Cricket | IPL | Advertisements

May 15th, 2009 by Bibhuti | Email This

I am often asked by my friends how I can follow all Cricket matches when 99% of them are not really nail biters. My answer is simple. It’s like you fail 99 times trying to solve a problem, but the joy is unmatched when you succeed on 100th attempt. The tension, the nervousness, the excitement, the drama, the pain, the smile, the feeling of triumph for someone else’s achievement, the tears disappointment for someone else’s failure can only be provided by sports.

So why am I talking about Cricket and sports in general here? Because, the heat is on with IPL Season 2 happening in South Africa. The matches so far have been low scoring compared to last year but quite close and competitive. The crowd response for a so called Indian domestic 20-20 tournament is quite decent. This is due to the aggressive marketing and awareness generated by IPL organizers in South Africa.

This is an open secret that majority of the sponsorship for Cricket come from India and the target audience of IPL second edition is still the cricket crazy Indians even though it is happening in South Africa. The organizers are leaving no stone unturned to provide the best experience while watching the matches on television. And to generate the buzz in stadium which is directly related to television watching experience, they have priced the tickets very minimal to encourage many people to come to stadium and watch. A contest is going on to choose Miss Bollywood from the crowd. The winner is going to earn 50,000 rand and also will be offered role in a Bollywood movie. There is another initiative by IPL to donate money to underprivileged schools as part of IPL HEAT Campaign (Help, Educate and Teach). More than charity, this is obviously a marketing stunt to garner some good publicity.

Cricket is no match for Soccer in terms of global footprint and being played by very few countries. So, you don’t see much advertising involving Cricket. Nevertheless, here are some Cricket related print campaigns. Also check Indian Premier League (IPL) 2009 for some television commercials done for season 2.

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