Sports never had it so good. After a crowded march with superbowl, IPL and more, June is a buzz with the Soccer World Cup, Tiger’s comeback and the inevitable Federer vs Nadal showdown at the Wimbledon starting today.

The Federer vs Nadal franchise has its own life with dedicated web sites, wiki pages and Tv spots ( those in India on Bloomberg today). Federer’s lifetime earnings of $51 m dwarf Nadal’s $32 million. Of course Federer is not getting good odds this time, he being in pursuit of his seventh Wimbledon title and Nadal has never really won on grass, monopolising the Australian and French Open courts. That does not stop the sports fraternity from contrasting the two greats with their superior style and the rcognisably different schools of play in inimitable tradition no lesser than a McEnroe vs Bjor Borg or Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe and of course Stefan Edberg

The team’s corporate sponsors have held conference calls to voice their anger at the players’ refusal to train.

There are very few active sponsors out there who take pains to step on to the field and some may still debate whether they have such a role to play , in any sport. However Corporate sponsors and budgets are an important part of the team’s brand and they need to carry a fiduciary responsibility, to be executed in a formal role withe the team. It may seem opportune here that this might happen thru an existing sports functionary on the team. Similar fracas in IPL with team owners or the clubby nature of teams in NFL or the NBA show light on the critical role team owners and sponsors play.

However sports persons are right in their sometimes standoffish stance to these entreaties  in that this role is sprung on them and typically on a bad day. Though formal processes are over hyped and narrow in approach, sports persons can’t be expected to absorb the role of the sponsor/owner as and when it happens and debates on such interventions during disruptive climes are warranted.

In this particular case as well, there will be popular support for the action and sports officials will be on the wrong side arguing for the sake of argument or apologising for their poor performance in front of a theatrical act. It may now become important for everyone to assume the important role of corporate sponsor into the team’s fabrc and provide a discerning option for sponsors and/or corporate owners that want to distance themselves from the game.

While we were tempted to carry this opinion in our financial research streams, we thought it wise to let the game go on without this undue stress.

Ft.com

Sponsorship and TV rights of the French national team are worth €70m ($86.3m), according to Les Echos. The team sponsors are retailer Carrefour, utility provider GDF Suez, Crédit Agricole, SFR, the telecoms company, and sport goods maker Adidas.

And China never qualified

In a eerie blast of icy change, today’s LA Times blogs carry Asian stories prominently leading with rural BPO in India and blogging about how Soccer is still alien to China. Knowing our asian brethre, they wouldn’t be far behind next time in Rio..

But it’s orbit is equally and more so defined by Beer and Coca Cola. YOU ARE YOUNG! Drink Up. [I am a great fan of the beer in question..Here's to FIFA World Cup, Germany and Brazil]

Jay Leno got ahead of Conan simply because the audiences wanted to call it a day earlier and now by September Conan will be back…$30 million a year for another Saturday Night Live..Viewers outside the US fall for Soap and Sports but also more business news content thant Stand up comedy, but that just shows they haven’t seen enough Tv yet..And then there is a dozen of those reality TV shows like American Idol and $6 billion from CBS to broadcast NCAA Basket ball for 11 years for ..behold.. 96 teams.

Here’s the amazing takeaway from a piece of Nielsen History

When Arthur Nielsen introduced the Audimeter (his first metering device) in 1936, there were only about 200 television sets in use worldwide. When the Nielsen national TV measuring service was established in 1950, the average American household that owned a television had only one set and received three network telecasts.

Also these American only contnet or Indian only Content all spliced by one You Tube and one google.com..enough ofr a lifetime of internecine fighting and back biting..with Jay Leno at 10 p.m. Content will win, not advertising.

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 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.

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

Mukesh Ambani and Subrat Roy have bid for the last decade’s strong Liverpool Franchise which also got entangled in LBO debt from its new American owners, while Chelsea sweats it against Inter Milan and others and Manchester United starts its Champions League tour despite new losses to Everton and others in the Barclayscard Prremier League

Heineken, Sony, UniCredit and Mastercard are the four Official partners for the Annual Champions League from 2009 till 2012.

