MUMBAI: On a cricket field where sixes were smashed and fans chanted for centuries, a different kind of record took centre stage. Coca-Cola India has earned a spot in the Limca Book of Records 2025 for crafting the country’s largest national flag made from recycled PET (rPET) bottles—a sustainable salute that flew high during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
The eco-friendly tricolour, stitched from approximately 11,000 post-consumer PET bottles, made its debut at the tournament’s opening ceremony and fluttered proudly at every India match across 10 stadiums from 5 October to 19 November 2023. This showstopper wasn’t just about symbolism. It was a centrepiece of Coca-Cola India’s Maidaan Saaf campaign, aimed at advocating responsible waste management and nudging fans toward conscious consumption.
Backed by Go Rewise and Ganesha Ecoverse Limited, the bottles were turned into Global Recycled Standard-certified yarn before being stitched into the vibrant flag. Alongside it, over 1,000 volunteers clad in rPET safety jackets took on the role of cleanliness champions. They fanned out across stadiums to educate fans on proper waste segregation while ensuring the stands didn’t look like post-match war zones.
“This moment is not just about setting a record; it’s about reimagining possibilities”, said Coca-Cola India & south west Asia VP – public affairs, communications and sustainability Devyani Rana. “We extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners ‘Go Rewise’ who played a crucial role in creating the Recycled PET Flags, and to ICC for their invaluable efforts”.
International Cricket Council CCO Anurag Dahiya called the recognition a ‘proud moment’, while Go Rewise founder Yash Sharma underlined the impact of innovative recycling, “It not only reduces waste but also gives rise to powerful symbols of unity and environmental responsibility”.
The Maidaan Saaf campaign, launched in 2023, is part of Coca-Cola’s wider sustainability roadmap. It focuses on innovative packaging, integrating recycled materials, and boosting recyclability. The flag is both a literal and figurative banner of Coca-Cola’s packaging goals, which include ‘Design’ and ‘Partner to Collect’—strategies built to leave a lasting impact on communities while tackling India’s plastic problem.
With the Limca Book of Records nod, Coca-Cola India has given a new meaning to making the nation proud—not just with cricket, but with conscience.
MUMBAI: There’s good news for Disney Star India. Its tech innovations have got a pat on the back from the leading streaming awards for – the SportsPro OTT awards.
The company’s streaming service has been shortlisted in the categories of innovation and platform of the year and for its marketing strategy while Star Sports has found a mention among the toppers in the use of artificial intelligence.
Disney+Hotstar worked with the ICC to introduce Max View during the World Cup – which allows users to switch to a vertical view, maximizing the screen space for a more immersive experience. This innovation has been shortlisted in the innovation of the year category.
The streamer recorded peak viewership numbers of 5.9 crore viewers during the World Cup final between India and Australia, which required deft engineering excellence. The SportsPro OTT Awards have recognised this effort by shortlisting Disney+Hotstar in the platform of the year category (from a network) for managing this humungous traffic using cutting edge technologies.
Its marketing campaign for the World Cup 2023 which resulted in it never seen before cumulative viewers through its messaging “One Platform, One Nation: Online India Comes Together for Cricket World Cup 2023” has been placed in the shortlist of the marketing category.
Finally, Star Sports use of artificial intelligence to translate international cricketers commentary into Indian regional languages has got a mention in the best use of AI category.
The awards, which were created by leading UK-based publication SportsProMedia, have a jury consisting of executives from some of the top sports firms including Formula 1, IMG Sports, SailGP, Dazn, among many others.
Mumbai: The India Brand Summit, held on November 28, 2023, at The Lalit Mumbai, brought together leaders, marketers, entrepreneurs, and experts to discuss current trends in the dynamic brands and marketing arena. During a fireside chat with Ajit Varghese, Head of Network Ad Sales at Disney Star, Anil NM Wanvari praised Disney Star’s record-breaking viewership during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
Varghese highlighted the success of the World Cup, attracting over 500 million TV viewers and a streaming reach of 295 million, making it one of the most successful ICC Cricket World Cups to date. He also emphasized their focus on seamless viewer experience, enhanced engagement, and facilitating ROI discussions. The streaming platform introduced a bunch of innovations including MaxView, a technological innovation that allows cricket fans to watch the game in vertical mode (9×14 portrait view) for the very first time in the history of cricket streaming. MaxView was launched in collaboration with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and had close to 30% people sample it during the tournament.
