The Hindu : Sport : Sponsors put up brave face despite India's poor show

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 26, 2007
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Sponsors put up brave face despite India's poor show

New Delhi : Rahul Dravid's boys may have bitten the dust at the World cup, but sponsors who have put in crores of rupees are steadfast in their belief that India's early exit from the cup will not hurt their interest.

``We have invested in the game, not on the India's performance. People will still watch the games despite the virtual exit of India from the tournament,'' LG, one of the official sponsors of the World Cup, vice president marketing and sales Girish Rao said.

Hutch chief marketing officer Harit Nagpal said, ``when the company decides to invest in the game, the probability of winning and losing is taken into account. It is a long term view and there will be no impact at all for us.''

The company's contract with ICC is for four years, which will give us various opportunities to display our products and services," he said.

No loss

Sony Max business head Sneha Rajan said the channel would not lose anything in case the Indian team was unable to make it to the Super Eight stage.

``Ad revenues do not depend on India's fortunes in the World Cup. The commercial slots between matches are pre sold,'' she said.

According to industry estimates, Sony is expected to rake in over Rs 500 crore from advertisements during the 52 matches to be played in the World Cup.

It is estimated that a 10 second slot is sold at about Rs 1.5 lakh for the 52 matches.

However, one of the major sponsors PepsiCo India said, the teams performance may have a short term impact on its advertising.

``Like the rest of the nation, we were hoping that the Indian teams would fare better. Therefore, in light of India's performance there will be some changes in the short term as far as advertising is concerned,'' PepsiCo India executive director marketing Punita Lal said.

She, however, said the company has a long-term association with cricket and it would continue in the future.

Part of the game

Hero Honda, one of the biggest advertiser in cricket, also refused to be dampened by India's loss and said it would continue to support the game.

``Victory and defeat are parts of any game. We have been associated with cricket for a decade and half and our commitment to the game is for the long term,'' a Hero Honda spokesperson said.

Notwithstanding the confidence expressed by the sponsors, media planners however, feel that India's bad performance in the World Cup would result in drastic drop in viewership, which may not be in the interest of the advertisers.

``India's exit from the World Cup will definitely result in loss of interest from the viewers. But, it may not affect the advertising revenues of the channels as slots are pre booked,'' Capital Advertising media manager S. Narayanan.

Some of the smaller advertisers may pull out but the bigger ones will stick," he added.

An industry analyst pointed out that Set Max could, however, incur a loss of about Rs 70-80 crore on account of unsold inventories as a result of India's virtual exit from the World Cup. — PTI

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