Making business of sport

MARKETING: There's big money in sports. Ad agencies are now launching special outfits to handle game accounts.

It could be classified as another dimension to the 360 degrees phenomenon or it could be the next "in-thing" for agencies "" but whatever it is, sports and celebrity management seems to be the big idea for ad agencies.

Ogilvy and Mather started it about a couple of months back when it launched Ogilvy Sports. Soon after Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) launched its own, Saatchi and Saatchi has Iconix, Havas Group has its Havas Sports and has tied up with Rediff to launch their sports management agency in association with Havas group.

But what is it about sports marketing that has been attracting agencies to the genre? "Sports attracts a lot of eyeballs and interest so it offers a brand new category for agencies to broaden their spectrum," says Anand Yalvigi, business head, VGC Sports.

Somehow, sports marketing has been restricted to player management and cricket which sometimes leads to missing the bigger picture. Marketers tend to ignore that other sports like Formula-1, soccer, polo and tennis are becoming big in their own way and attract both sponsors and eyeballs.

"While cricket rules the roost and probably will continue to do so for a couple of years more, the encouraging part is that other sports are beginning to generate interest and that is the potential to tap in," says Arjun Rao, business director, Havas Sports. Only, unfortunately, all that gets marketed is cricket-related properties.

"We want a sports firm which looks beyond just managing sporting celebrities, syndicated columns or selling existing sponsorships platforms," says Yalvigi. VGC wants to do creative concepts for different sporting genres such as tennis, football, hockey, motor racing and cricket, and integrate these with specific brands.

While Ogilvy Sports managed a bumper deal when it tied up with Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen as one of their first clients and has been doing work for Zee Sports to develop the football properties, Iconix has Sachin Tendulkar in its kitty. Now, even Havas Sports is looking at going beyond cricket in the country.

Says Rao, "The potential is huge and we are looking very seriously at developing various sports marketing initiatives to capitalise on them."

But despite the optimism reflected by the sports marketing agencies, whether the business really grows beyond cricket is what remains to be seen.