Varghese also spoke about the self-serve platform launched for live cricket for the very first time. And how the platform gave advertisers the opportunity to advertise on cricket by just booking on the Disney+ Hotstar platform directly. The streaming service had hundreds of agencies logging in and almost 150+ new advertisers who advertised on cricket for the first time.
Disney+ Hotstar broke the record for peak concurrency with 59 million viewers for the final match. Ajit spoke about how the platform enabled its tech to handle this feat seamlessly. “We actually enabled our tech to handle almost 50-55 million concurrent users. There are two things that you need to look at. One is, when you get to that concurrency, can you serve ads to all of them? Second, what if the concurrency goes up further? So, the enablement of tech is on both fronts. One is the ability to handle more concurrency. Second is having that ad insertion in a seamless way so that the user experience does not have lags, breakage and all of that.”
He further added, “From a targeting point of view, there were around 12 targeting options. Now we took it up to 55 with the World Cup. Ad insertion capability moved up almost by 5X. So there are a lot of things that you observe when you watch a match seamlessly because finally for a consumer it’s his mobile and it’s his experience. When you look at close to 300 million people watching that tournament and when I look at 59 million concurrency, both should not have any leakage in experience and that’s why I think the sport is a history and the overall experience has been historic.”
Wanvari then questioned Varghese about the upcoming Pro Kabaddi League to which he said “When we started PKL in 2014, in the year two or three itself, it became the second largest sport in India. And we recently announced PKL being available for free on mobile on Disney+ Hotstar with the aim to make Kabaddi accessible to all of India and foster a stronger sense of engagement amongst the fans.”
He also highlighted the overall growth the league has witnessed, the boost in PKL player payments, and the significant advertiser value return expected from PKL, he said, “The growth in player payments is 10x. And if you look at the kind of advertiser value return, I would say this would be the single event which gives you more than 15-16x kind of return. PKL will be bigger than any other reality show.”
When asked about the division between TV and OTT audiences for the World Cup, Varghese
said “It is very interesting with the World Cup being offered for free on mobile. What we saw is that TV viewership was not affected at all. So, if you look at this World Cup or the last World Cup, TV viewership has held strong with TV’s peak concurrency hitting 13 crores. What’s beautiful with that logic is, digital streaming while has grown leaps and bounds, it hasn’t impacted TV viewership.”
Varghese shared lessons for brands and advertisers, highlighting the effectiveness of sports in advertising. He emphasized the need for transparency in metrics and the importance of sports marketing for profitability and campaign success. Regarding the confusion between views and concurrent viewers, Varghese stressed the importance of transparency and factual data to instill confidence in advertisers.
He also discussed the growth of Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) in India, primarily operating on Ad-supported Video on Demand (AVOD).
Addressing the rise in consumption patterns on social media, Varghese debunked the notion that people only spend time on social platforms, emphasizing on the variety of content available today including User Generated Content and Professionally Generated Content. He discussed the evolving models for content creation as well.
Varghese concluded by discussing India’s advertising market, anticipating growth as the country evolves into a per capita market. He highlighted the ample headroom for advertising spends to grow in India’s expanding economy and population.
Mumbai: Disney+ Hotstar created yet another historic record of 4.4 crores concurrent viewers in the world of cricket streaming propelled by Virat Kohli’s sublime 49th one-day century during India’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match against South Africa at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Kohli lifted Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulders when India won the 2011 World Cup, today Kohli stands equal to the Master blaster with his century. For Disney+ Hotstar, this marks the highest peak concurrency number achieved across all formats of cricket, breaking their own recent concurrency record of 4.3 crore viewers created during the India Vs. New Zealand match earlier in this tournament. The platform previously set the global streaming record for cricket at 3.5 crore concurrent viewers during the India vs Pakistan match on 14 Oct 2023, making this the second time Disney+ Hotstar has surpassed its own standards of success during the run of the ongoing tournament.
