Advertisers play ball with ISL 2018
Advertising jumps 89% during matches as 90% brands renew their commitment for the ongoing tournament
While cricket continues to rule the sponsorship charts, be it in terms of the brands that seek its association or in terms of the endorsement fees that cricketers command, football is sneaking its way into the game. Star India, the official broadcaster of Indian Super League (ISL) has reportedly targeted ~2 billion in advertising revenue from the fifth season of the tournament. It also claims to have sold more than 50 per cent of its ad inventory at the rate of ~100,000-150,000 for a 10 second slot.
The broadcaster is not the only one pitching a wider net for the league, brands that have been associated with the ISL are raising their expectations too. Ninety per cent of the brands have renewed their sponsorship deal with the broadcaster, including title sponsor Hero MotoCorp, and associate sponsors Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and DHL Express India.
The league has held the brands’ attention because viewership has been rising. According to BARC the viewership for ISL 2017-18 jumped 45 per cent from 2015, but the rise from 2016 to 2017-18 was a nominal 5 per cent. Advertisers will be tracking the numbers closely this season to define their interests for the next ISL.
For brands such as DHL, football presents a long term
engagement strategy. “Football and DHL have similar brand value— passion, team spirit— and that’s what makes us a great team,” says R S Subramanian, country manager, DHL Express India. It is also a sport followed by young adult males, a demographic that the brand wants to reach out to. According to him, the brand is looking at a target audience of young decision makers with whom DHL interacts in the metros. “We are not looking at making our brand visible, we’re market leaders. What we are targeting is a threshold to maintain that leadership that we have garnered over the years,” he adds.
The title sponsor Hero is appealing to the same demographic, it has increased its sponsorship from ~8 million to ~25 million for the next
three years last year in July. The tournament has further got on board as partners, fantasy sports firm Dream 11, homegrown sports equipment manufacturer Nivia as the official ball sponsor and sports footwear and apparel brand Zeven.
However, there is still a long climb ahead for the sport, before it can fully leverage its marketing potential. Mustafa Ghouse, chief executive officer JSW Sports and chief operating officer Bengaluru FC, feels that marketing of noncricket sports is still at a nascent stage. Though steps are being taken in the right direction, “it’s going to take the coming together of visibility, fan following and good performances from teams and leagues, for it to become marketable”. Citing how the Pro Kabaddi League ( PKL) or Bengaluru FC have managed to rope in international brands (Bengaluru FC recently signed on automobile manufacturing giant Kia motors as their principal sponsor), Ghouse says, “there’s a lot of work that happens behind the scenes that translates to making an athlete, a team or a league marketable.”
What football leagues and teams ought to do, perhaps, is press home the advantage of their association more aggressively, say some experts. Shaji Prabhakaran, president, Delhi Football Association, pointing at the overflowing basket of cricket sponsorships, feels the brand recall value in cricket has become abysmal. “Noncricketing sports haven’t yet seen that kind of a surge in sponsorships, hence investing in them has a good ROI for any brand but the brand has to factor in the audiences’ approach here. It — audience and their passion— cannot be compared to cricket,” he says. “These brands have better value and opportunity cost is less. Brands need to look at this cost of engagement seriously,” he adds.
He believes that brands need to approach the games of cricket and football differently, when it comes to leveraging their marketability. “They need to have the confidence in these sports (non-cricket). You don’t need a celebrity, rather you need to connect with the grassroots and this will happen only when the brands can optimise their reach by depending less on mainstream media and more on digital use and grassroots partnerships,” says Prabhakaran.
The brands betting on the game say they are looking long term and are also keen to raise the performance levels of the teams, to truly gain from the partnership. “Rome was not built in a day”, says Subramanian adding “what India now needs is to improve the country’s stature in world football.” He adds how audiences’ interest will peak when they get to see what they see at the global level. “We have kept our options open when it comes to associating with talent locally or at the grassroots as long as it fits our brand value and threshold,” he adds.
While marketing in noncricket sports is on the rise, what also needs more attention is sourcing local talent, providing them the best infrastructure and helping them take part in leagues. “While the focus is always on helping our athletes improve technically, we also work hard on building their brand for them and making them marketable,” says Ghouse.