PepsiCo has bagged the title sponsorship rights of the Indian Premiere League for five years for Rs 396.8 crore after real estate player DLF failed to renew its contract.

PepsiCo pipped the other bidder, Airtel that had bid for Rs 316 crore.

The food and beverage major will pay nearly double the amount the previous title sponsor has been paying since 2008 for the T20 league.

IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla said, “We were expecting a jump. Contrary to other observations of IPL’s value dropping, we have got almost double the amount for the title sponsorship rights.” He said PepsiCo will pay Rs 79.36 crore every year for five years till 2017.

Commitment to cricket

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had floated the tenders in late October and set the reserve price at about Rs 300 crore or Rs 60 crore a year.

In a statement, Manu Anand, Chairman, PepsiCo India Region, said, “I am delighted that we have succeeded in re-branding the tournament as Pepsi-IPL, thus cementing a five-year partnership between two brands which enjoy an iconic status not only in India but globally. With our continuing sponsorship of the ICC World Cup, we are the now biggest supporters of the game of cricket. We have reaffirmed our passion and commitment to cricket and this investment reiterates the importance of India business in the PepsiCo global system.” Deepika Warrier, Vice-President, Beverage Marketing, PepsiCo India, added that no scale association with cricket is possible in India without a sizeable IPL presence.

Youth brand

“Now, with this association, we hope to catapult brand Pepsi to an even higher orbit as the most universal, popular, trend setting youth brand. The title association of Pepsi IPL and other benefits will allow brand Pepsi and other PepsiCo brands to gain more than conventional sponsorship benefits and generate immense universality across the country,” she said.

Brand dominance

Media planners said that while the title sponsorship deal is expensive, it will help the brand enhance its visibility and coupled with its other associations with the game help create brand dominance over the T20 league.

Sanjoy Chakrabarty, Managing Partner, ZenithOptimedia, said that bagging the title sponsorship will help the company gain high brand recall considering the IPL takes place during summer, a time when soft-drinks players make large advertising spends.

>Meenakshi.v@thehindu.co.in

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