Commenting on this, Hotstar India head Sajith Sivanandan said, “Our users have consistently lifted us to new heights in cricket streaming during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. We cannot thank them enough for their commitment and passion that have enabled us to redefine milestones in live streaming. Surpassing our own record with 4.4 Cr concurrent viewers tuning in for the India vs South Africa match, we are now eagerly looking forward to seeing where their unwavering support and fandom takes us as we head towards the tournament’s finale.”
Disney+ Hotstar in collaboration with International Cricket Council (ICC), recently added MaxView – a technological innovation that allows cricket fans to watch the game in vertical mode (9X14 portrait view) for the very first time in the history of streaming cricket. This feature facilitates a one-handed viewing experience, aligning with the way most users consume content. MaxView is a brand new, bespoke opt-in feature. Other surrounding features, such as the Live feed tab, Scorecard tab, have also been made available in vertical mode, along with vertical ad formats.
Mumbai: In the midst of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023, brands and advertising agencies have embarked on a strategic journey to secure a robust return on investment (ROI). This edition of the World Cup bears particular significance, as it comes after an extended hiatus of eleven years since the previous tournament. This prolonged interval has necessitated a reevaluation of marketing approaches, prompting brands to innovate and adapt their strategies to the evolving landscape of sports marketing. Through targeted campaigns, partnerships, and innovative activations, these entities aim to not only capture the attention of fervent cricket enthusiasts but also leave an indelible mark on the global stage. In this pursuit, their efforts are punctuated by insightful quotes and declarations that shed light on the underlying principles guiding their endeavours.
Here are some notable insights from brands and agencies at the heart of the ICC World Cup 2023.
Booking.com country manager, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia Santosh Kumar
Mega sporting events, such as the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 an incredible sporting and cultural events, and an amazing opportunity to engage with our consumers. Since 2019, Booking.com has been the official accommodations partner for all ICC events including the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 currently taking place in India. At Booking.com we have always believed it is essential to share our brand, deliver campaigns and forge partnerships that speak to our mission and values in highly relevant and timely ways with consumers. With more than 28 million reported listings in over 171,000 destinations worldwide, including destinations where ICC matches are taking place in India, Booking.com is committed to empowering travellers and cricket fans to book incredible places to stay throughout the tournament. Fans can make the most of their cricket-inspired travels, wherever that may take them – including rental cars, flights, great things to do and of course, unique places to stay of all kinds.
Booking.com has also launched a global campaign called ‘Howzat for your perfect stay’ featuring Rohit Sharma (India), Jos Buttler (England) and Glenn Maxwell (Australia).
1. This campaign showcases Booking.com’s commitment to making travel accessible, enjoyable, and full of surprises, aligning with the spontaneous and exciting nature of both sports and travel. It highlights the end-to-end ease and incredible choice of accommodations that Booking.com offers.
2. The TVC description for the Howzat for your Perfect Stay campaign which is being aired during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is taking viewers through the journey of a family dreaming of their perfect holiday for their dream cricket stay. With surprise appearances by Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler and Glenn Maxwell, it looks to show the fun and excitement of booking with Booking.com. It will also bring awareness to the Booking.com end-to-end ease of use and an incredible choice of accommodations.
3. The campaign would be showcased in-stadium, on the ground and social and digital channels, including TV, Disney+ Hotstar, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and more.
