ESPN Star Sports to spend Rs 300 mn to market Champions League Twenty20

ESPN Star Sports to spend Rs 300 mn to market Champions League Twenty20

ESS

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) will spend in the region of Rs 250-300 million to market the Champions League Twenty20.

Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan will be the face of the tournament, demonstrating ESS‘ conviction to promote a property that has yet to deliver large audiences. The theme of the campaign is ‘Rajao Ke Beech Jung Abhi Bhi Baki Hai!’.

"We are promoting the event heavily, second time in a row. The marketing budget is the same as last year," a company official said.

ESS had upped its marketing budget fourfold last year and used Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador of Champions League Twenty20.

ESS will showcase the tournament in 174 territories and 18 languages across the world. The languages include Norwegian and Portuguese (for the very first time), English, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish and French.

In India, all 29 matches will be broadcast live on Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD. ESPN will carry all 23 matches of the main tournament with Hindi commentary. The cricket experts doing commentary include Harsha Bhogle, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Kepler Wessels, HD Ackerman, Ian Chappell, Tom Moody, Ian Bishop and Alan Wilkins.

As reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, ESS expects to get advertising revenue of Rs 500 million. The list of sponsors include Toshiba, Coca-Cola, Ambuja Cements, Next Retail and Digiworl. Nokia, Toshiba and Coca-Cola are also on-ground sponsors.

ESPN Software India MD Aloke Malik said the event got a 35 per cent viewership increase in the second edition.

Nokia, the title sponsor of Champions League Twenty20, announced the ‘Nokia Ke Asli Champions’ campaign providing the consumers an opportunity to showcase the ‘Asli Champions’ in them. Winners will get an opportunity to be part of Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Champion team’ and watch the finals live with her.

Nokia India MD D Shivakumar said, “Cricket holds a special place in the hearts of Indians and we have been associated with it over the years through our association with the T20 World Cup, Kolkata Knight Riders and IPL. We are excited to be the title sponsors for Champions League T20 as it reinforces our commitment to the youth by connecting them to their passion. Shah Rukh Khan has been our brand ambassador for five years. We have been involved with the Kolkata Knight Riders for the past four years. Shah Rukh Khan got involved with the Nokia Champions League Twenty20 and so we felt that it was appropriate to also get involved."