David Beckham’s LA Galaxy played again in the 2009 MLS Finals losing to Real Salt Lake in the transatlantic adventure which draws good crowds of 40,000 + in the finals in the NFL and athletics/NBA hungry USA. The UEFA Champions League Finals draw network audiences of greater than 100 million much like the Superbowl. Also both game finals and in game advertising is a virtual beer fest, Heineken stimulating the taste buds here with more subtle and more impactful campaigns by Heineken.

The Spniash Liga Clubs Real Madrid and FC Barca ar the most frequent winners of the league till date, with the current winners FC Barca laying claim to some really expensive non tweeting contracts like Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

TOTALBARCA.COM The numbers show that FC Barcelona’s argentine forward Lionel Messi is the most expensive player in the world, estimated at around €80 milion, five more than Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who is estimated at €75 milion.

Just player contracts take the FC Barca value to $771 million and a probable UEFA league value to $6 billion, giving Soccer feasting audiences a voice in the brand analyses citing the rankings between NFL and IPL.

And no Peter Jackson either..

If you mind us being on a holiday, write to us and we’ll write more often

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.

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.

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?

Bangalore has its own Wax works at the Innovative Film City from Luis Tussads along with the Ripleys Believe it or Not stuff at the Innovative Film City

Transport for London, Swedish Local Government , would these be comparable brands in the next two years? How about Field Hockey? Will the Indian consumer catch the Kraft bait? Will Bollywood sponsor another game? Banks are still in the game. In fact ING and HDFC Bank had just started in Asia. HDFC Bank is around with Fatafat Cash too..but no ING, no Citi, no BofA after the Mets game or the Mariners , take your pick.

Meanwhile, the others we didn’t let you know and The Big Kahuna who has it all on a chart Look out for the fangle dangle on the right listing all the fan sites for the ads..( A few Facebook pages too)

MCDONALDS: The Ads again a Basketball biggie, with Dwight Howard and LeBron James

McDonald’s has signed LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers to a multi-year deal that includes promotional and fundraising efforts.

BOOST MOBILE: The 1985 Chicago Bears reunite to perform a new version of the Super Bowl Shuffle, this time pitching the prepaid wireless carrier.

Coke, Mr Burns?

DENNY’S: The restaurant chain is giving out free Grand Slams again and shows what the announcement will mean for chickens. (And if you don’t know about the DEnny’s Grand Slam breakfast, write to us & we’ll fill you in)

DOCKERS: Men march across a hillside, singing happily about not wearing pants.

KIA: Children’s toys joyride in the Sorrento SUV. They go bowling, get a tattoo, and party in Las Vegas, set to rock tune “How do you like me now?” by British band The Heavy.

HOMEAWAY.COM: Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as the quirky, traveling Griswold family, sends viewers to a 15-minute film on the company’s Web site.

SNICKERS: Actress Betty White plays football actor Abe Vigoda also appears.

VOLKSWAGEN: The car brand reinvents the game of “Punch Dub” to acquaint Americans with its lineup. Comedian Tracy Morgan appears. The ‘Ouch Dub’ is a hard punch on the face, Don’t drive if you get one.

TACO BELL:Charles Barkley rhymes about the NBA 5 Buck Box. Two Tacos, a Burrito, Cinna Twists and a Drink. Barkley is a well known commentator who played for the ‘Pho’ suns

Yup, i’m hungry..for the game.

Hockey as in the National Hockey League, just about to finish a season even as Hockey India jumps over last minute hiccups to get on with the IHF Hockey World Cup in the plains..The game was pretty famous as the poor cousin of Cricket and is popular in both the World’s fastest growing economies and Europe, Malaysia, Korea and Australia. Some Latam nations play the game fine. The money in the game is up for grabs for any discerning global brand that wants to make a global impression, just like American Hockey

In a rare gesture, the Cricket body BCCI lent a big hand to the Hockey game this year.

