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SportzBiz 2003 presented an ideal forum for thought leaders representing
diverse audiences, closely involved with the business of sports
in India, to present, discuss and debate various issues facing the
development and marketing of sports in India.
While welcoming the audience, SportzPR president and CMCG MD Samir
Kale said: " With the cricket World Cup just around the corner,
SportzPR and indiantelevision.com thought this may be the right
time to pause and reflect on the evolving sports marketing scenario
in the country. Hence SportzBiz 2003, India’s first sports marketing
forum was conceived."
In his welcome address, indiantelevision.com CEO Anil Vanwari paid
rich tributes to Mark Mascarenhas and Marc MCormack. He eulogized
the impact of television on inducing exultation and anguish amidst
the sports lovers. He stated: "Television is responsible for
driving the growth of sports in the world. This phenomenon resulted
in a multitude of opportunities in terms of merchandising and endorsements.
There was a lot of insecurity in the business of sports marketing
with legal wrangles about acquisition rights, cutthroat competition
and new terms such as ambush marketing." Later, he added that
conditional access system would open a new chapter in sports marketing.
ESPN-Star Sports senior manager business development Anurag Dahiya
addressed the gathering and mentioned: "Sports consumption
in India depends on viewer interests, team affiliation, aspiration
and level of competition. In India, the excessive focus on cricket
is unique and the audiences here are different from the rest of
Asia. Broadcasters must realise that it doesn't make business sense
to depend solely on cricket. Teams could be built up as brands and
could have a personality and an intrinsic icon value. The single
TV household feature also handicaps sports broadcasters. "
Dahiya also stated that the framework of legislation should change
and the government should ease red-tape to facilitate live telecasts.
The first two sessions were moderated by the inimitable Tom Alter,
a self-proclaimed "sports romantic", and sports analyst
V Krishnaswamy. Vanwari and Kale donned the mantle in the next two
sessions.
The following views were expressed by the various factions : sports
administrators, sports marketers, advertisers, advertising agencies,
sports personalities, TV personalities, media editors and broadcasters
ESPN-Star Sports.
The panel of speakers included sports administrators: Sports Authority
of India director general Shekhar Dutt; Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) vice president Kamal Morarka; All India Tennis Association
(AITA) secretary general Anil Khanna; Indian Hockey Federation (IHF)
president KPS Gill; Motorsports Association of India Nazir Hoosein.
The views expressed by the sports administrators revolved around
the following issues:
* The government must give more funds to the sports associations
that are doing well - tennis, chess. The amount must be disbursed
in the beginning of the financial year.
* The government must realise that the associations develop long-term
goals - for instance 8-10 year plans for sports such as hockey and
football.
* Also, the government and broadcasters must promote those sports
where India has good prospects of winning Olympic medals or World
championships.
* The private channels and the public broadcaster must promote non-cricket
local and national level sporting events - especially in sports
such as tennis, hockey and chess where India is doing well.
* Nationwide talent hunt and local infrastructure has to be organised
with government and corporate support.
* The print media must also give prominence to achievers and role
models in other sports - for instance Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati
in tennis, Dhanraj Pillai in hockey, V Anand in chess.
* The government must initiate a legislation wherein advertisers
who spend on cricket must contribute a certain percentage of their
spends on other sports.
The advertising & media industry was represented by Starcom
Worldwide general manager Ravi Kiran; Broadmind WPP Marketing Communications
national director M Suku; Percept Advertising CEO Rajesh Pant. The
views expressed by the advertising fraternity highlighted the following:
*Sports marketing seminars should have been held five years earlier
during the cable and satellite boom
* Advertisers believe that they can ignite consumer passion through
sports in a positive person. It is one of the few mediums that actively
engage consumers. Other media are passive.
* Advertisers are buying an audience. They don't care whether sports
or films or serials get them that audience
* The government should organise and develop major international
sports properties and boost the economy with such events. Research
shows that several industries such as tourism and hospitality get
a fillip.
* Sports associations and marketers need to package the propositions
well in order to convince media planners and buyers. There must
be a single window with whom the advertisers and agencies can negotiate
(as in cricket).
* It is necessary to ensure that proper studies are conducted prior
and after the sports events.
* Advertisers and media planners need to create a knowledge base
to have a benchmark. This would ensure that the association is a
long term effort rather than being a random one
* The advertising buck produces a certain degree of bang - the optimum
possible value has to be extracted by heavy engineering and amplifying
the value.
* As a medium, sports is underdisciplined, underexploited and underinvested
in India.
*Under-disciplined because it has too many vendors; too little knowledge
base; and a lot of gut call goes into the decision-making process.
Most of the money (70 per cent) goes into airtime or syndicated
columns.
