We've been able to significantly increase our revenues this year: Rajasthan Royals CEO

The “number of sponsors” is not the right way to look at sponsorships in the IPL or any other sport, says Rajasthan Royals CEO Jake Lush McCrum. He spoke to exchange4media about the franchise surpassing the 2021 revenue mark, despite the count of sponsors being similar to last year.  

While Happilo is the title sponsor, Rajasthan Royals has also on-boarded 12-13 other sponsors this year, including BKT, Jio, Dollar, Studds, Meesho, One Moto, Goel Time, Dream11, Kotak, Fino, McDowell's, and Barbados.

McCrum believes Rajasthan Royals focuses on the quality of relationships with sponsors and the engagement with partners throughout the year. “We have a similar number of brands onboard (as compared to last season) but our focus with all of them is engaging them year-round.”

McCrum also spoke on the franchise’s digital ad deals and their marketing strategies. Read on.  

What kind of sponsorship revenue growth are you expecting from this IPL season?

We've had a significant increase in sponsorship revenue. We had a strong year in 2021, and we’ve beaten it this year with all our partnership deals. It's been a really healthy market. I think with the excitement around the tournament being back in India, we've managed to prove our concept in terms of world-class digital content that engages their brands. The brands who partner with us know that they're getting more than just a jersey position - they're getting a year-round activation. And so, we've been able to significantly increase our revenues from the majority of our positions this year.

There has been an increase in the number of digital ad deals that franchises do with brands. What explains this trend?

We are signing digital-only and broader partnership deals. Our focus is on having more deeply engaged partners who are not only providing more commercial value but better activation value as well. If we can have a partner who happens to own a major position and has more digital content and hence pays more for it, then that's a positive situation for both parties because they're benefiting from that continuity. The players are benefiting because they're really getting to understand the brand and engage with it, and the brands benefit with so many more deliverables.

We do also have some digital-only partnerships, which, again, we really like because we can create engaging content that cuts through the clutter of the IPL. We will continue to build on these in the coming times. For us, though, it is a combination and if a partnership doesn't offer overall quality for us as a brand, then we won’t do it. And so, we've turned away several partnerships as well based on that.

Is there a co-relation between team performance and the revenue earned by the franchises?

I think team performance can certainly have a positive influence on your revenue drivers. We’ve managed to achieve some positive results from the commercial side of the business despite some poor league finishes over the last three years, and that's through our higher quality digital activations. So, you can still secure strong value despite poor team performance in terms of the overall league finish. However, I believe that if we perform well, as we should perform this year, and be higher on the table then that will have a multiplier effect on all of our revenue streams, which is pretty exciting given what we've been able to achieve in some poor performing years. With a strong performing year, we can have some really positive momentum.

How are you coping with the ticketing revenue loss due to Covid-19 related restrictions?

The lack of matchday receipts does have an impact on our P&L. For us, it's less significant than other franchises given the size of our stadium and the average ticket price, especially with us having the lowest capacity of all IPL teams. However, I feel it affects us more from the perspective of fan engagement, missing out on the atmosphere that our fans have been able to create through the years. But hopefully, we can be back playing at our home soon.

A lot of marketing for IPL teams happens due to the activations done by official sponsors and partners. Apart from that, what is your standalone marketing strategy?

Our marketing strategy for this season is based on the theme of ‘Dil Se Royal’. We're trying to say that there is a brilliant history of the Royals, and through our efforts, we’re trying to showcase how over the years, we’ve been the franchise that has really exemplified and owned values and played our cricket keeping these values at the core. It means that being a Royal is not related to royalty, but being a Royal is your attitude, your effort, all efforts that you put in your game, and so we want that to come across in the fans as well. We want our fans to feel as close to the action as possible, as part of the family and part of the franchise as everyone here is.

How big is your core fan base, and how do you keep them engaged during and after the IPL?

Our fan base from a social media perspective is 25 million+. We’ve obviously got a lot more fans in India and around the world who might not be using social media channels but are also following us through other platforms. We have a presence around the world through a lot of different verticals that we’ve been involved in – be it our Royals School of Business, Academies in the UK, the UAE and in India. Our sister franchise Barbados Royals is in the Caribbean Premier League. We’ve obviously set some targets for ourselves in terms of being a bigger brand which should have a lot more followers around the world in future years.

How do you plan to build the non-sponsorship revenue streams?

One of my biggest focuses for the franchise is growing controllable revenue streams. So that's obviously, sponsorship and ticketing, but also the streams you’ve mentioned – licensing, merchandising, new ventures stream. We’ve got an online education business, we've got an academies business and we're looking heavily into it. So, there's lots of opportunities there and my mission is to triple our controllable revenue streams over the next three to four years, which will be a significant achievement and results in a reliable and significant stream of revenue and profit for the business. 

Covid-19 has compelled sports organisations globally to focus on digital revenue streams. How can sports clubs monetise more content online?

You see more and more sports teams around the world looking at long-form content, partnering with some of the top OTT platforms, so that's something we're actively doing as most of the other franchises. I think how you integrate content with sponsors is really important, and creating content your fans want to see that has synergies with the partners you're working with, that leads to a much deeper engagement. That means better return on investment to your partners, more enjoyable content for your fans, and again, benefits everyone. So that's our focus. 

If it's a natural integration if the brand is related to the content you're creating, it can be a seamless integration like Happilo, for example, is a healthy snack that the players enjoy. And so, it's quite easy to create content around that product because the players are naturally using it anyway and you can do some entertaining stuff for the fans to enjoy as well. Red Bull is another one that is a brilliant, adventure sports brand, which creates content that the fans love. Our jersey launch this year, again, was one of the most creative jersey launches I've ever seen, and our fans responded really positively to it. So, I think if you have the right creative people in the right brands you're partnering with, you can keep the fans really engaged while benefiting brands and ourselves emotionally.