Let the carnival begin…
...as marketers go gaga, selling Goa!

(column by Aditi Soni)

Be it advertising awards, talent hunts or film festivals, Goa almost certainly figures as the venue for most big-wig gala events that make it to the headlines. The partying never ends in this western coastal state which boasts of splendid beaches, beautiful churches & castle like houses. Reason enough that Goa has been crowned as one of the favourite destination for millions of tourists across the globe. But, the popularity of Goa’s sun-kissed beaches does not come easy, with marketers (both within the state government and outside), leaving no stone unturned. Armando Duarto, Manager – Travels, Goa told 4Ps B&M, “We’ve initiated festivals in Goa throughout the year. In October, we’ve Chocolate Carnival, which attracts a large number of children followed by the Football Fest in November, New Year & Christmas in December, the Wine Festival in January and then the Carnival Celebrations are lined up for February.”

Unlike any other travel destination, the Government of Goa has made special promotional efforts to position the state as a 365 day holiday destination. Armando further adds, “We’re branding Goa as a lifestyle and year long tourist destination because of the social climate of the state. Every year we witness a large growth in tourists from different cultures.” These efforts can be dated back to 2002 when a contest titled Dil Chahta Hai in association with Star Plus & Air Sahara was organized to give impetus to domestic tourism.

Last year too, Goa Tourism development Corporation Ltd. Tied up with Go Air to develop a common brand ‘Go Goa’ under which Go Air passengers were given special rates in Goa hotels & other free offers were included in the scheme. Further, a unique promotion was undertaken by Big FM recently to acknowledge the cultural heritage of the land of Goa or the ‘Big Wonders of Goa’ campaign wherein listeners vote for their favourite monuments. This hub for film festivals and award functions, Goa – Vasco DaGama’s destination has truly transformed itself into a dream destination.

(End of Aditi Soni column)

People Movements

• Sanjay Menon recently joined Mudra Ahmedabad as Executive Director after completing 12 years at Grey Bangalore. He had quit Grey in February, where he was Branch Head and Regional Creative Director, South.
• Anand Narsimha who was Chief Executive Officer at MASH-Madison Shopper Marketing recently has joined Bates David Enterprise, Bangalore, as Vice President (Strategy & Knowledge). Bates India CEO, Subhash Kamath remarked on Anand’s strategic competence, as his two decade long experience is likely to play a crucial role as a change agent for the company.
• Hakuhodo Percept’s CEO Bose called it quits at the agency and partnered Sangeeta Sen, Former VP, Creative, Hakuhodo Percept, and Reet Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of Arms Group, to set up Arms Crestra.
• Mohit Rampal has been appointed as the new country manager for 3Com India. Rampal will be responsible for all sales, customer and partner programmes. He has over 17 years of experience in IT networking, IT security and telecommunications.
• Rediffusion DY&R recently roped in two very well known creative heads, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar and Ramanuj Shasrty and appointed them as Chief Creative Officers. Mahabaleshwarkar was earlier working with Ogilvy as Creative Director, while Shastry was the National Creative Director of Publicis Ambience.
• Rajat Sethi, Chief Executive Officer, Wonderman India, an integrated marketing solutions company, put in his papers recently. Sethi will be replaced by Sathyanarayana who was serving as VP at Wonderman, Mumbai.
Compiled by: Priyanka Rajpal

Batting for the golden goose
Watch how Pawar and Chandra are slugging it out for the coveted trophy. And there have been no maiden overs yet!

(column by Siddharth Nahata, Priyanka Rajpal)

The year 1991 came as a watershed. The Indian economy broke free from the shackles of decades of inward looking policies that curbed its potential. Circa 2007: Indian cricket is all set to be unchained from the monopolistic hegemony of its master of many years, the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI). Upon liberalisation, big business names like the Modis, Dalmias, Shrirams and Nambiars (business monopolies in the pre-liberalisation regime), succumbed to the challenges thrown by the post liberalisation scenario and withered away. Similarly, with a dream of replicating Australian biggie Kerry Packer’s action-packed cricketing thriller in the 1970s (which gave rise to today’s hugely popular one-day cricket), media magnate Subhash Chandra’s Indian Cricket League (ICL) has invaded BCCI’s cricketing turf, complete with a war chest of Rs.1 billion. With ICL knocking on its doors, has the beginning of the end for the very cash-rich BCCI (net profit of Rs.2.32 billion in FY07) begun? Or will BCCI manage to deliver a bouncer to its challenger?

