The Impact of the world cup win...........

I am one of those who has stopped watching cricket especially after the performance of the team in the last world cup. But i made an expectation yesterday and went on to watch the last half of the match, and was pleasantly rewarded by the rare Indian victory. It was not only me who was benefited yesterday , the sponsors of the Reliance Communications, Nokia, Pepsi and the sports broadcaster ESPN-Star Sport had a windfall gain . In the 50-over version of the game when the Indian team exited in the first round many of the advertisers and sponsors wanted to renegotiate the ad-rates. There was a lot of debate of the merits of having a more flexible arrangement depending on the performance of the team. But with yesterday's win in the twenty20 World Cup tournament the Indian team and players are back in the reckoning, in the next few weeks we will find new brand endorsement deals being struck. But the bottom line is that for marketers who want to bet on cricket to make their brands a success in the market place it will remain a gamble, unless the team starts to perform more consistently.

But just to give an idea of the gains that ESPN Star Sports made in the Twenty20 tournament, an estimated Rs 200 crore, out of which 110-115 crore came from ad sales alone. The ad spots for the final was sold for an all time high of Rs 7.5-10 Lakhs per ten seconds, and the TRPs are expected to be in the range of 15-20. Some food for thought indeed..........