Booking.com additionally is doing a social media campaign ‘Booking race to the final’ to build excitement online. The campaign will challenge two influencer teams to a race to the final. The teams will race against time, and each other, to make it across India, to the final in Ahmedabad. They will use the Booking.com app to help them plan their journey (taxis, accommodations) and give away special prizes to viewers along their race to the final. We also have 1 big giveaway – Experience to the final going live this week (which consists of tickets to the final, accommodation, all expenses paid)
DRIM Global head of Asia Yulia Aslamova
Notably, several brands came up with various offers and discounts centred around the ICC World Cup to tap into the cricket-crazy nation’s passion for the game. The agencies also observed a significant increase in the number of orders delivered to brands on the CPA model of influencer marketing.
The brands focused on long-term partnerships with teams and players to build lasting associations, ensuring brand visibility beyond the tournament. Utilising digital platforms, they engaged fans through exclusive content, contests, and real-time updates. Sponsors also leveraged social issues and charitable initiatives to connect with audiences emotionally.
Additionally, creative advertising campaigns were designed to capture the excitement and passion associated with cricket. This multifaceted approach helped brands maintain brand recall and fan engagement over the extended interval, ultimately enhancing their ROI.
While the specific brands and their strategies can vary from tournament to tournament, some prominent examples include- Mobile App brands like ESPNcricinfo and Hotstar have developed popular cricket-themed apps that offer live scores, video highlights, and analysis, enhancing fan engagement. Similarly, online Streaming Platforms like Disney+ Hotstar have secured digital rights for broadcasting the tournament, providing subscription-based access and discounts to live matches.
Ideas Farm, head of client servicing Pooja Shah
I think almost every brand wants to associate with the World Cup in a small or big manner due to the sheer eyeballs that the cricket game garners. From signing cricketers and Bollywood celebrities as brand ambassadors to harnessing the pure emotion of the game via storytelling or a song anthem, brands deploy various strategies that work seamlessly for them.
Brands especially try and narrow down their engagement with audiences during an India match, which is when you have the attention of a much larger crowd that is ‘Indian’. A great example is the India-Pakistan match that happened over the weekend. We saw brands leveraging 2 core feelings – sportsmanship and the innate feeling of patriotism. Popular consumer brands like Swiggy and Zomato were seen with tongue-in-cheek comments on X and Instagram. The Make My Trip ad has polarised the netizens as coming across as a poor display of sportsmanship and it has elicited a response from its competitor brand. At the end of the World Cup, the strategy that has the best combination of heart and sportsmanship like the Star Sports 2015 ‘Mauka Mauka’ ad will stick and stand out.
Mumbai: Virat Kohli is a globally celebrated cricket icon, known for his remarkable ability to adapt his batting strategy to any game situation. His consistent exceptional performances in both national and international cricket have earned him immense respect.
The World Cup involves extensive travel and ever-changing landscapes and this causes disruption of quality sleep, hence Virat requested Duroflex to help standardize his sleep across all the different venues. While Virat is well known for his commitment to fitness and health, another essential practice that he adheres to for peak performance is 8 hours of quality sleep. As Virat prepares for the ongoing World Cup, ensuring he gets deep, restorative sleep is one of his top priorities.
Duroflex, India’s leading sleep solutions provider, is supporting their brand ambassador, Virat Kohli by providing the Back Magic Mattress in every city where he stays, be it for a match or practice. Designed for high-performance lifestyles, its 5-zone full body support helps relax muscles and supports the back to guarantee a revitalizing sleep for him during the ongoing ICC World Cup. Back Magic (Firm Mattress) is one of the bestselling mattresses of the Duropedic range by Duroflex, as preferred by Virat.
Speaking on the occasion, Duroflex CEO Mohanraj Jagannivasan said, “The World Cup always stirs up nationwide excitement as the entire country unites to cheer for the team, who are putting in their all to deliver their best. In response to Virat’s request, we are delighted to go the extra mile to ensure he has his trusted Duroflex mattress with him in every city during this high-octane tournament. Our commitment is to provide him with seamless, energizing sleep that will help him optimize his performance on the field. We are honored to be part of his World Cup preparation and extend our best wishes to the team for a successful tournament.”
As the nation rallies behind Virat Kohli and Team India, Duroflex wishes them not only great success, but great healthy sleep too.
