Does IPL have the potential to be India's Superbowl?

The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the premier association of professional American football. It was first played on January 15, 1967, as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the America Football League (AFL).

In 2010, it completed 43 years and has come a long way. Today, it is considered as a pinnacle of any sport in the world. Consider the following for the Super Bowl in February 2010:

• An estimated 106 million viewers watched it.
• There were 69 advertising spots in the Super Bowl, which earned a revenue of$ 261 million, that is, approximately Rs 1,200 crore – each 30-second spot fetching $2.5-3 million.
• Ticket sales accounted for $55 million or Rs 250 crore (assuming a crowd of 72,000 and an average ticket price of $800 or Rs 36,000)

The Super Bowl is played on a Sunday and it is a defacto American holiday. Because of the incredibly high price of advertising slots, most of the commercials that are aired on this are specifically for this day-Super Sunday.

If today we were to compare Super Bowl to the Indian Premier League, IPL is behind, but in its third season, IPL has managed what other Leagues around the world have taken decades:

• It is the only tournament in the world to be aired live on YouTube.
• Its Brand Value is $4.13 billion
• Season 1 and Season 2 finals were watched by 48 million and 46 million viewers, respectively.

The cumulative reach of IPL3 till now is already over 100 million and the highest rated match till now in IPL3 (KKR versus MI on March 22) got approximately 40 million eyeballs. I am pretty sure that IPL will surpass Super Bowl in terms of viewership in a matter of few seasons, however it still has to generate the wow factor for the marketers to create specific spots for the finals. Last year, Vodafone did come out with ZooZoos on IPL and was a runaway success, but it will take some more time for advertisers to have a special spot for IPL.

Sports merchandising, which contributes 30-35 per cent of total revenue for most sports bodies in developed markets such as the US and the UK, is still a new concept in India. It is directly linked to the fan base.

Super Bowl generated close to $120 million or Rs 550 crore in merchandising this year and IPL this year would be close to $3-4 million or Rs 15 to 20 crore.

According to brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance, the brand value of IPL is $4.13 billion (Rs 18,000 crore), which is a very big achievement – in fact, it has more than doubled from last year’s $2.01 billion. In comparison to international benchmarks for sporting businesses such as EPL (English Premier League), which is valued at $12 billion, the IPL, in a short span of three years, is valued at $4 billion and is likely to increase with time.

The Super Bowl has become one of the few remaining must-see TV events for tens of millions of US viewers and IPL in India is catching up – despite the overdose of cricket, most of the common Indians eagerly await the Season.

The day is not very far off when marketers would use IPL the same way Super Bowl is used in the US – TV viewers would look forward for the spots especially made for IPL.

The IPL is one of the top tournaments in the world, and the only thing that requires a lot of improvement is the experience at the venue. We still have a long way to go on building world class stadiums and giving the spectator the experience that he will remember for years to come.

(Rajneesh Chaturvedi is National Director at MEC Access.)