AN

ASSIGNMENT ON
THE IPL WAS WELL MARKETED








The IPL was well marketed

IPL (Indian premier League) is a perfect combination of Sports and Entertainment. It
brings the cricketers of varied nationalities together on same ground, paying big
amount of cheques to them, involving business houses and sponsors, glamorous
cheer leaders and Bollywood personality as brand icons. Thus it is a union of multiple
stakeholders on a single platform with high yielding rewards. It lavished the game of
cricket, and cricket lovers to an altogether different experience with a unique value
proposition.
It could be the celebrities, foreign players, after match fashion shows, social cause
and initiatives, commentaries from experts of the game, attractively packaged
memorabilia everybody had something to look forward to.
If we look deep into the operating model of the event, it basically focusses on the
following points:
1) A good thriller with a tight script which grips the audience It is like two hours
of a Football match or three hours of a movie which is short and exciting. This
is its unique value proposition.
2) The game of Cricket has a very strong Emotional Connection in the Indian
Context.
To understand the viewership of IPL, we must understand that there are two types of
audience:
a) Audience through TV forum: These are mainly people who are far off from
match centres or those who couldnt purchase tickets (be it scarcity or
prices) or these could be family members/Individuals who prefer watching
over TV.
Because of the buzz and awareness created by the events, because of multiple
reasons as we have seen above, in the period of the IPL launch the stadia were never
found vacant. Therefore IPL has been mainly a media event, and for success of a
media event it is necessary to evaluate the two very important points:

- Is there a captive audience? Yes there is an audience. It just requires a TV
and a cable connection. No age and gender bars exist for this programme.
Anybody in family or individuals can watch it. There is no demographic or
psychographic segment. Subsequently, it has been observed that the TV ratings
spurs.

- How much would be the Advertisement Sponsorship? On an average one
advertisement for 10 seconds slot costs INR 4 lakhs in the final rounds. It could
have gone higher as there were no competitors. Sony (SET) was the only
communicating channel.

Marketing Strategy followed by IPL:
1) Screening of IPL matches in malls, restaurants, movie halls etc.
2) Effective use of social media
3) Travel tie-ups with various IPL teams
4) Following the patterns of International clubs and auction methodologies
5) Innovative deals with many business and corporate giants.

Gauges for Brand Success:
1) An important gauge factor is number of footfalls in stadium. This varies from
city to city and match to match. The range lies from 30% in Mohali to 100% in
Kolkata. Again it is a sign of brand awareness.
2) Sponsorship- Through a bidding process, IPL has attracted number of sponsors.
Out of which DLF has been the biggest sponsor.
3) Other activities associated with IPL: The whole experience of IPL is based on
the theme of enjoying cricket and this has given IPL a focal point around which
other activities are organised. The popularity of this event can be measured
from the number of consumers who wear t-Shirts and jerseys that showcase
their support to favourite teams even during non-season period of the game.
This gives the consumer an experience, a feeling and excitement of belonging
to a group.
Could we say that IPL is a successful media event?
1) We cannot say specifically that IPL has been a successful media event because
this was the first of its own kind, and yet many more to come in the coming
years. There was no comparable event in the Indian television history which
could set a benchmark. Still overall this in itself a success story as far as
awareness, association and fan following is concerned. The numbers are
attractive.
2) It has been also found that there has been a significant amount of drop in
traffic in malls, restaurants, multiplexes, pubs etc. during the IPL phase. This
drop was to an extent of 15-20% in many cases. Eventually these places also
began to showcase the IPL matches on big screens at their counters to retain
the traffic and foot-falls.

REFERENCES:
1) IPLs Cricketainment is a marketing and branding case study MTI MTIs
Delhi based Shanker Bhattacharyya shares MTIs strategic thoughts, analysis
and learnings from the IPL.
2) http://marketingbloggers.in/2012/09/05/ipl-was-well-marketed/ IPL was
well marketed, by Fayaz Shariff on Sep 5th, 2012.
3) http://recordsinajournal.blogspot.in/2011/01/ipl-was-well-marketed.html
The IPL was well marketed? by Shiva, Januarry 30, 2011