Mumbai: India’s leading electrical goods company, Polycab India underwent a complete brand refresh, changing the concept from “Polycab – Connection Zindagi Ka” to “Polycab – Ideas. Connected”. Madison Media and Professional Management Group (PMG), both Units of Madison World, India’s largest homegrown communications network, partnered with Polycab in taking its new communication far and wide, by leveraging the country’s biggest media opportunity of the year 2023 through ground sponsorship and broadcast sponsorship – the ICC World Cup 2023, currently being played in India.
Earlier this year, Madison Media and PMG collaborated with Polycab India for an opportunity to get into a strategic partnership with International Cricket Council (ICC), making Polycab the official partner of the prestigious tournaments. This association included Polycab’s Ground sponsorship of all major ICC men’s and women’s events until 2023 including the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, which took place in South Africa, the ICC World Test Championship 2023, held in United Kingdom and the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023, currently ongoing in India.
Madison Media also collaborated with Polycab further in extending its on-ground association with on-air TV sponsorship on Star Sports TV during the World Cup. The ICC World Cup attracts millions of viewers across the globe, almost 80% from India. Polycab is one of the ‘Associate Sponsors’ for the ICC World Cup on Star Sports and will be visible across more than 12 national and regional TV channels. Polycab has emerged as a customer centric brand through this synergistic approach which is in line with the brand’s new purpose of connecting all to brighter future.
“It is a matter of great pride for Polycab, a reputed home-grown brand with presence in 60+ countries, to partner with the International Cricket Council. The game is a passion for millions of fans worldwide, and being driven by the same philosophy, we at Polycab understand the importance of connecting with our customers through their passion. We are delighted to partner with ICC to support cricket and together we will create a memorable experience for our patrons, Madison and PMG’s expertise and innovation have revolutionized our partnership, ensuring maximum visibility and impact”, commented Polycab India CMO & executive president Nilesh Malani about Polycab’s association with ICC and their new brand identity.
“Polycab’s bold decision to go in for ground sponsorship + broadcast sponsorship was indeed a smart move, charactering the Company’s ability to make big moves in every area from manufacturing and building capacity to supply chain and dealer relationships. The scale of the recent launch of the new Brand Identity with glitz and glamour said a lot about the company’s aggressive plans yet to unfold in the near future. I am glad that both Madison Media and PMG rose to the occasion to do full justice to the Brand. I have no doubt that this initiative will pay rich dividends in the years to come. With India’s brilliant undefeated performance to date and given the nation’s enthusiasm and interest in the tournament augur well for the Brand’s continued meteoric rise”, said Madison World chairman Sam Balsara on this association.
Mumbai: With a potential reach of 600+ million, the World Cup on television is the place to be for advertisers looking to capture the attention of viewers during the festive season. The interview series “Pitch Perfect” discusses with leading marketers their thoughts about the World Cup and how advertisers can best leverage the mega event on television.
Indiantelevision.com’s Anil NM Wanvari in a fireside chat with Britannia CMO Amit Doshi association with Cricket on Live TV.
Edited excerpts
On live sports role on television as a marketer
If you look at the Indian landscape, there are a few passions that bind us as a country. Cricket is pretty much a religion for most of the country and it provides those really high-octane eyeballs, and media situations for us as marketers. It’s an opportunity for us to reach out to large audiences at scale in a short period of time. It’s getting proven the world over, while there may be those switches in some parts of the media-consuming population to streaming and to look at, mediums which are beyond appointment viewing. But when it comes to live sports, everyone wants a big screen, everyone comes together and there is an ambience of people really tuned in to what’s playing out. That’s a great opportunity for most marketers, and that’s how we view it. Especially time for let’s say a new product launch or a promotion, which is for a specific period and want to build reach very quickly. Live sports on television is certainly a great vehicle. In India when it comes to live sports, obviously, nothing beats cricket.
