Rajasthan Royals bucks trend, ups marketing spend

Indiantelevision.com Team

(7 March 2009 11:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals, winner of the inaugural edition of the Indian Premiere League, has upped its marketing budget as part of its brand-building process.

“This year our marketing budget has gone up three-fold as we are concentrating on building the Rajasthan Royals brand through ground activation and mass media," says Rajasthan Royals chief marketing officer Raghu Iyer

The marketing initiatives include a new rendition of the team song, launch of a new sporting gear and the release of a DVD - Road to Victory - to capture the success of the team last year.

The success story of Rajasthan Royals has also led to the making of a Bollywood film, Googly, to be produced by Kaleidoscope Entertainment and will feature players from the team.

The franchisee will launch a marketing campaign, ‘Halla bol,’ featuring stakeholder and co-owner Shilpa Shetty, a video which is scheduled to go on air from 20 March. This will be later followed by print and online campaign.

The sports apparel brand will also sell merchandise in stadium and in various stands.

The franchisee has Boost as its energy drink partner and is looking to stitch a few more merchandising as well as sponsorship deals across categories in the next couple of weeks, says Iyer.