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STRAIGHT DRIVE INTO AD WORLD!
Riding a wave of popularity and success, Indian women cricketers are starting to make their presence felt in the cashrich brand endorsement space
When Harmanpreet Kaur scored a blistering 103 off 51 balls against New Zealand in the ongoing ICC Women’s World T20, she became the first Indian player and only the third in the tournament’s history to score a hundred at a World T20. Of course, that feat didn’t just catch people’s attention, but must have also got companies interested visà-vis endorsements.
NEW POSTER GIRLS
Women cricketers seem to be emerging, slowly but surely, as new poster girls on the brand endorsement scene, thanks to their on-field exploits. For starters, star batsman Mithali Raj, who was roped in as the face of Lia Agarbathi last year, is now also the brand ambassador of Rio Tinto’s Australian Diamonds.
Harmanpreet is the face of B Natural Juices and Beverages. The Punjab cricketer, who’s India’s T20 captain, is also the first Indian woman cricketer to secure a two-year bat endorsement deal with CEAT. Her teammate and opening batsman, Smriti Mandhana, has also landed a three-year bat endorsement contract with Hero.
Plus, Smriti has been named as the new brand ambassador of one of Bata’s sportswear brands. The 21year-old — along with Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli — has been named among the world’s top 50 most marketable athletes by a London-based agency. While Virat is at 12th spot, Smriti has grabbed the 49th place.
“Personally, I’m not very surprised with such renewed interest in women cricketers,” says adman and filmmaker R Balki. “Already, there’s a lot of attention on women cricketers. In the coming days, too, I see the interest levels going up rapidly, thanks to their sheer visibility, which will have a direct impact on the game’s commercials as well as their endorsement rates.”
Ad film director Vinil Mathew concurs. “I don’t look at it as a fad, because sport — regardless of gender — is now getting a lot of prominence in India. So, why shouldn’t women cricketers also get all the accolades? But ultimately, it’s all a function of sports infrastructure and visibility. So, the more you see them play, the more you would want to watch them in ad films etc,” he says.
ROOM FOR INCREASE
Money-wise, insiders from the ad world peg women cricketers’ endorsement deals at ₹20-25 lakh. Undoubtedly, the figures pale in comparison to male cricketers and even noncricketing female athletes. For instance, Virat is said to command a fee of ₹6-6.5 crore a day for any work in brand endorsement, while Olympic silver medallist badminton star
PV Sindhu reportedly makes ₹1-1.5 crore per day.
“It’s great that advertisers are now getting more options to leverage a celeb’s brand value. If we watch them play regularly, the relatability factor will go up. It also has a direct impact on their brand pricing,” says Mathew. Adds Balki: “Everything helps each other. So, when you watch Harman [in] ads, you would want to see [her] on the field as well. So, the future surely looks bright.”