It’s 25 years of brand Pepsi in India and to celebrate that, the beverage major offered free Pepsi to all the fans who watched the IPL finals at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore. Each spectator was given a coupon for a 450 ml drink and the beverage major gave away more than 25,000 litres of the soft drink in one evening. D Shivakumar, Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo India, who took over six months ago, is one of the few who has been associated with IPL right from day one, as the chief sponsor of the KKR team in his earlier avatar as Nokia India MD. In a brief interview, Shivakumar spoke about how well the IPL has done for PepsiCo this year.

How has the tournament been this year and how has it been for PepsiCo so far?

The tournament has gone well. In the target group, essentially young people, there’s been 7 per cent better viewership than last year on TV while the digital viewership has gone up by 25-30 per cent.

Physically, every single match has done well too, after it came to India. Where there were no matches, as in Chennai, social commentary around the IPL was low. Hyderabad didn’t do well, so commentary there too has been down.

But KKR has done exceedingly well and so has Mumbai, so commentary in these cities has been good. So true loyalty towards teams is developing based on performance. PepsiCo has the pouring rights for all teams, so the visibility of our brands, the imagery and trials of our various brands have been good. The conversion has been very good this year compared to last year; we’ve been getting more trials. Smaller cities have hosted some important matches and that’s been good for brand Pepsi.

Did the fact that the first part of the tournament was played in the UAE hurt the tournament?

The high interest in the Indian elections did affect the involvement in the initial phase. But the crowds have been coming to the stadia here and the TV and digital viewership were up.

Even in UAE, the IPL was a huge draw for fans from the Indian subcontinent as the Indian cricketers were playing there after a long gap.

How do you explain the continuing success of IPL?

Pepsi IPL is a complete package – it’s successful because it’s a mix of India’s top two passions, Bollywood and cricket. The first IPL match in 2008 happened right here in Bangalore where Brendon McCullum slammed a century. And, if you have spirited Bollywood celebrities such as Shah Rukh, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty, the fans love it. It’s sheer entertainment!

Also, IPL has truly democratised talent. It’s never the stars but how the teams deliver. Each match was throwing up different heroes. It’s also giving exposure to so many young talented players.

Also, the IPL money is going back to the cricket associations, so investment in infrastructure is jumping up and new talent is being unearthed. Akshar Patel, from a small town in Gujarat, won the Pepsi Emerging Young Talent Award.

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