Sharad Pawar is digging out every trick from his cricketing bag to protect the BCCI turf from an ICL onslaught, even resorting to some Machiavellian tactics to curb ICL’s cruise, among them blacklisting players, selectors and whosoever dares to associate with ICL; as also hiking up fees for all its players to avoid attrition. Legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, who showed the audacity (?) of publicly siding with ICL was sacked within hours by the BCCI from the chairmanship of the National Cricket Academy. BCCI is clearly feeling the heat.

But it will be a big mistake to underestimate the cricketing behemoth, which has managed cricket in India for close to 75 years. Says Rahul Mehra – the only lawyer who has fought and won a case against BCCI for fiscal malfeasance, “BCCI has always threatened, bought off or manoeuvred a way out to succeed against its opponents.” So of course, there are little chances of BCCI letting go of its monopoly control over the money-spinning game.

ICL may feign hurt at BCCI’s stiff upper lip reactions, but for tough man Chandra, tough times have never lasted long. Remember how in the 1990s, he successfully broke the monopoly of Doordarshan among Indian television viewers? Or even how over the last one year, he’s managed to trip Sony television and race ahead in the TRPs game? Chandra’s enthusiasm is infectious as he believes, “A professional league is the need of the hour as is the killer instinct in the players...” He also says that his ICL is certainly “not in conflict with the BCCI, but is complimentary to it.” Unperturbed by BCCI-led hinderences, ICL is steadily gearing up for the days ahead. Ashish Kaul, Exec. VP, Essel Group told 4Ps B&M, “No doubt, there are others who claim to have developed the game in the name of destruction and marred it with gradual decline and decay; To all of them I say, let the best team win!”

For an inning’s start, ICL is maintaining a steady average without loss of any wickets. With players from the India’s dream team of 1983 and mighty names from the international circuit – Dean Jones, Tony Greig, Inzamam- ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Klusener, Boje – supporting the structure, ICL’s foundations looks rock solid. The League has even been able to win support of the Railway Minister, Lalu Yadav, who has offered stadia under his department at ICL’s service.

Monopoly allegations…
Even apart from the hype, the score is already 1-0 in the tight match between ICL and BCCI, in favour of ICL. On September 6th 2007, BCCI received the first shock of its crumbling monopolistic status, when the country’s anti-monopoly watchdog MRTPC initiated investigations against BCCI for bullying players, ordering the Director General of Investigation and Registration (DGIR) to probe allegations that BCCI has threatened players of life-time ban if they play for ICL. Even in 1994, BCCI had been fined by DGIR for adopting restrictive trade practices and the ghost has come back to haunt the apex cricketing body.

But the going’s not as easy for ICL either. Subhash Chandra, in the hope of breaking BCCI’s monopoly, has brought in more than 50 cricketers (from the domestic as well as international arena) and plans to kick-start his own series. However, unlike Kerry’s story, in case of Chandra, not even a single player from India’s playing eleven has switched their guard toward ICL. Chandra’s camp is full of players who are either on the verge of retirement or those who had long been waiting to get a chance to play in team India. The gargantuan task that stands ahead for Chandra is how he will recreate stars out of retired players, new kids on the block and ones who have been washed-off from spectators’ heart because of their average performance. Even more daunting questions for Chandra are: who will watch the game without the big league stars? Let’s not forget that even at the Ranji level, despite a plethora of senior members and stars, enthusiastic spectators and sponsorships are tough to come by. So without stars and viewers, will hefty sponsors bet on ICL? Chandra, who has already floated initial proposals to various media buying houses, clearly believes that they will. And media planners across the board agree whole heartedly.

