The Coca Cola Tour of the World!

As of March 31, the FIFA World Cup Football Trophy has reached Belgrade in Serbia on its way to Jo’burg for the princely open

In the mean time, IPL continues to draw audiences of 240 million till date in the 3 week tournament. You know what to spend on when you pend on Tv. F1 seems to be stabilizing with the new rules too. Bahrain is going to be very well attended from the comfort of one’s own homes.. Imagine an audience of 200 million together with access to social media…

In Stadium revenues are rising for IPL | Advantage Sports

Much leass was available when we started the SPorts Marketing Channel on our Marketing Blogs here. Well today with the two new teams bidding for a starting value of $700 million, almost at par with the one Manchester United and much more than other EPL clubs, IPL has definitely arrived. More than the online chatter and Brand extent in TV ratings that routinely exceed 4 and reach a TV audience of even up to a 50 million on a single match day, it has posted a serious challenge oto NFL and NBA in its impact on gate. Where earlier Gate revenue for a ODI in Cricket was a healthy INR 40 million in a sell out, the Current IPL ticket prices are budgeting for INR 80 million or an extra $ 1 million from each of the matches at the less than 50,000 capacity Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Wth an annual outgo of $37 and $33 million from the Pune and Kochi franchises, they have to work that much harder to keep operational expenses like stadia rents low and gain on the team sponsorship and in-match revenues while making the mandatory player spend of more than $15 million and consequntly operational expenses to keep the franchise afloat. The Central sponsorship pool from the IPL dwindles starting from year 3 as well

In Stadia revenue from each packed out stadium would mean in excess of INR 3600 million or closer to $100 million for the current 8 teams in the third season, while the added teams would have a little less revenue value per ticket in Pune and Kochi but may more than make up for it by enthusiasm.

The IPL Ad bonanza | Advantage Brands

I must right now say the disclaimer as well, just in case you have expectations of more inside stories. Well, this here is just an attempt at collating all the brands that have put together campaigns in the last 2 months and as such would be likely appearing in the 50 day long IPL3..Sony having sold 600 hours of advertising in the two month fest.

The GM Cruze vs Volkswagen Touareg would definitely set the league on fire with Cruze going so far as to show two racing cars. The Tide vs Rin challenge is however unlikely to appear. A good plan would be for the SBI Life and the even newer ICICI ‘Khayal aapka’ old lady making it in the IPL. Does not sound so sporty but the older set would really appreciate during the dinner games every day from 8 pm

And come March 12, we should be rid of those abhorrent Ads from SET MAX showing gly IPL lead ins..The one about the young set commentating there is especially a known put downer. Of course, the hits keep coming from both Airtel and Vodafone..people looking forward to more Zoo Zoos. Also with the strategy break only 2 and a half minutes, there would be more urgency to stay on field. On Display boards and in stadia advertising we should get the usual supporting evidence of Hero Honda and Samsung/ maybe some LG. That is total should cover all my household purchases excet for some Tea and cookie ads..but yes the biggest budgets are likely to be that of Coke with Imran and Akshay from Bollywood and Pepsi with all its drinks and food brands, adventure sport campaign from Mountain Dew a virtual certainty

Canon’s come back story seems to be a well kept secret in the marketing circles, and we are almost sure their campaign won’t be a featured run.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkq6EpbKgM&feature=player_embedded]

A lot of the sponsor brands have run out of time to make their presence felt. I would have suggested higher visibility for some of them. and of course Irene’s Cadbury Kraft story too..

More gossip and cricketainment here..

When there is a new Pepsi/Coke campaign on air, you know that summer is near. Coke launched its new campaign with a new brand ambassador – Imran Khan. This is the first brand endorsement deal of Imran Khan. And he follows the footsteps of Mamujaan Aamir Khan who has been endorsing Coke since last few year.

Imran stars with Kalki Koechlin in the new Tv commercial. The new campaign “Open Happiness” has been conceptualised by the creative team of McCann Erickson that includes Prasoon Joshi, Ashish Chakravarty, Tirtha Ghosh and Nakul Sharma. And the film has been directed by Dibakar Banerjee. If you havent seen it yet, click the play button.

Coke’s doing that | Advantage Lifestyle

Do Over and clone yourself? | Coke Zero

Do Over in a Time Machine | Coke Zero

Thanks brainstorm9.com.br Thanks Alltop, as this was the top voted story on Brazil (brazil.alltop.com)

Get an Ad hangover | Advantage zyaada

In the age of live blogging, perhaps it was just as well that this NyTimes Correspondent ( and I almost wrote that as NBC correpondent) watched 1400 ads during the month long Olympics to deliver the verdict on advertising for NBC’s Olympics show.

From McDonalds in a desert oasis under the hot sun to six GE commercials, the snow inspired some long winded campaigns, with seven to nine NBC breaks in each hour of television.

For instance, there were eight breaks from 8 to 9 p.m. (Eastern time) on Feb. 12; nine breaks from 9 to 10 p.m. on Feb. 15; and seven breaks from noon to 1 p.m. on Feb. 21. Even as the Games ended, NBC could not stop cramming in commercials. In the final 50 minutes between 11:35 p.m. Sunday and 12:25 a.m. Monday, there were seven breaks.

Is it any wonder viewers were so appreciative when commercials were rationed or eliminated, as during ice dancing or the Canada-United States hockey game?

