The Hindu Business Line : AIR-tight!

IT seems to be the season for the lesser rated to stand up and be counted. First, it was the rookies of the Indian cricket team who, even in the absence of some of its biggest stars, set up victories down under. Now, in the context of the same series, it's the turn of All India Radio to show that it is capable of being marketed successfully as a stand-alone; Doordarshan wasn't in the fray, as the television rights went to ESPN-Star Sports.

The radio service arm of Prasar Bharati has, until now, earned over Rs 3 crore from selling its ad inventory for the current India-Australia-Zimbabwe tri-series — a total of 15 match days. AIR, which had projected earnings of Rs 2 crore from this series, has overshot forecasts by over 50 per cent. What's more, there are some more slots still on offer. And although the remainder, selling at Rs 3,000 per 10-second slots, wouldn't amount to anything substantial, the bottomline of the entire exercise has been that the AIR name carries enough value of its own, says Sukhjinder Kaur, Director (Marketing), Prasar Bharati.

After discovering the virtues of jointly marketing Doordarshan and AIR during the earlier home series against New Zealand, it was back to square one for the Prasar Bharati marketing team, which this time "didn't have anything to package (the AIR's offer) with."

The earlier effort, of marketing two Test matches and 10 one-day internationals involving India, Australia and New Zealand — a total of 20 match days, fetched the marketing division just over Rs 90 crore, with Doordarshan netting a whopping Rs 88 crore.

This time, the organisation also took "a conscious decision" not to bid for the telecast rights of the Test matches that preceded the one-day series. It reckoned advertisers would be less inclined to take up ad slots, and it would also mean lesser chance of commercial success, says Kaur.

Although AIR had a lone pitch to make, it adhered to one of the vital learnings of the earlier series: Not to allow advertisers to pick and choose the days on which they want to advertise.

"This time, we made packages and strategically marketed them," says Kaur. So, the main sponsors — those who pitched in with Rs 25 lakh each — were given 660 seconds per match while the associate sponsors — those who contributed Rs 15 lakh each — were allotted 380 seconds of ad time each match day.

The package deals were sold out within a week in mid-December itself, claims Kaur. While Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Hindustan Lever, National AIDS Control Organisation, Indian Oil and Ministry of Finance (for the India Shining campaign) chose the higher tier, Hero Honda, Oriental Insurance, Dabur, Glaxo, Reliance and the Income-Tax Department were the associates. Also, AIR roped in sponsors for different `titles' such as fall of wickets, boundaries and overs. In addition, there were sponsors for the hourly updates on FM1.

And in an attempt to increase the scope for ads, AIR came on air 20 minutes prior to each game, with its pre-match talk and had similar sessions during the lunch break and after the game, says Kaur.

The next big event for the broadcaster is the India-Pakistan cricket series, which is going to be the first `full' series between the two countries to be played there in 15 years. Although the Dubai-based Ten Sports currently holds the telecast rights for all international cricket matches in Pakistan, Doordarshan is trying to get to air at least highlight packages, say reports. AIR, however, has bid for broadcast rights, and negotiations are on with the Pakistan Cricket Board, says Kaur. And "we hope to market it even better."

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