“It should be amongst the more marketable local leagues in the country with LIVE television backing it up. ICL could also drive sponsorship throughout for a brand for a particular city; not very common otherwise,” Praveen Sharma, COO, Madison Media told 4Ps B&M. He adds that ICL would provide another window of sports sponsorship opportunity to brands. When quizzed about the revenue generation plan, Kaul of Zee was non-comittal. “It is far too early to discuss revenue plans. The key challenge is to stay focused and deliver what we promise, a talent pool that will be nothing but the best,” he told 4Ps B&M.

Clearly, it will not be an elephantine task for a sharp businessman like Chandra to capitalise on the huge hype that has been created around the League. Irrespective of the absence of star players (at least to begin with), there’s no dearth of companies who will willingly shell out moolah in the name of cricket. Reportedly, for ICL’s upcoming 20-20 tournament, Airtel and Future Group have been signed up as the sponsors. And despite the price of the sponsorship being all hushed up like the ‘dead man’s chest’, the buzz in the market is that the sponsorship comes with a price tag of Rs.3 crore.

Moreover, for brands that were unable to catch the cricket inferno on the BCCI route, it will be a case of re-birth in the cricket sponsorship domain. Explains K V Shridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett, “At present, ICL poses no threat to BCCI as far as snatching sponsorship rights are concerned. But ICL is a great opportunity for cricket and advertisers.”

So yes, for now, ICL is not infringing on BCCI’s moneybags, but hey, as smaller brands (that couldn’t touch cricket or cricket players because of their sky-high prices) start aligning with ICL, rest assured that big moneyand bigger brands will follow suit, as they do in the multi-billion soccer and basketball leagues in Europe and the United States, respectively. As for Sharad Pawar and gang, the time has come for the big brother of cricket to watch his back because big marketer Chandra means big business.

(End of Siddharth Nahata, Priyanka Rajpal column)

The Road Ahead!
Rahul Mehra, Advocate, Supreme Court speaks to 4Ps B&M

(column by Megha Jaitley)

MRTPC says that no individual organization should have a monopoly. BCCI threatening to take away the benefi ts from players, who join ICL will have a major impact in court. BCCI has been pulled up by the MRTPC even in the 1990’s. This is going to be a battle of egos and it will be very interesting to watch how the court handles it. For BCCI and ICL, there are three routes open: a merger, an acquisition or battling it out in court. I personally believe that there’s enough space for both of them to co-exist. There is a huge vacuum in India’s cricketing domain and many can share the pie. Look at the television industry, NDTV, CNN, CNBC, AAJ TAK and hordes of other news channel co-exist peacefully. I know from sources that BCCI had been in talks about opening a parallel league for months, but the question is why did they had to wait for ICL to wake them from their slumber and announce a league after them. All said and done, we should not forget that BCCI is very politically driven and in politics, you don’t (cannot?) stay enemies for long. BCCI will do whatever is benefi cial for them first, and then whatever is benefi cial for the game. The 75-year old cricketing body may well come up with a business proposition for Chandra, which the businessman in the Zee supremo, will find tough to ignore!

Kapil Dev speaks to Planman Media…

Your reaction to BCCI’s treatment with you?

I’m not angry at all. I have always believed that people associated with these boards must have respect for the sportsman and I am glad that my country can see that too. We don’t need Businessmen and politicians on our boards, but unfortunately our system does not run without them. And if today I want to change that, what’s the issue? The board says that one cannot work for two organisations, but we have created only a small league to have tournaments. What’s wrong with that?

How did you get involved with the ICL?

To be honest, it was great for cricketers! Mr. Chandra looked at it as a business opportunity and as long as it is benefiting sports and the sportsmen, I have no problem. Financially sound individuals are behind the plan and they will see it through.

Will your involvement with ICL make any difference to fans and players?

It’s difficult to say. I hope it all remains positive. But you try to do a 100 positive things and 20 do not work. I just want to see sportsmen in our country ready to take up challenges. We want to do well in sports, but our culture isn’t geared toward sports. ICL has done something that I never thought could happen.

(End of Megha Jaitley column)