Meanwhile Team USA got a family home again. In Beijing, the then cash rich BofA had stepped in for a grand sponsorship for Team USA, in Vancouver the same was taken by P&G to further its 2009 Thanks Mom Campaign the link shows you the P&G grand tour de force social media support for the Thanks Mom lovers to spread the message. P&G stamps Thanks Mom for its Gold brands Secrets Beauty products, Pringles, Crest and Oral-B Dental Care. They somehow miss their Tide and Bounty shouts from the Thanks Mom gold badges, but push them in the commercials anyway.

Of course You Tube is a hot destination for everything that Corporates want to share in video right now, with Asian Games Candidate IPL T20 also getting a page on there. Some of the campaigns were indeed follow ups from Superbowl:

SNICKERS A hilarious sequel to a hit spot from the Super Bowl, which featured Betty White and Abe Vigoda, showed how hunger could turn dudes on a road trip into cranky divas — as personified by Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli. Gold. Agency: BBDO New York.

SUBWAY Several breezy commercials promised that “any, any, any” footlong sandwich costs $5 at Subway. But the deal seemed less generous when an announcer narrowed it to “any regular footlong” and these words appeared on screen: “Excludes premium subs.” Tin. Agency: MMB.

I have included Subway here for the Taco Bell ads for $5 in-stadium Bento box push campaign

India gets the Crown | Advantage Sports

Even as India retained no. 1 in the Test Cricket World Championship,


England felt a little snowed down by the weather and constuction in London and Cricket Australia battled the abnormal heat to give away shiny medals to men and women cricketers. and Atherton holds his treatise on the Ashes between England and Australia

One would have thought..

Sports sponsorships, typically bring to mind large corporations selling premium brands and products, esp because of the big-ticket expenses in purchasing and maintaining sports properties and the celebrities.

This poor cousin then surely has us foxed. Dollar General, with $6 billion in sales and 6000 stores went private in 2007 to KKR, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs’ GS Capital Partners for all of $7.5 billion, going public again last year for 30% premium over that. It may sound a big amount but it really represents a pretty small value in an Industry of Nordstrom and if you count Home self-help retail, much more. It still serves small footfall towns which are not eligible for a Wal-Mart in their area with many price points to the dollar. However Dollar General sells high quality goods and brands.

Carl Banks Teams With P & G To Officially Open Three Dollar General Stores

For several years, Dollar General has had a connection with Motorsports, particularly in NASCAR. The company is currently the primary sponsor for the #32 Braun Racing Nationwide Series team, which for 2009 is being shared by several drivers including Sprint Cup regulars Brian Vickers and David Reutimann. Dollar General and Braun have been partnered together since 2008, with the team previously sponsoring cars for Frank Cicci Racing and Kevin Harvick Incorporated. Dollar General is also active in the IZOD IndyCar Series since 2008, serving as the primary sponsor for owner/driver Sarah Fisher’s Sarah Fisher Racing team, and is the title sponsor for a Nationwide Series race held in Concord, North Carolina every fall.

via Wikipedia

It’s great to hear that and it’s a nice idea too. Maybe it’s true for NASCAR only yet, but it would be great to see sports unaffected by Companies going thru these ups and downs of the cycle as they come.

IPL on Steroids | Advantage Sports

With so much going on, it’s a wonder I still need to say that. Sorry Shane Warne, the title is not directed at you.

Here’s the hotlist of suitors for IPL’s new teams going under the hammer in a month and our Delhi Darling and mint publisher’s mainstay hindustan times is the one being quoted with this piece of big time noose::

A. ADA Reliance, Anil Ambani is going to float another company. For the Ahmedabad team
B. Cyrus Poonawalla, a local Vaccine tycoon from the race horse city of Estreet and now the North Main street..let’s say his first preference is Pune (His organization is Serum Institute)
C. Sahara’s Su’brat’o Roy who also has the Team India’s Title sponsorship – let’s say then Kanpur would be next on the radar
D. Hero Honda group, which did not buy the Punjab Kings Xi have also denied direct interest in buying a team. Their current sponsorship of the Hockey World Cup has seen them getting a range of Olympic athletes and celebrities to promote Hockey on the mind again. However, Pawan Munjal is looking to get the team under a brand of his own. He has even been linked to a Dharamsala edition.

Whichever be the second city, the Ahmedabad team would definitely roll out in a months time and with a reserve price of $225 million or INR 1000 Crores would outstrip the Mumbai Indians 2007 price tag by a factor of 2. The reserve price itself is a build of 4.5 times over the $50 million for the 2007 edition. Season Five would again see two new teams being added, and there do not seem to be speculations in the final round from more Bollywood stars this time. Patriarchal Crowd sourcing from India’s armchair tribes?

College Basketball: Busy Season

GM was the title sponsor for 25 years for College Basketball before leaving in 2009. 400 student atheletes from each university and 40000 overall participate in College sports under the NCAA in the USA each year. March Madnessevery year is about the 65 NCAA teams competing in the Offseason. Next year it may be 96.

CBS has a 11 year contract canceling this year. Till now TV rights came for a mere $6 billion. The March madness gets audiences of up to 20 million compared to a 26 million for Obama’s recent SOTU. ESPN may be bidding higher this year.

Busy Season! Bloomberg Tv also reports Google back in the reckoning for a Tv computing machine with a set top box while Buffet is doing a video as Axl Rose for the Geico Annual Day

Six Nations Rugby, competes with Cricket in the Commonwealth

Well, I guess someone knows how to play, but as CMO I want to understand what my brand will get from this game..Are there any stars I should know?

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.