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Sankar Radhakrishnan

Dramatising the potential of the giant advertising screen at Chennai's cricket stadium as a medium of advertising was a task Tech-Eye Consulting set out to accomplish.

Minnie Menon, Managing Consultant, Tech-Eye Consulting

IT was on December 29 last year that Minnie Menon, Managing Consultant, Tech-Eye Consulting, got a call from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) about an interesting venture. The assignment was to market advertising time on the giant electronic screen that had been installed at the M. A. Chidambaram in Chennai. But there was a catch - she had to rope in the advertisers in time for the one-day match to be played between England and India on January 25 this year.

With less than a month to go and an almost new and untested outdoor medium to promote, Menon had her task cut out. "We not only had to develop the pricing strategy and sell the ad time, but also had to dramatise the potential of the giant screen," she says. In addition, there was also the question of deciding just how the ad time on the screen should be sold. Putting the ad capsules together and coordinating with Sportsworld - the company that was operating the screen - were other tasks that had to be performed.

The first issue that Tech-Eye tackled was deciding on the time slots for the ad capsules. With a little under two hours of advertising time to sell, Tech-Eye zeroed in on six possible slots: before and after the start of play, during the lunch break and the drinks breaks, after the fall of a wicket and the changing of ends after each over. Once the time slots were decided on, the next challenge was to come up with packages that were priced just right, given that the medium is a relatively new one, at least in India.

Says Menon: "We created three packages, with pricing on a sliding scale. The more advertising time the client bought, the lower the cost per 10 seconds." So while the top-end package was priced at Rs 3.75 lakh for 750 seconds, the cheapest deal was Rs 1.44 lakh for 240 seconds. In between was a package priced at Rs 2.5 lakh for 450 seconds.

Persuading advertisers to opt for this new in-stadia medium, however, was not as difficult as the company had anticipated. "Thirteen out of the 17 advertisers we sent proposals to responded," says Menon. These included national advertisers such as Henkel SPIC, TVS, LG Electronics and Madura Garments, and also local businesses such as Prince Jewellery and Nippon Enterprises that operates the Konica franchise in Chennai.

"The one factor that probably appealed to all the advertisers was the possibility of targeting a captive audience," comments a former adman. He adds that the novelty of the medium and the positive rub-off likely from associating with a cult sport such as cricket also brought in the advertisers. These views find an echo in what the advertisers themselves had to say.

"We decided to use the giant screen because of the sheer novelty and newness of the media," says Oscar Braganza, President, FoodWorld Supermarkets Ltd. He adds that the company also hoped to benefit from the association with cricket and the ability to reach a captive audience.

Similarly, Princeson Jose of Prince Jewellery says his decision to advertise on the giant screen was prompted by the novelty of the medium and by the reach it offered. "Putting an ad on such a screen will definitely enhance our brand image and we can get maximum mileage," he adds.

Likewise, A. Satishkumar, Managing Director, Henkel SPIC, says the reason the company opted to advertise on the giant screen was because "we had a captive audience of 40-60,000 people in the stadium". And with its target segment in mind, the company chose to advertise only its `Fa Men' range of products, adds Satishkumar.

And though Satishkumar and Braganza say it's a little too difficult to comment on the effectiveness of the medium, they both seem to be satisfied with the decision to advertise. "Of course, we found it cost-effective and we are satisfied with the results even though it is not possible to quantify them," declares Satishkumar.

Menon too is extremely satisfied with the results. "We exceeded the financial targets and got positive feedback from the advertisers," she says. Ashok Kumbhat, Honorary Secretary, TNCA, is equally pleased. "We got a fairly good revenue from the giant screen, given that there was very little time to organise the whole thing," he says. He adds that the ad revenue generated by the electronic screen was around Rs 35 lakh.

He's also upbeat about the future of the medium, as is Menon. She says several advertisers are keen to enter into long-term associations with the TNCA for advertising on the electronic screen.

However, Jose of Prince Jewellery says the cost of advertising on the screen was a little high. "If we find that the cost is economical and if it covers a large audience, definitely we will use the giant screen again," he adds. FoodWorld's Braganza, however, states that it's premature to say whether advertising on the electronic screen at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium will continue to be a part of the retailer's promotion strategy. Satishkumar, however, is confident that this new medium could be a part of future ad spends by Henkel SPIC.

"This medium's edge lies in its ability to target specific audiences, and captive ones at that, plus the association with a cult sport like cricket," says Menon. For advertisers, that may just prove to be the right cocktail.

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