On your association with the IPL and in terms of brand and business impact for Britannia
There were a bunch of brands that we advertised at that point in time. The good thing about live sports broadcasts at this point in time is the multiple feeds that have been created, which are language feeds, HD feeds, and streaming feeds, and what it allows brands to do today is to be far more intelligent, far more precise about how we’re using media. That has been a big change, I would say, compared to the previous, we did use that feed quite intelligently. So, for example, the Tamil feed, a brand like Milk Bikis has been advertised through it. If there’s a mass brand like Good Day, we had the opportunity to use national feeds going into the Hindi-speaking, and English-speaking markets. So, there were a bunch of brands that we married, the media team did a really smart job of marrying them intelligently with the different feeds. We’ve always seen good results. With live sports on television, it obviously manages to build a quick reach in a short span of time and is able to add so much more fuel and muscle to the media plan. I think it has to be an absolute meeting of two things and I believe it has to be a meeting of the business or marketing objectives with the property.
On large-scale collective viewing during live sports especially Cricket World Cups helping advertising brands drive impact
It obviously makes for a great opportunity to increase consumption. I don’t think advertising exactly at that point in time translates into a long-term effect of advertising. So if one has done consistent advertising over the last few quarters, hopefully when the Cricket World Cup kicks off, that brand gets preferred over others. We’re quite confident that with the rate the portfolio of choices, or the new products that we have, not just biscuits, we have croissants, crackers, snacks, and beverages now, which are premium products, which you can munch around this time. So, we’ve got a bunch of different products, not just biscuits, which present the consumer with many options depending on who they are and what the size of the party is at home.
Mumbai: The festive season brings a double whammy for advertisers and brands as the Asia Cup and the much-awaited World Cup (Hosts – India) is set to take the country by storm. With a potential reach of 600+ million, the World Cup on television is the place to be for advertisers looking to capture the attention of viewers during the festive season. The interview series “Pitch Perfect” discusses with leading marketers their thoughts about the World Cup and how advertisers can best leverage the mega event on television.
Indiantelevision.com’s Anil Wanvari in a fireside chat with Bimlendra Jha, Navroze Dhondy on the Jindal’s association with Cricket on Live TV.
Edited excerpts
On associating with cricket
Jha: Well, there are two religions in India, cricket and Bollywood. If you really look at it, somebody had the brilliant insight to combine the two in the form of IPL. IPL has become the greatest sensation because of this unique combination that works so well in India. Getting associated with this large number of viewership where particularly any brand that gets associated with sports, always gets more positive vibes compared to anything else, that is what the research says. Missing action in this one is not a great thing for any brand that wants to really establish itself at the national level.
On associating with cricket for the first time
Jha: It was last year and we started getting associated with many other sports also. We have been supporting sports at tribal level. Wushu, which many people would not have even heard about, we produced international champions out of that from the tribal boys and girls. We are into kickboxing, hockey, and we are supporting a lot of sports including kabaddi, we have been associated with different sports. And I do believe that when you are trying to become the number one brand at that time, having higher visibility, particularly through the sports channels, is a great way to connect with audiences.
On approaching mass media communication and not going for trade advertising
Dhondy: That’s a very interesting question. Jha and I had this discussion since last year. So as Jha just mentioned, this whole association with sports began last year, with the Pro Kabbadi League, moving on to the ISL, Women’s World Cup, and of course, IPL and now Asia Cup and the World Cup. If you look at the essence of the brand, for eg. Jindal Panther, the brand name itself evokes a certain personality. So when you have a brand, which has a very strong brand personality, you have to find the right kind of fit in terms of the media opportunities too. Sports, interestingly, is a perfect brand fit, because it talks about speed, talks about strength and flexibility exactly what the brand stands for.
Jha: To answer your question on why approach mass media communication for what could potentially be only a B2B brand. But India is a very unique place, you would not imagine rebars being retailed in any other country like India. And if you really go across the country, you would find retail outlets for rebars and cement. Now these retail outlets are the ones which are catering to really small demand and a large proportion of steel through the rebar route and cement gets consumed in retail. So creating these footfalls is a very important element of strategy, particularly if you want stability in your supply chain. Retail provides the highest amount of stability compared to B2B sales. In fact, B2B sales may have large variations in prices. Retail gives far more consistency in prices. So anybody who wants to really sell his rebar well, would do well to consider the retail segment in their strategy.