NFL Cheerleaders promote the NFL Superbowl in Shanghai. Did you also notice the World Series Baseball is as popular in Japan and Korea as the homeland? Of course we export Cricket and esp npow the $3 billion IPL ( Valuation likely to go up by 50% by the time March ends! And Superbowl was sold cheaper this time..:lol

The #1 in Sports, NFL has been pretty up to it with Videos on the web as well. Though the audio streaming is what is made available for live games, it has done well commercially with the prodyucts and the quality of time delayed Video snips available has been able to let them make a boast about their online business and their network. The live score trackers would be an amazing model to replicate for IPL and others in the Soccer world that want to compete for the game.

The range of videos on the home page cover previews, controversies and coach points of view on the game among others. No riff raff.
The Game Center tracks all the 16 games in a season weekend live, with the game interface allowing you to trace all game drives and getting you special live treats in the red zone ( when the ball is in for a score) The F1 web is a sight too. But NFL is good.

The PEPSI sponsored fantasy tidbits and the full fledged fantasy game for example definitely should be beating the bezezes out of CBS and ESPN. Why it hasn’t translated to the NFL network making a grander statement on TV is another matter

The infamous You Tube is getting on the bandwagon with the latest hot button games from India. The $2 billion IPL franchise has given exclusive rights to You Tube to get its matches telecast live to millions across the globe.

It’s Audi’s third Superbowl now and Scott Keough, Audi CMO makes a great ambassador across Forbes, Adage and other business knowns, publishing his great.

As Scott Keough mentioned to Forbes last week:

The migration from luxury cars is playing into Audi’s hands. Consumers are separating old luxury with brand baggage from new, sleek, light luxury. They’ve moved away from old badge brands, but they’re moving toward substance and technology. We’re finding that people appreciate Audi for being an understated brand.

According to the Adage video Podcast, Audi’s budget for the year is up 20% selling more Clean Diesel to Americans against the odds. It’s campaign last year proved that it doesn’t take much to send all the 1.5 million BPD of Saudi Oil back. The campaign is a refreshing reminder to Dodge, Ford, Nissan and BMW that they need not just their car models on a highway in their next advertisement on the network.

Hyundai’s Joel Ewanick on the other hand will continue to upscale Hyundai’s offering from cheap small cars. The company guaranteed new buyers a year’s worth of gas at $1.49 per gallon after early 2009 ads promising good credit history failed to click. Hyundai’s advertising has ben the exact unremarkable variety with cash backs, discounts and a full screen car close up that has characterized informed Car advertising in the US for the past two decades.

With Digital Advertising revenues up 15% for 2009, linkages to online business models have become critical for Superbowl campaigns since last year as well when Go Daddy, Careerbuilder and E*Trade successfully converted their euphoric ad response into instant online Karma. Audi however has tougher eggs to fry with each unit purchase of the advertised product costing a tangible % of the cost of production of the advertisement and even its $2.6 billion Superbowl insert charge paid to CBS.

Audi’s 2009 Ad dented the value proposition of the Prius and set new standards for Car Advertising in the crunch season. FOR THE VIDEO CLICK HERE

The other Superbowl campaigns continue to work around their old favourites, Coke using anime in the Avatar campaign, more than a couple of banned commercials in, with KGB the newbie also adding a couple. Doritos campaign is still choosing the winners and CB and EA will be their toning down their inital ads. Bud’s burning down a house made of beer cans alone.

In Car business, Toyota has to get a Social Rebound budget to make up for $1.6 billion lost in 4 weeks of Sales shutdown ( 20000 Cars at $20k per week)

Coca Cola Company also sells a range of Vitamin Water and Gold Peak Iced Teas. Coca Cola’s advertising spend for 2009 topped $2.67 billion, running ahead of the combined Kraft and Cadbury spend of $2.25 billion. Coke’s budget is less than 1/3rd of the global spender P&G or 1/2 that of Unilever, but none of those two have any significant Title sponsorships or Sports Partnerships to their name.

