‘We want to be the most entertaining and engaging franchise’

Last IPL, debutant Gujarat Titans surprised everyone by lifting the IPL trophy as champions. While the franchise prepares for a new season of the league this year, Col. Arvinder Singh, COO, Gujarat Titans, shares insights on fan engagement and brand-building activities conducted by the franchise.

Edited excerpts: 

How are you building a strong connection with the Titans Fans? 

Right from the very beginning, for us, the fan is always going to be at the heart of whatever we do. This is our thought process when we started last year and it is exactly going to be the same this year and we are only going to grow further. We have a plan in place for the next three years and we are not looking at anything short term. Whatever we do, we always keep the fan at the heart of it all. We try to look at it from a fan's perspective as to why would somebody want to support the team.

Anything in the pipeline in terms of building fan engagement that you would like to share with us? 

We launched our own streetwear collection at the Lakme Fashion Week. Yes, we are a cricketing franchise but we want to engage with our supporters and people who like us through various channels. Streetwear was one of them and the Lakme Fashion Week provided us a platform. We may not need a platform hereon but we will still continue with our plans of streetwear. It is different from the usual merchandise  and is another medium for the people to showcase their support for Gujarat Titans.

A major activity for us was Uttarayan - the biggest festival in Gujarat. For a whole week, we engaged with the people of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara whether it was through activities at places with large crowds like malls or canter activities. In conjunction with the Government of Gujarat, we participated in the Kite Festival that happens at the (Sabarmati) riverfront. That was absolutely fantastic.

We have just launched ‘Race with the Titans’ – which is a digital race. It's a two-fold exercise to encourage and help people to get fitter. The ones who engage with us, there is gratification for them. That leads us to the supporter’s perspective of what is in it for them apart from getting healthier. We are also looking at them getting closer to us. So, we may get the winners to spend time with us in the team hotel and watch matches with the GT management. Some youngsters, who have done exceptionally well, may get the opportunity to be interns with us. 

How are Gujarat Titans looking at leveraging gamification trends in the metaverse? 

Gamification is not something we are looking at very closely at this point of time. We already became the first IPL franchise to enter The Metaverse last year. It may not have been the best experience because there were limitations of the platform we were using but this year there will be a lot more happening. The idea is to make that (The Metaverse) a platform where fans can directly interact with each other and talk about GT. Apart from being able to engage with GT, they should be able to engage among themselves as well. 

How are you looking at building a strong digital presence and a robust fan community online? 

We launched a membership drive on January 13, coinciding with Uttarayan. It is not a paid membership. The more you engage with us, the more GT points you get – which you can then redeem with us whether it is in the form of buying match tickets, merchandise or money-can’t-buy experiences during the season like Meet and Greets with the players, online session with the players, coaches and trainers etc.

From our supporters’ perspective, we want to make it easier for them to buy match tickets. We've worked on this with our ticketing partner and now the whole ticketing experience will happen on our ‘Titans Fam’ App. The App will become the hub of anything that GT does - whether it is content, merchandise, news or ticketing. There will also be long-form content on the App very soon. The third phase of the App will allow supporters to upload their own videos and participate in a lot of stuff that will happen as we head towards the season. 

Globally, merchandising, especially sports merchandising, is a big business and it is crucial in fan engagement building. Looking ahead, how much do you see merchandising contributing to overall revenues? 

Revenue is the last thing on our mind currently and that is the beauty of this franchise.  You need to put the basics in place first; the revenue will follow. I can very proudly say that we did a lot of stuff from a merchandise perspective last season.  This year, we are targeting doubling it. It will happen, but that is not why we are doing it. 

We have a company which does our merchandising, then we have Fancode - which does another set of merchandise for another target group. We have tied up with HRX this year for another target group. We have an agency which makes the kits and jerseys for the team and the original stuff that is worn by the players and finally we have the streetwear collection. So, there are four different things happening, but it will belittle the thought process we have in place if we say we earn an ‘X amount from this’. We will earn but let's first put the basic things in place. 

Is GT continuing its associations with any of the sponsors that were on board last year? Any new sponsors on board? 

Our jersey is exactly the same as last year! The same sponsors are on the jersey. Everybody is happy with GT not only because we were the champions, but it’s about the culture, the ethics and the character of a franchise that we are trying to create at this point - that is most important for us. If we continue and are able to develop that and people start believing in the fact that this is a franchise that knows what it is doing, and does it in the right manner, a lot of revenue will come. 

GT is a fairly new brand as compared to other IPL Franchisees, what is your vision for the brand GT and how do you aim to achieve it?