The IPL Rub-Off: Sponsors may find it tough

Though Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural, historic IPL, Bajaj Alliance (team sponsors) maintained a low profile. Wondering why they didn't cash-in ...

One reason for not cashing in: they spent quite a pocketful on sponsoring RR - didn't leave them with much cash to follow the win with more marketing. 

Another reason: probably they were scared that a marketing campaign pegged around Rajasthan's win would have impressed just the Rajasthani's. 

Regional team sponsors, by nature, can get only one big thing out of such sponsorship arrangements: brand awareness. A little bit of regional brand-loyalty as well ... but nothing great on the national front. (The story would be different, of course, if the team is actually a big-time brand in itself - the rest of England might hate AIG for it's ManU association, but AIG was out there to impress the world).

Moreover, when the league is an infant, it's the the teams that normally look upto the established brands for some personality rub-off - not the other way round.

The greedy guys at the BCCI went after creating money, not value. I would have loved it if the BCCI played a waiting game with IPL as far as the revenues are concerned.

The maximum value would have been created if one team was given to the Ambani's for a lower price, another to the Tata's, and yet another to the Murugappa group. They could have easily roped in Walt Disney too. Each match, then, would have been a contest of a different kind - with drama, and more interest from the drama-loving junta (finally, during the second half of the IPL, these guys had to resort to creating a Oh-My-God-Bhajji-Slaps-Sreesanth act to excite the disinterested mob).

I thought when launching a new sports product, the synergies should be towards making an appropriate brand, not money. IPL, could have been much better. However, today, at least I perceive it as just another league.

I also feel that it was imperative for the BCCI to bring a western brand like Walt Disney to be a substantial part of the IPL. They would have brought all the unique competencies of advanced sports marketing - something that a product like IPL would have desperately required in the first 5-6 years.

I had once interviewed (for my dissertation) some top-notch BCCI professionals, some budding cricketers, and a very famous columnist. Everyone spoke low about BCCI, and the reason they cited: is it's inherent greed.

I am sure the BCCI's aim is not to make a 'professional league' out of this whole IPL thing. It's to make money. They would love to shut it down as eagerly as the started it - if it stops bringing short-term revenues. Knowing BCCI, and it's modus operandi, I am pretty sure that the bubble will burst without fail, and it will happen very soon, *if* professional sports marketing efforts are not put into it.

Especially because IPL is not about the sports business and the emotions attached to it off-field - it's just another entertainment option for the average consumer. It's not sports business - it's purely an "entertainment business". It's competing with "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" - not with the English Premier League.

Moreover, in sports, we Indians really care only if the national team wins, and also if a bunch of star players are involved consistently.No body would watch India play if the Dhoni and Yuvi won't feature. Even if it's Ind-Pak.

Then, we Indians don't find our own, Indian brands very seductive. We love and endorse the West (name 10 Indian "brands" that we are proud of, and I will pay for your next coffee). We love ManU-Chelsea, but don't care about the far bigger rivalry of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal (ofcourse, the latter hasn't been promoted as well too) ...

If you are not an idealist by the time you are twenty, you have no heart; but if you are still an idealist by the time you are thirty, you don't have a head.

Randolph Bourne