The other FIFA Title sponsors are Adidas, Emirates, Sony, Kia (Hyundai) and Visa. These deals were signed in 2007 and expire together in 2014 for FIFA Partners

The five sponsors additionally for the 2010 Cup in South Africa include Budweiser, Castrol, MTN, McDonalds and Continental. Each of these deals are more than $100 million just for this event. Satyam was deigned the Official IT Services Partner along side in FIFA’s heirarchy for this as well as the Cup in Rio.

There is also a third tier of National Supporters that include Telkom SA and other South African Businesses.

COCA COLA’s sponsorship as FIFA Partner runs till 2022. Commercially, The FIFA partners had individual contracts, with Emirates paying $195 million for the two cups in South Africa and Brazil. Sony’s contract is worth $305 million excluding services and product leases

Well, that’s all for now..I’ve to pay my visits to the F1 and the Superbowl coordination as well, Bud is burning up the house this time I believe..(Bud spends less than $1 billion and mostly on Football by any other name, lol! – that beer gives me a kick. And yes, I look forward to Maan ka Khaana vs Akshay’s Coke thunder at the IPL

Aside #1: Since 1968 when Virginia Slims was created by Philip Morris, the female consumer has enticed and bedevilled market research. Current reseach shows that in the 48 years since 1960, The Moms have indeed come a long way, 3 out of 5 work, they get wed at 26 instead of the age of 20, and 2 out of 3 go to college and even though average “take home” has gone up 18 times, they still earn 77% of what men earn in comparable jobs in the workplace. (Courtesy: Ad Age, The rise of the real Mom, adage.com)

The new Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 Formula One car, which was unveiled by British F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, at the Vodafone headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire, Britain, 29 January 2010.

They also get the two Drivers Button and Hamilton to carry them everywhere. Hamilton spun around the world on a civvies tour for Vodafone last time to meet Zoozoos in global megapolis’

The deal will see Vodafone’s 3G network customers being offered exclusive content to watch on mobile phones.

That’s from the original 2007 Contract..Whatever happened to Wimax, MNP and Churn? Vodafone quit Manchester United sponsorship in 2006 ($14m, GBP 9 mn) , and they had a contract with the English Cricket Team till this week when the South Africans played them.

It’s a Colts vs Saints Superbowl. Both teams had a near perfect record in the league stage. However Saints in their first Superbowl have a Brilliant Drew Brees to start and one of two teams in the Championship with more than 400 Yards. He is also 1 TD and more and 5 Interceptions less than Peyton Manning

At $2.6 million per 30s spot, all available slots except 2-3 in the final quarter have been sold out. CBS is presenting the bowl, while Intel is hosting the post game show with a new campaign similar to the “Sponsors of Tomorrow” meme.

Roughly more than a 100 million people watch the Superbowl, and it is a marketing event to loof forward to. Pepsi withdrew from it citing a different way forward than the “punch in your face” Superbowl ads required to make an impression

IPL waiting in the wings

Mumbai Indian Shaun Pollock at a little golf

IPL of course has Coke and Vodafone taking the lead in marketers. The Vodafone Zoozoo campaign has taken most of the Top 10 spots in the current Livemint Synovate AdIndex analysis in Brand Recall and Reach. I am hoping the Bachchans with their Lux creme campaign will be there too..

A mini series between india and South Africa

With Dhoni and Sehwag shining in spots and Dravid and Tendulkar resting after a very long innings it is a good time for test marketing a couple of new campaigns.

and an Australian Open final without Nadal

At the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne

Australian Open did lose Qantas after 23 years, but KIA Motors has affirmed sponsorship till 2013. Their live radio feed is pretty useful too. Australian Stars go for as little as a $100K Dollars ( 1A$ ~ 1USD ), the highest being $450K for swimmer Graham Thorpe. The Aussie open gets 500K spectators and the KFC big bash less than 200K.

