Records of Indian Cricket - Ipl

Introduction

The success of IPL is unparalleled in the records of Indian cricket and it gave jitters to the organizations which were known for their marketing skills and the euphoria that they created around their products. IPL has taken the blend of entertainment and cricket to newer heights completely. It has brought together all the possible aspects of entertainment on to one common platform and has turned cricket into four hours of adrenal rush and melodrama.

IPL did something that was unimaginable. It brought to life the dream of weird combinations like Dhoni pitted against Gambhir or 'Ganguly - The Prince of Kolkata' striving hard to bring IPL Pune Warriors to victory by crushing his home city - Kolkata. It further adds to the pleasure of seeing Shatukh - King Khan, Pretty lady Preeti Zinta giving flying kisses to cheer their team.

'In the first week of IPL tournament, including the opening ceremony, the IPL had already garnered about 13.7 million views, against 8.8 million views - much more than last year. It represented a 56 per cent growth YoY'

As per Praveen Sharma, Google India head of media sales -

"We're really excited to see the continuous growth in viewership of IPL. This is the third year of our association with live streaming of IPL and the viewership numbers clearly indicate the distributed media consumption pattern of the Indian consumers."

New mechanisms also have been introduced like Strategic Time out each of 7.5 minutes. This feature has provided enough scope and made it more attractive for the broadcasters.

As per (blog, 2012)

'...from the business point of view of IPL organizers, the new strategic time-out concept provides the much required boost for the ad revenues in the TVs and the screen boards. In fact the high rates that BCCI charges for the broadcasting of IPL is mainly due to the new strategic time out feature which is attractive to all the broadcasters.'

The question that we are posed with is

"Was IPL well marketed?"

Is IPL a brand success?

Any brand, by definition, should have an uncluttered, unique and relevant value proposition to its customers. In addition, it should be attuned to the culture in which it exists and a strong emotional connection with its customers. Does IPL have all this?

The content of the IPL is cricket, or rather the quality of cricket that is provided by the best players in the business. Showcasing their cricketing skills in a typical "football" like environment for 3 short hours - is indeed long enough to keep audience engaged and also short enough not to be boring - one can compare it with other similar entertainment avenues e.g. a movie of three hours or a football match of two hours. It is just like a good thriller which has a tight script. It definitely grips the entire audience. That is indeed the heart of the value proposition of the game; and it is unique in its very value proposition and is perfectly relevant for the cricket loving Indian audience. The cricket in India, as expected, has a very strong emotional connection.

At the crux of any sports brand property would be a value of its ability to attract a captivating audience. It is as much a media event as it is a live event. The largest share of revenue comes from selling TV rights. And, the majority of its value is based on an estimated number of viewers this particular event/brand is able to deliver. It is a judgment call which is made by a television company. In this case WSG paid USD 1.026 bn for a 10 year period to IPL for its telecast rights across the world, out of which USD 918 mn for TV rights, and USD 108 mn for promotions. Sony Entertainment television paid USD 612 mn for similar rights in India.

Key indication of possible success of the IPL brand is its ability to attract a lot of sponsors. IPL has always attracted more than one sponsor and it's a bidding process just like any other. The highest bid value offered is selected as the main sponsor. This bid again is a judgment call which is based on the estimated viewership of the event. IPL had DLF as the main sponsor for its brand and paid approximately $ 2 .0 billion for the event. Based on the numbers, the brand IPL obviously believes that it is spending money in right direction on behalf of its brand owners.

Is IPL a media success?

By definition, a program or a successful media event should have two critical ingredients.

* A captive audience

* Perceived value which any advertiser would be willing to pay to access IPL's audience.

It is a cliché media practice that one creates a content or program keeping in view a particular psychographic or demographic segment. The television viewing habits of this particular segment determines the time slot of this program which is to be telecasted. In case of the IPL matches the profile of the audience has no age, gender, income, which means that the program is watched by practically anyone and everyone in the house having a cable and satellite connection.

From the TV station's point of view advertisements were able to attract a wide cross section of brands from tires to facial creams, real estate developers and mobile phones during the prime time i.e. from 8 pm to 11.30 pm. TV rating of over 6.0 on average for more than 40 days spelled huge money for the channel. If one looked at the ratings of the Top 10 programs in the same time slot from any other channel, then the ratings were in the range of 4.0-5.0 atmost on the non-match days. No other program on any other channel managed such a sustained high rating for more than one and a half months.

The second ingredient of this media event is the value perceived that the advertisers are more than willing to pay for advertising in IPL. Sony sold the ad spots for INR 1.5 lakhs for mere 10 seconds in the first stage of the popular tournament. It then gradually increased to around INR 4 lakhs in the semi-finals and finals. A typical 30 second slot in the IPL finals had cost INR 12 lakhs. There were more bidders for this than past in the Three and a half hour period.

There were also other indicators of public interest in the media. All the news channels had about fifteen minutes to half an hour slots devoted specifically to IPL coverage both in the morning and evening time slots. The print media also carried two complete pages on the match results, gossip/tidbits,