The Hindu Business Line : Pitch to screen

India's debacle in the 2007 World Cup will see temporary shifts in endorsement money away from cricket. The recent BCCI diktat curtailing the number of endorsements and restricting the number of the players as endorsers has put all cricket-based deals under the scanner. While most companies have adopted a wait-and-watch approach, in the short term, advertisers who have become wary of cricket-based endorsements will seek fresh alternatives. While sports management outfits still have faith in the popularity of the game, celebrity management companies feel Bollywood and other sports may offer a temporary respite.

A comparative study between cricket and films in India done by P9 Integrated, a 360-degree international film-marketing company from the Percept Holdings Group highlights the following:

Advertising and branding in films is more effective because of its time frame, repeat value and various other media of re-runs compared to cricket which has a limited shelf life.

Cricket hampers brand visibility with high level of clutter, thus not registering in the minds of viewers, whereas films offer brands subtle, seamless and top-of-mind communication.

Brands face a high level of uncertainty when associated with cricket, because of low TRPs as a result of the outcome (as seen in the current World Cup scenario), whereas films have a captive, recurring and a growing audience base at all times.

Cricket is a high-risk, low-return mode of marketing with a high level of interruption due to commercial breaks, power cuts, cable operator limitations and channel surfing, whereas films allow brands to market themselves to their audiences with minimal obtrusion and optimum level of attention.

According to Navin Shah, CEO P9 Integrated, "Cricket has been an eye-opener and in the long term, marketers will realise the reach and power of Bollywood, which has a longer shelf life. There is an element of gamble attached to cricket and the range of returns on investment may fall to as much as 25 per cent. While there is a definite amount of apprehension behind cricket investments, Indians have short memories and things may go back to normal if we do well in the Bangladesh matches."

Prashant Singh, Business Head, Ogilvy Sport, says: "While in the long term, celebrity endorsements in cricket are likely not to get affected, in the short-term advertisers will turn to Bollywood. Other sports do not cater to a mass audience and advertisers will look at other entertainment-based alternatives. Advertisers are likely to be far less dependent on cricket and the celebrity endorsement pie of advertisers is expected to shrink by 15-20 per cent.''

While advertisers would ideally like to take a breather from cricket, the immediate need of the respective marketers (especially if they were to launch summer-centric products) would lead to a temporary change in strategy. Observes Mahesh Ranka, General Manager, Relay Worldwide (Starcom MediaVest Group's sports marketing agency), says: "Cricket and Bollywood have always been there to address the masses. It all depends on the urgency of the advertisers; anybody who feels the urgency will have no choice but to turn to Bollywood. At the same time, advertisers would prefer to wait and watch for the next two months and once we start winning, they will start loving cricketers once again. Unlike an actor whose screen presence is not for real, consumers know that cricketers are our real heroes. It is going to be subjective and depends on each marketer. In fact, marketers may even launch a big campaign and stay away from celebrities for a while to make sure they get the eyeballs for their products.''

Staying away from the game, especially if the brands relied heavily on the sport, might be temporary in nature, claims Anand Yalvigi, Business Head, Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) Sports, "Bollywood has been and will always be there for advertisers but there are other sports like golf and tennis picking up. At the same time, this would give an opportunity to the fringe players in cricket who were not getting endorsement deals so far. Advertisers will not be able to stay away from cricket as it is like religion in this country. Less than 10 per cent of the cricket endorsement pie is likely to get affected. This is just a temporary phase and things will change as we start playing the game well again. The game will continue to rule India for the next 15 years.''

There are other celebrity management companies who believe the trend of shifting away from cricket-based deals is here to stay. Claims Anirban Das Blah, Vice-President, Globosport, "The shift from cricket endorsements to other sports and regional celebrities has been happening over the past eight years and the process will now get accelerated. From 20-25 per cent of cricket endorsements, the figure is likely to fall to 10 per cent this year. And this will be regardless of how India performs in the future matches. There is emotional volatility with the sport, which is going to stay. Young Indians want to have the ability to take on the world and cricket as a game would not be equal to that aspiration.'' The Mumbai-based Globosport handles between 35 and 40 per cent of all endorsement deals, and has in its fold sportspersons such as Sania Mirza, Narain Karthikeyan and Saina Nehwal.

Besides, Bollywood stars would not serve as the right replacement for cricketers. As Sanjay Bhutiani, Business Head, BR Films, says: "Cricket endorsements are definitely going to suffer but it is not as if film stars can replace cricketers. Film stars and cricketers are like apples and oranges. The intrinsic marketing strategies will not change but there may be changes in the creative route. Advertisers will explore more options and may look at having ads without any celebrities. At the same time, cricket continues to be a big sport. Even the biggest disasters are forgotten and once the game bounces back, people will come back to it. It is all about credibility and whoever delivers that message will have the endorsements.''

In fact, cricketers will be at an advantage as they would be able to jack up their prices with their limited brands. Observes Afsar Zaidi, Director, Carving Dreams, an entertainment marketing company, "With the number of brands being endorsed being reduced to three, the value of the person will increase and there will be an element of exclusivity for the cricketers, leading to an increase in their endorsement fees. At the same time there will be no major shift between cricketers and film stars as there are rarely any conflicts between these two fields. In the short term there might be a lull in cricket endorsements but once the England series starts in June, interest in the game will be revived.''

Considering there are limited options for advertisers as Bollywood and cricket are the only properties with mass appeal, not committing themselves to either may be an imminent possibility. As Harish Krishnamachar, Managing Director, Iconix, observes, "Companies will look at their marketing support elements and might just decide to follow the conventional sources of marketing.'' Krishnamachar, whose agency handles Sachin Tendulkar's brand portfolio, says that while there are few long-term brand endorsements in the Rs 700-crore celebrity endorsement market, of late the fortunes of both film stars and cricketers in their personal capacities have become rocky.

The BCCI check on brand endorsements is only going to make things worse for the `real heroes' who have to look at alternative revenue streams.

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