More than 200 million viewers watch F1 across 200 countries while the Cricket games in India easily reach 20-25 million. IPL is expected to reach a domestic audience of 45 million again with an equal number internationally. The F1 tour starts in March.

The Drivers: Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg
Reserve(cooling his heels): Nick Heidfeld ( earlier with Sauber, Williams)

Schumi comes back after a long break as does Mercedes. The F1 championship starts in Bahrain in the first week of March and then in Australia, at the end adding Korea, Brazil and Abu Dhabi after Japan to end on 14th November.

Each race brings approximately $200 million to the host city annually including 3 days of luxury tourism, hotels, gate money and sponsorships. The 13 teams spend a week in the city with a crew of 20-25 people per team and some very heavy equipment across each of the 19 circuits.

The Delhi race to be added in 2011 will be hosted on anew race track being built at a budget of INR1800 Crores or $450 million.

A primer for the 2010 season

US F1 is talking to Daneca Patrick and Kyle Busch for 2011. Chad Hurley of You Tube owns the US F1 team. The Car is a Cosworth engine.

Virgin is also entering a F1 team in the 2010 Championship as the Manor team (John Booth) running Cosworth Engines driven by Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi.

Campos GP run with a Spanish agency, Meta Image will be banking on Bruno Senna to drive them home again on Cosworth Engines

Cosworth is coming back to F1 with Williams, Lotus and the three teams above. The 3.0 liter engine that propels 260 HP and more

Sauber is still in taking Toyota’s place on the grid. Jose Maria Lopez has taken Argentine Government’s help and gained enough personal sponsorship to drive for the US F1 team.

A host of GP2 drivers have been in demand as money has very much left the game and budget limits imposed on each team. It is still $30/40 million per team and Ferrari is still competing.

IPL’s rising valuation

Some of us thought that given the brand valuation riding two cliffs already, the third valuation cliff will bring direct benefice to the Franchisees. Again however, the League has stepped in, making it a rather well-managed larger cake to share. Yes it’s Google You Tube and given the fracas regarding free feed available and the growing no. of broadband users in India, the Commonwealth and across the pond in US, it is time that IPLT20.com shared the traffic with someone like Google who can definitely manage. the total brand valuation of each team now should cross $300 million and the two teams included would have a value of $3 billion which the teams are directly partaking

Go-(ogle)-ing Online

Also we know from our marketing reviews that Online advertising has already been assigned a higher than 2-3 times of the 2007 budget in 2008 and 2009. For regular Cricket and IPL sponsors, that budget has now got a real value for money click at you tube. A streaming IPL telecast, stopped by 5 minutes over the live feed on TV has not cannibalized much in audience terms. Of the universe of 20 million Indian Households ( assuming a peak of 10% of our Market, for TRPs/GRPs/Planning) and another 5 million in other Cricket playing nations, very few would switch off the TV for watching it online. However another 5 million in the USA and maybe an equal number in the 100 odd ICC affiliates would now e able to access live IPL from work and home without resorting to educational and pleading campaigns to promote the game. The USA has obviously thought about Cricket T20 leagues domestically, and the same can be sold much better with a near live feed from the pilgrim’s home as it were.

Going Social

Given the short version’s quick knocks, it isn’t surprising everyone with its popularity on social avenues. Everyone IPL has a presence on Facebook and Twitter and we will monetize together with Facebook and Twitter as well as with the IPL teams

An IPL Brand value for your brand

That said, there were other inelegant reasons, that plagued IPL’s media presence.  Given the lesser budgets and the pressure to earn a tangible ROI, the first lot of advertisers would be a narrow set of new and committed brands. The Vodafone ZooZoos campaign took more than a year to come to IPL, Coke has designed a new campaign for the first time and Pepsi and Hero Honda were the other known brands in play earlier and would probably cross produce online ads as well. The smaller unknowns like Havells and Rajasthan Royals themselves have a unique opportunity to build something lasting, while teams would look to emulate the Royals in getting higher valuations and pawning off minor stakes in the team to build a reputation of positive brand valuation and a mean profit.