If you look at the pyramid of the rebar business, right on top are the B2B businesses. So, big builders, big developers like DLF etc, do you buy a flat and you don’t know what rebar and what cement is gone into it. But when you come down the pop strata and you go into smaller towns, that’s where people like me, when I came from from Alabama, we all need our own homes, and those other small towns where a lot of construction is happening, either making your own shop or your own factory or your own home. And that is where a brand connected with B2C is also as important as it is for B2B.
On the retail constituent of your entire sales
Jha: At the moment, it has been a lower percentage. Pure retail has been about 25 per cent. But we want to take it to 75 per cent.
On what does it mean for being an advertiser, having a massive national distribution network and associating with a sport like cricket
Jha: I think you have to be smart about the money that you spend. If you take a titled sponsorship, it has a completely different connotation, it has completely different viewership. And it allows the viewers to soak in with this kind of a title sponsorship. So, we have been smart about what we are wanting to do, and we do not want to burn the money and use it in a manner where it does not give us the proportionate returns. So we have done our own evaluation and we have actually cherry picked some of the events that allow us to get more miles for our buck.
Dhondy: You will have very large investors in cricket, we have heard the story about dream 11 and all the various dot coms and gaming, investing large sums of money being thrown into cricket. But what we need to do, the word which is very important, is smart and making sure that we stand out of the clutter whether it is a one day match or in a T20 match.
The choice which Jindal made and what we all worked together to create Jindal Panther cricket live made it stand apart. It actually had a unique spot, a unique position in the entire broadcast ecology and therefore we got that standard part to the extent that literally within the first three or four days, I remember we were having a discussion with our trade partners and the word they use was Jindal Panther ‘Chaa Gaya’.
On collective viewing experience helping getting the word out to your viewers and targeted audience
Jha: There are multiple ways like being visible.Visibility is not in short supply as far as Jindal Panther cricket live is concerned, it gets mentioned every now and then. It is constantly there in front of your eyes, as you’re watching that program pre match, mid match and post match. Much more than that, what we have also done and that is where Navroze has helped us a lot in creating some crucibles of experience, where we have taken our channel partners to the studio to get them to experience it. And they can’t get over themselves about these kinds of experiences. This is what by word of mouth further spreads into the channel. Now people look forward to the opportunity of being selected to be able to get into that exclusive group of people who would be chosen for these kinds of relationship building exercises, I think this is invaluable money can buy.
Dhondy: Along the way, we realised that viewing sport happens in three different ways. One is a very individualistic one, when you’re on your mobile, and you’re just watching it one on one. One is in a family environment where you’re at home, and you’re watching with three or four or five people and one is on a much larger scale. It could be in a bar or a pub where you got to 300-400 people watching it together, or a larger place where they put up a huge screen and you got 500 to 1000 people watching it together. In all these cases, interestingly, from that small four inch mobile to that 100 foot screen, when the brand is being visible across, the best part is you are not missing out any target view, you are not missing out any opportunity. The large screen with those big speakers almost transforms the person sitting over there into a real stadium kind of an environment, which actually helps and has a halo effect and rubs off on the brand. So many things are very intangible. But they have their own magic, which they create for the brand.
Wisden, better known as the bible of cricket, is an almost 150 year old brand and they were collecting data all the time. But it was just one book published every year. It’s only in India, that from the year 2002 onwards, the last 20 years, we were the pioneers of something called the pre, the mid and the post show which is what Jindal Panther cricket live is all about, you know the interesting insight about this. We as Indians love statistics, we love records, we love discussing and debating and that is why the eyeballs are sticky eyeballs, even for non line in most of the countries the moment they gave us over, telecast is over. But in our country, the game carries on to almost half an hour 45 minutes so that is where the magic of the Indian madness statistics lies.
