MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals, the IPL franchise that was under the BCCI scanner for alleged violation of shareholding norms, is eyeing a revenue growth of 25 per cent even as it has stitched deals with 16 sponsors and partners.
In the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals had 10 sponsors and partners.
The new partners include Supertech builders, Mitashi Electronics and Arihunt Developers. The companies who have renewed their contracts include HDFC Life, TCS, Amity University, Puma, Kingfisher, Royal Challenge and Wrigleys.
Says Rajasthan Royals CMO Raghu Iyer, "We are looking at a 25 per cent revenue growth this year. We have widened our sponsorship pool and are also close to signing our lead sponsor. This is a new company that has not been involved with the IPL before. We are happy that companies have stuck with us through trying times."
While some sponsorship deals are multi-year in nature, others are for a year.
Rajasthan Royals has inked a promotional deal with Barista, the coffee chain. "This is a marketing tie up. They will offer Royal Coffee. They will also serve Lavassa in our hospitality area," says Iyer.
The World Cup has put a spoke in terms of the amount of marketing that franchises can do with players and sponsors ahead of IPL 4.0. "The key is to work around this. We know that doing too much activity before the IPL starts might not be a good thing, given that there is less than a week between the World Cup getting over and the IPL starting," says Iyer.
Rajasthan Royals will be doing activities with players and sponsors during the IPL when there are free days and in a non intrusive manner. "We have to be smart in terms of managing this. The good news is that viewers are aware of the IPL and what it represents. So viewership will not be an issue. The deals we are doing shows that companies have faith in Rajasthan Royals. There are more deals in the pipeline," avers Iyer.
Recently, the franchise conducted a sports seminar in association with Amity University and TCS in Jaipur. It also organised a charity cricket match featuring Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra. "Jaipur did not host any World Cup match. So fans are hungry for cricket there. We are excited about the IPL which starts for us on 12 April," says Iyer.