Two new teams right away

But enough of boring essays, the game deserves a quick repartee more than extremely long and broing writings and speeches right now. There would be many more chances to dice and slice the IPL’s universe of brands and media rights before we reach a stable set of teams, players and valuations.

The new teams would be more than willing to give a $300 million bid to get a team in IPL. I think the first ones were to be from Ahmedabad and probably Kanpur/Lucknow. Amar Singh would surely be around one of the teams in the latter case. The number of brand ambassadors and co-owners may be willing to lend a hand may not matter as there are only two teams this time around, with a purse that would easily reach $300 million for the franchise itself and only about $100 million from shared rights that Google would have paid coming in as defined revenues. It is a long term commitment and any serious brand missing the opportunity will not be able to come back in this short version of the game. Take out your chequebooks, gentlemen!

The few notes of caution

Some diplomacy would be hurt in each edition of the game with tangible and some larger intangible costs. NFL in its current form was worse off even after 80 years of the Sport and till the 60s. Here, the English, the Pakistani and the Aussies and the Boks would all feel like creating a turf to defend against this juggernaut. It would happen in some form or the other and has to be absorbed in the spirit of the game.

The other note of caution, the tangible returns of each such $1b in rights or $100 million in seasonal costs are not here yet. But they will come and projecting them should be very easy for the owners and the administrators. Also India is already bringing more than 85% of the money to the game of Cricket. The IPL is definitely tilting it into the nervous 90s. The new owners would need to back it with real commitment and the ability to hold themselves from wasting too much of it on the wrong thing. Enough Said.

Branding Cricketainment

Lalit Modi also declared new official entertainment partners in the new Viacom sensation “Colors’ doing it for Cricketainment. The deal would have easily fetched IPL franchisees $20m each if not another $100m. In fact, the price may be revised upward very soon

“Cricketainment has always been IPL’s nature. Today we add ‘Colors’, the number one entertainment channel, as our partner,” said IPL chief Lalit Modi to announce the three-year deal the Twenty20 league has entered into on behalf of its franchise teams.

“There will be pre-match and post-match fashion shows, rock star concerts and other events,” said Modi with Bollywood stars Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty, part owners of IPL teams Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals flanking him.

Modi said that the IPL was just a facilitator in the deal and all the money accruing from it would go to the franchise team owners.

The other partner following ESD in the poor brethren would be the on site ‘caterer’ or the food connoisseur who would be establishing standardised menus at all venues for Food and Drink. Probably coördinated color uniforms for the staff and some own sell out publicity . The new IPL Food and Beverage partner is “Red Partners” for just the current season ( One year) This deal would have come to $40 million or thereabouts, still adding INR 20 Crores of 200 million to each team’s kitty.

More profit

This year’s  gate revenue would likely also cross $40 million while, Sony is set to make a cool $1 billion from ad bookings. Franchisees receive $120 m from Sony

Pete Cashmore broke the story socially here

Ofcourse, more germaine to Asia is that game called Cricket! This KFC campaign was for the IP’s early ancestors that feature the Australian provinces fighting for the cup.

Sports are back in town

We’ve tweeted about CBS’ success with Superbowl before. It is this year and it has won in more ways than one. The Superbowl’s runaway success brings to us a changing avatar with new brands that are more familiar to the global marketplace. We global travelers definitely look a li’l more acquiescing to the ads even if it is likely to be drab and dull on the field. Go Charlie!

