Boondh boondh se sagar banta hai

NAKED EYE

Modi shows his marketing skill sets in IPL 3

By carefully and effectively slicing the IPL rights pie, Lalit Modihas proved once again that he is a shrewd marketer. As he said theother day, he has managed to double the central revenue pool for thefranchise owners. Though Modi and the IPl are not very forthcoming onthe revenues, doubling is surely good news fro the franchise owners.Season 2 in many ways was a disaster for IPL and the franchise owners,although empirical evidence in the form of research from IIFL showedthat all eight of them had made a profit. While this mystifies me, Iguess one needs to pay some attention to these numbers. For one cannotdisregard them completely. Each franchise owner reportedly received Rs67.5 crore from the central revenue pool last year and this was thebulwark of the earnings for each franchise. Team sponsorships alsobrought in an identical sum of money for each franchise owner – Rs 24crore. Other income varied and included gatereceipts, in-stadia advertising, merchandise sales, and media tie-ups,while other expenses included stadia fees, travel, stay cost and teampromotion.
Originally, the bulwark of the revenues were from thebroadcasting deal with Sony which were directed to a central pool, 40%of which went to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money.The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, afterwhich the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money5%. IPL had earlier inked a deal with Kingfisher Airlines as theofficial umpire partner for the series in a Rs. 106 crore (1.06billion) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on allumpires' uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpiredecisions.
Due to the sudden move to South Africa for season 2, IPL renegotiatedits broadcast deal with Sony. IPL had agreed to subsidize thedifference in operating cost between India and South Africa as itdecided to move to the African nation after the security concernsraised because of its coincidence with India's general elections.India's biggest property developer DLF Group paid $50 million to bethe title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013. Asfar as the renegotiated broadcast deal with Sony was concerned, 20%of these proceeds were go to IPL, 8% as prize money and 72% would bedistributed to the franchisees. The money would be distributed inthese proportions until 2012, after which the IPL would go public andlist its shares. That at least is the grand plan.
But this time round, Modi has carved new slices of the rights pie,milking it for every nickel and dime. Industry sources reckon thatsome of these monetisation deals are extremely lucrative. For instanceColors has reportedly paid $130 million for its 3 year licensing deal,100 per cent of which will be split between the eight franchises. MRFhas forked out Rs 16 crore for the blimp at match venues while Maxxhas entered into a Rs 20 crore per annum deal as the strategic timeout partner and Rs 32 crore with Karbonn Mobiles. There is also alicensing deal with Swiss watch maker Bandelier for the IPL TrophyCollection for an undisclosed sum. Further, Modi has sold thetheatrical rights to UFO Moviez, opening up a spanking new frontier.UFO Moviez expects Rs 20-25 crore revenues in the firstyear. Further in a landmark deal, the entire IPL 2010 season will bebroadcast live on YouTube,following an arrangement between the league and Google, owners of theinternet channel. The deal - under which all 60 games will be shownlive or on a short delay on a dedicated YouTube channel - will applyacross the world, except in the USA, which will have re-broadcastoptions. The agreement gives Google exclusive online rights for IPL content fortwo years, with both parties sharing revenues from sponsorships andadvertising. In fact, these deals were announced with staccatoregularity. ITV announced it had secured the United Kingdom televisionrights for the 2010 Indian Premier League. ITV will televise 59 of the60 IPL matches on its ITV4 free to air channel. This way cricketreturns to ITV after a hiatus of 30 years. No figures are availablefor both the youtube and ITV deals, but they will be worth a lot ofmoney.
That is obvious from the way Google India Pvt. Ltd has announced anarray of advertising partners for live streaming of the IPL matches onYouTube. Leading the line-up are sponsors such as the RoyalChallengers Bangalore, HSBC India, and HP India. The other sponsorstaking up the sponsorship slots include Airtel, Coca-Cola and Samsung.It is believed that the sponsorship deals on YouTube are available forbetween Rs1.5 crore and Rs 4 crore. UFO Moviez, the world’s largestdigital satellite cine network will screen DLF IPL 2010 Cricketmatches live on gigantic screen in cinema theatres across the country.UFO has more than 1,700 digital screens across India and has tied upwith Crown Infotainment who holds the distribution rights for IPL 2010to introduce IPL matches in theatres.
Similarly, mobile phone manufacturer Karbonn Mobiles, a joint venturebetween Delhi-based Jaina Group and Bangalore-based UTL group inked along-term sponsorship contract with the Indian Premier League (IPL).Karbonn Mobiles is IPL's Official Partner Mobile Phone, as also thetitle sponsor of 'IPL Nights', a show that will be aired on MTV, partof the Colors licensing deal. The deal is valued at Rs 32 crore forthe year. In another innovation, IPL is also charging a premium forsponsored blimps at the match venues. Tyre brand MRF Ltd is spendingRs16 crore to sponsor the blimps. IPL has also entered into a Rs 60crore three year agreement with MAXX, a leading mobile and accessoriesmanufacturer. MAXX will act as the Strategic Time Out (STO) partnerand add spice to the final stages of the league as the officialplay-off partner.
Then there are deals with Bangalore-based mobile firm July Systems forthe exclusive rights to the mobile Internet portal M.IPLT20.com, theofficial site for the third Indian Premier League on the mobile. UTVGroup owned Indiagames is the official gaming partner for the IndianPremier League while the Noida based GoBindas Entertainment has landedthe Interactive Voice & Video Response (IVVR) rights specifically forthe United Arab Emirates region. vRock Mobile has bagged the worldwideIVR, SMS, MMS and live score rights. Then there isSigma Ventures & DCI Mobile Studios which will develop an official IPLmobile application for iPhone, Android and other smart phones. The oldadage of boondh boondh se sagar banta hai may hold good here.
What this tells you is that if there is a will, then automtically away will present itself. In manys Modi has found his true calling onlynow. That of a marketer par excellence. IPL is here to stay and peopleare willing to bet big on it. The tournament's return to India,captive audiences and as a corollary high ratings is what advertisersare seeking. I guess Modi would have been inventive last year as well,but his bandwidth in season 2 would have been completely clogged dueto the last minute migration to South Africa. But he seems to havemore than made up for it this year. In fact, he has put in a veritablesprint this time.