came directly from Dhoni's on-field play.
In 2016, his net worth was at $31 million, and brand endorsements comprised a large part of this value. His total annual earnings from brand endorsements were between Rs 120 crore to Rs 150 crore at that time.
In 2018, the Duff & Phelps’ Celebrity brand value ranking valued Dhoni at $26.9 million placing him at 12th spot in terms of celebrity brand value.
According to the same report, Dhoni was at the 9th spot with a brand value of $41.2 million in 2019. In the same year, he managed to retain the 5th spot on the Forbes India celebrity 100 lists.
TRA Research CEO N. Chandramouli feels that whenever a sportsperson retires, their brand equity does fall as they have a limited shelf-life, both on and off the field. “This will not be very different for MS Dhoni also, but he still has a successful IPL career, which will give him a continued presence on the sporting field. His endorsement value started seeing a dip about six months ago, but he will still command a strong value till his IPL days.”
Dhoni, earlier reportedly used to charge between Rs 8 – 12 crore for each endorsement. However, now experts feel this may come down to Rs 3.5 – 4 crore.
Chandramouli states, “As his visibility reduces on the field, with lesser engagements, a brand will calculate the ROI of his field presence, and associate if the ROI is justified. It is a cut-throat business and a difficult market. The endorsement value of a player is correlated to his success and presence.”
There will be brands that would want to associate with the cricketer because of the trust he has built on and off the field, and this will pay off with more extended brand associations.
According to a report by ESP Properties, sports sponsorship in India grew a healthy 17 percent to Rs 9,000 crore in 2019. As per the last year's report, there were 70 new brand endorsement deals, of which cricketers clinched 50 deals. Dhoni pulled 63 per cent of the total brand endorsements.
On the other hand, Samsika Marketing Consultants chairman and managing director Jagdeep Kapoor has a distinct view as he believes Dhoni as a brand goes beyond cricket. His core values reflect life. “He is a unique brand property. The attributes, the passion, the zest for life are traits that good brands would like to associate with,” adds Kapoor.
However, the audiences will miss the long-haired cricketer on the ground who can hit helicopter sixes and entertain them.
“It is a great opportunity to strengthen our consumer and partner connect across categories through on-air and digital platforms,” reveals Mehra. “Contests, virtual meet and greet with select players, online polls are among some of the ways in which we intend to maximize reach across geographies.”
She explains: “Since work-from-home has now become the ‘new normal’ for people, it has made ‘multitaskers’ of each of us, leading to a need for products that make tasks easy while saving time as we work for home and from home. Exclusive consumer offers and finance schemes around the festive season will see a pent-up demand growing further. The festive period typically contributes almost 30-40 per cent to the annual sales for this business. Already, indicators are showing a very promising time ahead. We are confident of healthy sales in the coming quarter.”