Superbowl ads have been a favorite for new brand launches and the global professional fraternity has indeed been screaming loud and clear to get more meaningful brands and this CBS Superbowl is welcome in getting Unilever Dove men’s care brands, Papa Johns and Diamond Foods’ Popcorn and nuts a wider audience and greater brand recognition. A revolution brought about by us, Twitter and those global viewers that are also looking forward to a more direct competition between NFL and IPL in this season. And even as the greater games of Football and Cricket are headed for a more direct marketing showdown.

That subject in more details at the motherlode Advantage Brands

“Last year, time was being sold entering into a recession,” Mr. McClintock said. “This year, it’s being sold apparently coming out of one.”

Another difference is that a year ago, many marketers that bought Super Bowl spots were playing down their participation, fearing that the sour national mood made the usual hoopla seem inappropriate. Now, though, the hyperbole machine is being cranked up by many sponsors as they seek attention for their ad plans.

Although Super Bowl ad mainstays like FedEx, General Motors and Pepsi-Cola have said they will skip this year’s game, several newcomers have signed on, along with advertisers that buy Super Bowl spots irregularly.

They include Boost Mobile; the Census Bureau; Dockers, sold by Levi Strauss; a line of men’s skin care products from Dove, part of Unilever; Electronic Arts; HomeAway, a vacation-rental listing service; Knowledge Generation Bureau, which offers a text-message information service under the KGB brand; Motorola; Pop-Secret popcorn, to be advertised with a sibling Emerald Nuts in a spot being bought by Diamond Foods; the truTV cable channel, owned by Time Warner; and Volkswagen.

“There comes a time to step out of your comfort zone,” said one first-timer, Chris Moss, creative chairman at KGB in New York. “We’re confident we can give viewers something entertaining to watch with a little more standout than the rest.”

via Advertising – Super Bowl Ads Sales as Economic Indicator – NYTimes.com.

Something for the new kids on the block

Of course we welcome the texting team from KGB on board. And their superior punch in 3 Q3 spots will definitely be their one and only chance to get yummy action. And we love the nuts even more. The KGB hotline is 542542.

However, CBS may not have won over the kingdom yet and the next Superbowl may be back with the old favorites GM, Pepsi and more Bud flowing..

This post is draft. if you think you can help Advantage zyaada align these images on this page, come get us.

A media juggernaut can roil Edberg?	Elin Nordegren (2004)
At the Dubai World Championships	Cricketers Wives
Presidents’ Cup in coordinates	Brady and Giselle at an NBA game
Button and Jessica Michibata	NASCAR Fans outside Las Vegas with welcome sign
Kolkata Knightrider Owner Shahrukh Khan	Preity Zinta without the Punjab Kings XI

Apart from this, team revenues would also need to rise vertically again for season 3 as time for rebidding is close at hand and some voices will already be contemplating new team mates in the pits. If not, trading is likely to get very ham handed despite the adding teams in during seasons 3 and 4

Here are the few tweets about the rights being granted and what has been happening:

What are the revenue share arrangements for ESD? and ESD with Mall/Theatre operators? MSM pays 80% to IPL till season 5, 60% till season 10

As per GoI broadcast Ministry rules all DTH providers have to get the channels from MSM, now if ESD uses at theater?

Big TV had earlier pulled out of a on ground sponsorship whn Airtel earned on-air DTH rights from MSM, Coke has on-air rights, Pepsi on grnd

MSM had earlier paid $1.79 billion to IPL for telecast rights for 10 years and the 160 cr settlement later for season 2

ESD would thus control IPl coverage in cinema, stadia and other public places for 10 years..they should pay the TV ntwrk used for broadcast?

Entertainment Sports Direct wins IPL ‘theatrical’ rights for $71.7mln till 2019 from Season 3 on, That means TV networks would now bid again

Lakers shining the Suns! At least NBA fans in India are happier with the new ESPN India imports

The Sales numbers from Apple $AAPL though their self congratulatory notes don’t sound too polished http://ping.fm/DESi9