ICC World Cup 2011: Boom time for Advertisers and Marketers!

By - MandarGhayal

The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, in its 10th outing has returned to its favourite destination - the Indian Sub-continent - after a gap of 15 years. Hosted jointly by INDIA, SRI-LANKA & BANGLADESH, this World Cup has proved to be one of the most fiercely competitive tournaments in the history of the World Cup. And the fact that the action is taking place in the Indian Sub-continent has caused tremendous excitement amongst the millions of cricket buffs, amounting to pure frenzy. With the kind of following the sport commands in the region and in INDIA in particular – cricket is often described as a religion and cricketers as Gods - it’s no surprise that the major MNCs, brands and companies are doing all that they can to utilize this opportunity. Organizations – small, medium and large - from every sector are leaving no stone unturned to hitch on to the World Cup bandwagon and market their brands / products / services.

As per industry reports, the on-ground sponsors of ICC World Cup – Reliance Communications, LG, PepsiCo, Reebok, Hero Honda, Emirates, Yahoo, Castrol and Money Gram have together paid an estimated Rs. 1200 crore for In-stadium advertising, whereas Sony India, Hero Honda and Vodafone have paid Rs. 55 crore each for the rights of on-air joint presenting sponsors of the world’s third largest televised event. Added to this, associate sponsors of the World Cup Nokia, Pepsi, Maruti Suzuki, Philips India and Airtel Digital TV have paid Rs. 35 crore each. Here are some stats that indicate why this move may well pay off for these organizations.

This year the World Cup has seen a record viewership of around 162 million, as per TAM (Television Audience Measurement) figures, and the viewership is set to increase further as the tournament nears its climax. The first 40 matches alone (up to 25th March) drew a record 162 million viewers, considerably higher than the cumulative viewership numbers recorded for the 3rd season of the Indian Premier League (IPL-3) tournament last year. The Cumulative viewership numbers for the 2011 edition of the World Cup are 48% higher as compared to those for the World Cup of 2007. These stats have been quite contrary to marketer’s expectations as many of them had bet on the IPL-4 to be the bigger medium for attracting television viewership. But for those who had grabbed the opportunity, these stats are nothing but pleasing.

The total advertising expenditure including the World Cup and IPL-4 is expected to touch the Rs. 1700 crore mark. Out of this, ad spend for IPL-4 is expected to account for about 60% or about Rs. 1020 crore while the remaining is for the World Cup. For the World Cup, the Companies that are aggressively involved in the marketing and advertising efforts are: Vodafone 3G, Nokia, Nike, LG, Castrol, Yamaha, Pepsi, Sony, Adidas, and Hero Honda. Sony Bravia is set to spend Rs.100 Crore campaign and has roped in M. S. Dhoni as the brand ambassador. Other high-spending advertising campaigns include the ‘Nike-Bleed Blue’ campaign managed by JWT Bangalore, the ‘Vodafone – 3G’ campaign managed by Ogilvy India and the ‘Pepsi-Change the game’ campaign conceptualized by Taproot India. The consumer electronics sector is betting high on the world cup related marketing efforts, and expects an increase of around 50 – 100% in sales during this period. While Videocon is spending 40 Cr on marketing, LG is spending 11 Cr - on its Lead 11 campaign.

Amidst this scenario, there has been a huge rise in ambush marketing and unauthorized use and infringement of trademarks and Intellectual Property. The ICC has set strict guidelines for non sponsors, yet cases of ambush marketing disputes have been on the rise. A prominent example is that of Sony involving Indian Captain M. S. Dhoni. Although many cases of violations have been resolved without litigation, new cases continue to emerge.

As the tournament nears its climax the advertising wars are set to intensify even further. As per recent reports the Advertising rates for a 10 second slots have been touted to be about INR 22 Lakh. No wonder Cricket means Big business in INDIA!!!