April 19, 1999
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ADVERTISING AND MARKETING The Sales Pitch Top companies think nothing of spending crores to get maximum mileage from the tournament fever. By Priya Ramani
Here's a poser. What do the following have in common -- eating a Britannia biscuit, applying for an HSBC credit card, buying a BPL television, selecting an Asian Paints colour, drinking Foster's beer, reading India Today Plus and answering a Krackjack contest? Stumped? It's simple, really: all are opportunities to win free tickets to the cricket World Cup which begins next month in England. "World Cup fever has engulfed the nation," declares Sony Entertainment Television CEO Kunal Dasgupta. He couldn't be more right. Nobody has realised this better than the 50-odd Indian companies buying up all available advertising spots. Main sponsors on Star Sports and ESPN will pay around Rs 9 crore for the privilege of being connected with the tournament. A 30-second spot costs $7,500 (Rs 3.15 lakh) and the cheapest spot-buy package Rs 1.5 crore. Top companies have already pumped in Rs 200 crore to advertise their products during the five week-long tournament, estimates Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA) Managing Director Mike Khanna. HTA's clients like Pepsi, Hero Honda, Kingfisher and Wills account for a significant chunk of the latest rush of cricket-led advertising. "Cricket is a national obsession," says Khanna. The adfest kicked off as early as October 1998 with Australian beer giant Foster's, followed soon by biscuit manufacturer Britannia Industries. The Bangalore-based company has spent over Rs 10 crore on its "Britannia Khao, World Cup Jao" promo and expects sales to go up by 20 per cent as a result. The rest weren't too slow either in jumping on to the bandwagon. Motorcycle maker Hero Honda has invested Rs 10 crore, including Rs 3.5 crore to become an official World Cup supplier. Later this month the company will sponsor a cricket match in Mumbai between Kapil Dev's 1983 cup-winning team and India's team to the 1999 World Cup. Ahmedabad-based Rasna Enterprise has launched a new soft drink concentrate flavour specially for the World Cup -- Yorker. It plans to sell 50-lakh packs along with another flavour Aqua Fun this summer. Textile manufacturer S. Kumar has brought out a six-track album -- Pitch Fever -- in association with BMG Crescendo. Says BMG Crescendo Managing Director Suresh Thomas, who hopes to sell a modest 1,000 copies before the matches begin: "Cricket and music go side by side and with this album I'm sure the Indian team will dance to the final." There's also a 24-carat World Cup commemorative gold medallion, a joint venture between Corporation Bank and Societe Generale, which took $500,000 to develop and promote. Featuring Sachin Tendulkar and priced at Rs 4,500, it will be retailed across the country. The sales target? Four lakh pieces by the end of the World Cup on June 20. Traditional rivals Pepsi and Coke are also in the fray but are secretive about their budgets. All that Pepsi Food spokesman Deepak Jolly would reveal is: "We are the biggest sponsors of the World Cup from India." Pepsi commercials currently on air feature Indian cricketers Mohammed Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid, Ajay Jadeja and Ajit Agarkar. More are planned including contests for children. Perhaps the biggest gainers from the World Cup will be colour television (CTV) manufacturers. Recession or no recession, it is expected that monthly sales of CTV sets will surge by 40 per cent between April and June; during the first quarter of 1998 sales hovered around the three-lakh mark. "The cup has put the industry in high gear. Normally this is a slow season," comments Kabir Mulchandani, CEO of Baron International and the man who transformed white-goods marketing in India. Consumer electronics firms, by their own estimation, will spend over Rs 80 crore to keep the customers buying. Mulchandani's Aiwa is promising its buyers refunds for every step India takes towards the final, up to a maximum Rs 6,000 off if it wins the cup. Monthly sale of the low-end Japanese brand is expected to soar to 1.68 lakh sets during April-June, up from the current monthly 35,000. That's not counting the 31,000 sales target for the just-launched Hitachi. The Videocon group, meanwhile, is planning a new range of Sansui and Videocon CTVs apart from relaunching the Akai brand. Its World Cup strategy: sell 2.25 lakh televisions, mostly during the 45-day run up to the cup, a sharp jump from its present average monthly sales of 92,000 sets. "Roughly 25 per cent of the annual advertising budget will go into those days," says Videocon International Managing Director Nabi Gupta. Market leader BPL has already released its series of sporty advertisements showing that people will go to any length to watch the World Cup on a BPL CTV. The company has set itself a 45-day target of 3.25 lakh sets, up from the current monthly average of one lakh sets. Korean giant LG Electronics -- an official World Cup supplier -- will launch 25 new products, including seven CTV models, in the run up to the matches. Says Rajeev Karwal, vice-president (sales and marketing): "During the first half of 1999 we will rake in an additional Rs 50 crore in CTV sales." The "official" tag is valuable. Global partner (read: official sponsor) Emirates Airlines has released a Good Luck India message book which will tour seven cities. The airline is expected to spend upwards of Rs 5 crore in India alone. But will all this hectic activity around the World Cup actually yield results? Consider the experience abroad. A survey commissioned by the organiser -- the England & Wales Cricket Board -- found that 68 per cent of international television viewers consider sponsoring the World Cup a better promotion alternative than advertising. Of the 1,517 viewers polled, 73 per cent said that sponsoring the World Cup promotes a good image and only 22 per cent said the event is overcommercialised. The picture in India, though, may not be quite as bright. "A lot of the investment is not going to bring in benefits because all the commercials seem to look and feel the same," says Shailendra Singh, executive director at Percept Advertising. Adds Videocon's Gupta: "If India doesn't progress beyond the first or second round, and if you're a small player who has pegged large hopes on the World Cup, you will have huge inventories." Clearly, it's not just a nation's pride that rests on India's performance this summer. |
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