* The efforts in strengthening the grassroots are minimal or pathetic.
*The sports business fraternity not been able to activate community
participation or create local heroes. India is the only country
where people view cricket for eight hours but don't play the game
that often.
*The business is too tactical and has a handful of serious advertisers.
Little efforts are made to integrate efforts into marketing
The sports luminaries in the panel included: Michael Ferreira,
Pullela Gopichand, Karun Chandok. Their views related to the following:
* Talented sports achievers needed proper marketing.
the current era was driven by commerce and television propelled
sports into the limelight. Marketing sports properties and events
was a natural progression.
* Certain sports have a natural advantage as they are visually appealing
- they are interesting to watch in terms of colour, arenas, physicality,
personalities.
* The sports marketers must endeavour to promote the other sports,
that don't enjoy the above-mentioned advantages, on television
* Several games such as bowling and darts have become popular on
television in the developed nations as sports marketers managed
to package them well
* In the UK, billiards captured the imagination of the women audiences
who loved to watch well-attired handsome men
* Passion for the game of cricket is a strange phenomenon and a
one-off case. All the anguish that fans feel when the team loses
is forgotten with a single win
* The government should organise and develop major international
sports properties (follow the Malaysia model) and boost the economy
with such events. Research shows that several industries such as
tourism and hospitality get
Procam International MD Anil Singh who represented the sports marketers
emphasised the following:
* There is a need for sports associations to change their approach
and mentality
* The sports associations need to become more professional, package
better, present concepts better, negotiate from a position of strength.
* The sports associations need a long-term vision and everyone needs
to contribute in the process wherein self-sufficiency can be developed.
* The key is proper packaging and then the advertising bucks will
come to non-cricket sports.
* The under-utilised sports marketing opportunities - such as merchandising
- must be explored.
* The problem with sports associations and administrators is that
they are ill-equipped to allow the sportsperson's talent to blossom
beyond a certain degree. They don't have the tools or the capabilities
to enhance talent and convert it to medals.
TV related personalities Harsha Bhogle and Tom Alter were adamant
that things need to change to usher in a bright future.
Tom Alter expressed his pleasure at being amongst some of the sporting
greats and pioneers in the business of sports marketing. He added
" Real champions don't need marketing. I used to travel from
Mussorrie to Delhi for a Durand Cup match and hear radio cricket
commentary surreptitiously in the hostel. I used to idolize Micky
Mantle and Milkha Singh in those days when TV was not there. Mantle
was one of the greatest sluggers in baseball and the central switch-hitter
for New York Yankees. Alter recalled instances of how he would follow
Mantle's exploits through six month old missionary magazines that
carried the new reports. Alter also lamented the fact that the Indian
government took a long time to honour Milkha Singh, the best 400
metre runner that country had ever produced.
A combatant Harsha Bhogle said that other sports' associations
failed to capitalise on the opportunities when cricket was vulnerable.
He also blamed Doordarshan's lack-lustre presentation and lack of
pro-activeness in embracing new techniques and formats. He added
"If the television industry is allowed to take off, there will
be a boom in sports marketing; eventually all sports will benefit."
Fosters India Limited MD Pradeep Gidwani, who represented the advertisers
had the following things to say:
*Advertisers who wish to associate themselves with sports need to
ask themselves three important questions
a) Will the association help in building the brand; communicating
the core values and proposition?
b) Will the association help in innovating?
Is the association being effectively leveraged?
c) It is difficult to ascertain the impact of the money spent on
sporting associations and quantify the results.
*The sponsorship of sports can extend the advertising budgets and
research shows that it gives more mileage than routine airtime spends
of an equivalent value.
*However, the extent of the multiplier effect depends on effectively
leveraging the association
*Research showed that Fosters was linked to Australia - Australians
love sports such as rugby, motor racing, surfing, football, cricket
amongst others. Therefore the brand started associating with sports
through integrated marketing communications.
*The association with sports properties has to be leveraged through
above the line and on-ground promotions
57.7 billion viewers around the globe view Formula One racing. It
has a tremendous fan following that cuts across all the barriers.
It happens on 17 Sundays every year whereas cricket and football
world cups are played once in four years.
Veteran sports editor Ayaz Memon expressed: "Cricket will
become a deep-rooted passion and viewers will become habituated
to being associated with the game. They will become insensitive
to the fortunes of the Indian team."
Memon added that associations must realise that newspapers have
finite space. The Indian Express sports editor Jaideep Marar reasoned
that association officials and coaches who accompany sports teams
must fax/e-mail/phone and communicate results to newspaper editors.
Irrespective of the contrasting viewpoints, the future of sports
marketing is bright!
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