Ramdev plays Swadeshi card: IPL ducks the Patanjali googly; does it matter?

One of the biggest advertisers across media today, Ramdev has declared his brand out of the annual cricket jamboree

Ramdev has spent the past couple of years carefully building up his Patanjali brand of products as a back-to-the-roots, pure-swadeshi label. Be it the advertising he does, or the fights he picks up with global brands, the image of a nationalist brand taking on the invading and exploitative multinational has been meticulously nurtured. The strategy has worked phenomenally well, catapulting Patanjali from near nothing to a company with Rs 100 billion worth of net sales in 2016-17. However when the 52-year old yoga guru announced last week that he was going to stay away from the two-month long Indian Premier League (IPL) because he did not want to associate with a foreigners’ game, his words barely caused a ripple in the IPL fan and advertiser base. Is it a misstep or, just a smart way to keep the Patanjali brand in the spotlight?
 
The IPL starts on April 7 and it has emerged as one of the biggest events on the country’s advertising calendar in recent years. This year is expected to be no different as media planners and buyers investing on behalf of their clients on IPL say that Star India, the official television and digital broadcaster of the tournament, has been making aggressive presentations on the profitability of the association.
 
The broadcaster has already announced that 34 brands have signed up as commercial partners for the TV and digital broadcast of the tournament. While IPL title sponsor Vivo will be the co-presenting sponsor along with Coca-Cola and Reliance Jio (on Star’s channels), Parle Products, Makemytrip.com, Asian Paints, Polycab, Vimal Pan Masala, AMFI and Dream 11 are the associate sponsors.
 

Industry estimates peg co-presenting sponsors have spent around Rs 700-800 million each for the association, while associate sponsors have paid around Rs 400 million. Star India, media industry sources say, has set itself a target of around Rs 20 billion for this year’s IPL. Star won the global media rights to the IPL for five years for a bid price of Rs 164.38 billion.
 
Given the scale of the event and the phenomenal viewership it garners, few advertisers want to stay away. Especially one as media-savvy as Patanjali, which has consistently been among the top 10 advertisers list published by the television audience measurement agency BARC through 2017. Patanjali has not only been a big advertiser, but also a sponsor of local sports tournaments (in kabaddi and wrestling). It is possible therefore that the brand does not want to dilute its identity. While that may be one reason for staying away from IPL, say experts, it is more likely that the astute marketer that Ramdev is, he asked himself whether IPL would make a difference to Patanjali at all. The answer may have swayed his decision.
 
Will his absence impact the IPL? Media and advertising experts say that the IPL is a mature property and is capable of attracting sponsors and advertisers even without big players such as Patanjali. “Patanjali is a big brand, yes. But ayurvedic consumer products do not really need a platform such as IPL, which has a male skew,” says Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer, Harish Bijoor Consults.
 
In a statement Anil Jayaraj, executive vice-president and head of ad sales, Star Sports,  said the response to the tournament from advertisers had been good. “Brands are actively choosing the IPL as a marketing vehicle since it can deliver their business objectives and ambitions for the year,” he said. Jayaraj also added that the brands who were part of the tournament had chosen to up their investments over previous years.
 
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which organises the IPL every year, has also individually tied up a few sponsors for the tournament this year. On Wednesday, the BCCI signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Tata Motors for the IPL. The sponsorship will see the automaker showcase its new Nexon sports utility vehicle in the stadium across all matches, with on-ground engagement plans and merchandise. Last week, the BCCI also extended its association with Paytm, the title sponsor of Indian cricket, to the IPL. It announced that the mobile wallet would be the official umpire partner for the next five years.
 
Experts say that in this battle that Ramdev has called for, there are no losers. While the organisers of IPL will double down on their efforts to fill up the slots as the tournament dates close in, brands will also look to get in early to beat the anticipated rise in ad rates. And Patanjali would have managed to reinforce its aggressive positioning in the consumer goods market.
 
The recent Pitch Madison Advertising Report released in February says that Patanjali has jumped ten places into the top five list of advertisers in India due to its aggressive marketing and brand communication. The report pegs its annual advertising budget at Rs 5-6 billion with the firm using television in particular to drive home its message. Ramdev himself has admitted in the past that it was advertising apart from distribution that helped his ayurvedic brand gain currency in a marketplace dominated by multinational companies (MNCs).
 
“The only way I could fight the MNCs and inculcate in people a sense of what was their own was to enter the (advertising) ring and drive home the point firmly and repeatedly,” the yoga guru once famously said about his combative style of advertising. With his latest salvo, he is merely playing to form.