Non-cricket sports grab advertising monies

Non-cricket sports and sports personalities seem to be attracting a lot of monies from traditional advertisers. Jumping on to the bandwagon are companies such as Maruti Udyog, Mercedes Benz, Britannia, Nike, ING Vysya, Parle Agro, Vizag Steel, ITC Hotels, Reebok, Tata Group, Indian Oil, and the Andhra Pradesh Government. Upcoming young talent such as Sania Mirza (tennis), Virat Bhadwar (golf) and Pankaj Advani (billiards) have been attracting the eyeballs of advertisers.

The sports management and marketing industry (outside of cricket) is estimated to rise to Rs 2 billion (industry estimates) out of a total of Rs 8.5 billion (GroupM-Pitch magazine estimates). From a mere lakhs, non-cricket personalities have been procuring endorsement deals worth millions; moving into the ‘Rs 10 million league per deal’ hitherto reserved for cricketers or Bollywood actors.

Also, ‘sports stars’ have realised that their income from the game could account for merely 30 per cent of what they could actually earn in totality — with the rest coming from other opportunities.

“Like our successful global counterparts, tod-ay’s generation of Indian sports stars understand this theory conceptually. Also, we are looking for partners providing more accountability and credibility in deals. Also, partners, who understand the balance that sports personalities need to strike in field and non-field events, are solicited,” says Mirza.

Incidentally, Mirza, who admits needing Rs 3 million p. a. for tennis-related expenses, is on a signing spree: Lotto sports gear, Hindustan Petroleum Corp., Malabar Gold Jewellery and Tata Group deals. Her agency Globo-sport is very clear that on-field activities will always take priority.

.. To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated March 28-April 3