The Hindu Business Line : Nike to stay on pitch

Bangalore March 26 Nike, the official apparel sponsor of the Indian cricket team, is putting up a brave front, despite India's early exit in the World Cup.

Stoutly denying that India's failure to qualify to the Super 8 will affect Nike's brand image (Nike was one of the first brands that broke its marketing campaign around cricket this season), the company says it would stay committed to the sport.

Said Mr Sanjay Gangopadhyay, Marketing Director, Nike India: "Our marketing initiatives around cricket were planned till the end of March 2007. We will stay the course. Winning and losing is a part of every sport. Our commitment is to the sport and hence we will continue to support the game at all levels." He also denied that the company would incur any loss in revenue terms.

Mr Gangopadhyay said Nike would not pull out its television commercial featuring cricketers Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan. Explaining the theme of the advertisement, he said the commercial was about "the celebration of gutsy cricket. Cricket that is "daring and breathtaking ... the way the game is really played on the streets of India. It's a hard, tough game played by 15-17-year-olds who can swing a mean ball or drive a bludgeoning bat on the maidans and gullies of India. These are the kind of guys who really, truly represent the passion for the game in India. And these are the kind of guys shown in the commercial. Zaheer and Sreesanth have a cameo appearance in the film and are seen to be engrossed in the game being played by the cricket crazy kids."

On whether its deal with the BCCI as the Indian team's official apparel sponsor would continue, Mr Gangopadhyay said: "The contract is for a period of five years beginning January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2010."

Reynolds' take

Mr Vishwadeep Kuila, Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), GM Pens, says brands that take on celebrity sportspeople as ambassadors have to be prepared to take the downs with the ups. "You have to hedge your bets - you may not spend money on such advertising right now, but it's not as if audiences won't ever come back to cricket," he says.

For its part, GM Pens, which has Sachin Tendulkar for brand ambassador, doesn't have "such a volatile reaction," says Mr Kuila. The brand had anyway decided to keep out of advertising during the World Cup. Its campaign will go on air only when schools reopen after the summer holidays. Going by the mood of viewers, it will decide whether to feature ads with Sachin in them or others, he said. "It won't make business sense to feature Sachin if sentiments are low," he says. GM Pens had earlier told Business Line that the brand was looking at an alliance with Sachin beyond his cricketing years.

Mr Kuila says film stars don't have such a hard time of being ambassadors. It's in sports that fans deify sportspeople but drop them like hot potatoes when their luck changes, and brands have to factor all that in, he says.

However, he says contracts with sportspeople are usually not performance-based. The brand reserves the right to drop the celebrity if they get involved in a scandal or they are dropped from the team for more than 5-6 months or are injured and not playing or retire from the field.

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