On the association helping in terms of getting your customers to really buy further into the product
Jha: One of the constant themes of all our interaction with our retail channel partners has been that we are not visible adequately. That was the pre Jindal Panther cricket live. And one big difference that has already happened is that our channel partners are absolutely cheering this entire sponsorship because they have seen that now people ask for Jindal Panther by name. There is still a bit of a brand association of Jindal that rubs off on some spurious other brands who try to claim the same kind of stature as a result. So that’s a good problem to have, because imitation is a form of flattery. Of course we can use the same channel to also communicate to the people, to be careful about not getting duped by look alike brands.There is a lot more that can be achieved compared to what we have achieved. We have occupied the top of the mind slot. The next is to also educate people on being careful about what they choose.
On being important to be consistent in your associations with cricket orbit
Jha: I said earlier that cricket is a religion in India and it is likely to remain a religion in India. There are more sports that are coming up in India and I think the time has come when there is adequate support for sportsmen. And we would like to continue our association with sports not just for cricket, but also for other sports which do not sometimes get that kind of money visibility etc. We are very happy to see for example, the premier Kabaddi League, after IPL has got the maximum amount of eyeballs and we felt that getting associated with Kabbadi which is a quintessential sport invented in India and once again, the speed strength flexibility are the values that are very core to the sport of kabaddi there. We also find that there is interest in some pockets particularly West Bengal and Kerala, around football more than anywhere else. But increasingly it is finding an expression and viewership as well as coming into the collective consciousness, both soccer as well as hockey, and these are the sports which are coming up. And we would like to definitely remain associated with them as well. So it is not just cricket.
On the meet and greet with the cricketing partners and the change they brought in
Jha: The very first thing is that the partners feel valued when you bring them to an event, whether it is a meet and greet, but it is not just a meet and greet with the company officials. They idolise these heroes from the cricket world, the commentators and the whole experience actually takes them to another platform. They start associating with the company, a far greater positive image, and about themselves as well, because they are visible on TV, this is their moment when they are visible to a larger audience. It also helps those who have not been selected, let’s say in the first round, to be a bit aspirational about the achievements that they should have, so that they are considered for the next round. So it’s a win-win win for everybody. An association that has helped us build the brand, the channel relationships, and create a positive mindset amongst those who want to be there.
On the upcoming World Cup & Asia Cup and expecting new milestones, putting more money etc
Jha: We would always prefer judicious spending of money over anything else. It is a value for money that we evaluate in each and every case. And we are very conscious of the fact that things like India Pakistan match, they get the top ratings compared to anything else. And both Asia Cup and World Cup does create multiple opportunities for this kind of an interaction to take place. How can you be missing in action on those? So of course, we see value for money. But we also want to bring to the people the whole excitement in a manner that they associate themselves with a brand. It is that positive association that we are looking forward to.
On Cricket Live going forward in the World Cup as well as in the Asia Cup
Jha: Anything that does not change will become stale. Innovation requires us to constantly change and make things more and more interesting. From a viewership perspective as well as those who we put forward for participation. So we would of course be looking for more and more innovation through this platform that we have created for ourselves. It is important to realise that one is that sports is a way of life, and our chairman himself is a sports lover. He is not just a sports lover, he actually excels at doing things for example, in shooting or in polo, he plays at national levels and therefore, it is a way of life that we have adopted for the company, there is a lot of focus on fitness etc. As far as sponsorship is concerned, apart from mass media, the very powerful medium is that of digital. We are still far away from an iconic brand like Amul, where they get quoted so many times, how do they come up with such brilliant lines, which can be seen in less than five seconds, and can be replicated. So there is a lot more that we have to do as a brand. But sports is a good start, how we’re building on it, with the power of such catchy phrases and things that we can connect with the audience and remain contemporary. That remains our challenge. And we would like to work in that and continue to make the world a better place to live with the quality of products and services we give.
