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Rina Chandran

Mumbai , Aug. 14

INDIA is a one-sport nation - and for too long now, sports marketing activities have also been largely of one kind, i.e. broadcast. The medium has remained underdeveloped because of a lack of accountability and systems of measuring effectiveness.

This is the gap that Starcom Sports, the specialised sports product division of Starcom Worldwide, plans to fill with a comprehensive business model aimed at bringing greater accountability to the medium.

It is estimated that about Rs 350 crore is spent every year on sports, and TV makes up 56 per cent of this spend; endorsements, signage and syndication account for only 31 per cent of the spend. And, despite the growing interest in football, hockey and motor racing, almost 90 per cent of the Rs 170-crore that is spent on TV is spent on airtime on live cricket matches with India participation. "The medium has not grown quickly enough because of the sponsors' inability to judge the effectiveness of their investment - there is a lack of a scientific, ROI approach," said Mr Ravi Kiran, Managing Director (West & South) Starcom Worldwide. "So we want to put in place a framework that makes decision making easier, helps evaluate effectiveness and brings accountability and transparency to the medium, which will allow marketers to tap its full potential."

Most marketing options so far have been driven by the supply side, and confined largely to broadcast, signage, some endorsements and newspaper column syndication. Even these - in sports other than cricket - have been driven by the personal passion of top honchos in some corporate houses. Therefore, options such as grassroots-level events, merchandising and commercial ownership of clubs have not been tapped. The market itself is not very organised: there are about 15 sports vendors who are "reasonably organised", and many more one-man enterprises, Mr Kiran said.

Starcom Sports will offer marketers the opportunity to develop an integrated sports marketing strategy, with tournament sponsorships, endorsements, clinics, sales promotion, merchandising, syndication and broadcast. Its business model also incorporates decision-making frameworks, audit and evaluation systems, and supervision of implementation. It has already wet its feet with a grassroots event in Mumbai earlier this year, the Western Union Money Transfer Mid-Day Race for Pace, pegged as the largest talent hunt for pace bowling.

"The advantage of a local event is that it involves the local community, and gets a lot of local media coverage."

The division is now in talks with various organisations to form partnerships in the areas of PR, events, programming and broadcasts, and recently hired Mr Pranay Anthwal as Group Head of Starcom Sports & Digital.

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