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| Indian Premier League: Returning home |
| Aminah Sheikh / Mumbai Jan 26, 2010, 00:05 IST |
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Indian Premier League (IPL), the annual Twenty20 cricket championship aired on SET Max, will make a homecoming of sorts this year. In 2009, the second edition of IPL was played in South Africa because it coincided with the General Elections and the country’s security apparatus was stretched. This time it’s back to the country of its origin.
IPL has since its inception been promoted as Manoranjan Ka Baap (the father of entertainment) by SET Max. With this aggressive positioning, its campaigns have come to be eagerly awaited. This time, it has launched a campaign that plays on the theme of homecoming. The first commercial with Sourav Ganguly, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, is already on air. The campaign has been devised this year by JWT; the IPL matches begin some time in March.
“The idea was to reciprocate the nation’s feeling. So the campaign this year will focus on IPL, and its players will say ‘We missed you too’,” says SET Max Executive Vice-president Sneha Rajani. The marketing and communication budget for IPL 3 is learnt to be 20 per cent higher than IPL 2.
“During IPL 2 there was a vacuum with the matches not being held in the country. There was no buzz here at all and we wanted to address that through our campaign for the upcoming season,” adds Rajani. She admits that the stakes are higher for SET Max this time, and so it wants to make sure the festivity around the event is revived.
Media experts believe that the communication aims to promote IPL 3 as the biggest entertainment event of the year with a lot of buzz around the players and celebrity team owners from filmdom, all laced with glamour. Some feel that the event now needs to be promoted right through the year. “The mistaken belief that teams have of starting their campaigns just a month before the matches has to be addressed. Teams and the IPL board should promote the event throughout the year,” says Grey Group Asia Pacific Chairman & CEO Nirvik Singh.
Multi Screen Media (formerly known as Sony Entertainment which owns SET Max) has always innovated with its cricket to break the clutter. Way back in early 2000 when the channel won the telecast rights for the ICC (International Cricket Council) tournaments including two World Cups, it introduced a female anchor for the shows before and after the matches. While Mandira Bedi went on to become a household name in the country, an element of entertainment was added to the gentleman’s game.
“We have always promoted cricket as not just another game but an ‘entertaining event’. With IPL we needed to come upfront and communicate to the viewers that SET Max will bring to you the father of entertainment. We didn’t want to talk about IPL being club cricket and so on,” says Rajani.
With IPL 1 being a hugely successful show, ousting out other television shows across general entertainment channels during the 44 days the matches were played, viewers were looking forward to the second season in 2009. “Having experienced the success of the first season of IPL our strategy was to connect with the viewers at an emotional level and we did that by simply saying Ek Desh, Ek Junoon (one country, one passion,” adds Rajani.
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