Cricket bowls a wide ball for ads

Burden Of Brands: Marketers Pulling Off Campaigns Associated With Sport

ADVERTISING is about relevance and Indian cricketers, fresh from their ignominious exit from the World Cup in Caribbeans, are no longer relevant to marketers. After durable maker Videocon, foods-to-hotel major ITC, and brand Pepsi’s Blue Billion campaign, a host of other jilted marketers are pulling their much-touted cricketers and World Cup-related ads off-air. In another brand rescue act, Pepico India has yanked-off Mahendra S Dhoni-starrer ad for its clear lime drink 7 Up. Lifestyle and sports brand, Puma, had canned its ad with newly-appointed brand ambassador, Saurav Ganguly, even before it saw media light. Such is the disappointment of putting all their eggs in the cricket basket that many a marketer is preparing for all eventualities now, including key players being dropped from the Indian team, and even the unthinkable just a month ago — Sachin Tendulkar, who has over 12 brands riding on him, calling it a day sooner than later. Why, marketers across categories are even preparing their brand blueprints, sans cricket and cricketers. To be sure, no one will say it in so many words, not as yet, but the writing is all up there on the wall for anyone to read. “Our association with cricket is tangential through Saurav Ganguly, therefore, we are not hit as badly as some other brands which had their entire communication around cricket and cricketers, planned much in advance of the World Cup,” says Puma India MD Rajiv Mehra. Global ICC sponsor, Pepsico is learnt to be working on a new campaign for brand Pepsi, sans any cricketers, to break around the April 15. Even for 7 Up, the company is believed to be shooting a new ad sans’ Dhoni or cricket. Another big ICC sponsor for the last eight years, LG, has decided not to even run for ICC global rights, 2007-15. In fact, ICC is finding it difficult to garner the $60-million price tag apiece it had put on four of these rights. “LG is not going to associate with cricket on a long-term basis. We’re through with establishing our brand salience and therefore cricket doesn’t fetch us the same value it used to,” says LG India VP sales & marketing Girish Rao. “No contracts can be cancelled. Only World Cup related advertising which has been rendered useless has been pulled out. Dhoni’s ads for Orient and Sonata are still on air,” says Jeet Banerjee, MD, Gameplan Sports, which manages Dhoni, Robin Uthappa and Munaf Patel. Be that as it may, but clearly sports management agencies are all too aware that endorsement rates for cricketers, post the World Cup fiasco, will go down by 20-25% and the worst hit, some say, may be younger, upcoming brand ambassadors such as Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Harish Krishnamachar, managing director, ICONIX (Saatchi & Saatchi’s talent management agency, which handles Sachin Tendulkar’s brand portfolio), accepts a likely cut in endorsement rates to take place. “There would be a medium-to-short term correction which would be a drop of around 25%.” When asked about the concerns over Sachin’s retirement and how it would impact his on-going contracts, this is all Krishnamachar had to say: “It is not possible to give details on the terms and conditions of the various contracts .” Though it is well known that ICONIX roped in Tendulkar with a Rs 80-crore, five-year deal, industry insiders say that no performance clause was inked. “Essentially, Sachin has everything to gain in the deal with a minimum of Rs 30-crore ensured annually and ICONIX stands to lose if Sachin fails to perform. Obviously Sachin will not be out of the team till he retires but his non-performance will be a burden for ICONIX,” says a senior executive. Incidentally, the only non-performance clause that brands can enforce are if a player is not selected in the national side for three months. The contract does not cover on-the-field performance, something that actually affects viewer sentiments and therefore (brand) purchasing intent. “Our involvement with Sachin runs much deeper than mere World Cup-led ads. Even if he retires today, his iconic image stays,” says one marketer who uses Sachin as its brand ambassador.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes

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