MUMBAI: At the SportzBiz 2003, 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 client's perspective was given by Fosters India MD Pradeep Gidwani and Procam International MD Anil Singh.

The common perception was that sports concepts need to be packaged and presented well in order to grab a slice of decreasing ad spends. Sport is no different from any other product that is consumed and has to have all the elements that go to make a successful product.

Viewpoints of advertising agencies:

As a medium, sports is underdisciplined, underexploited and underinvested in India Ravi Kiran General manager Starcom Media

Starcom Worldwide general manager Ravi Kiran
* Advertisers believe that they can ignite consumer passion through sports in a positive manner. It is one of the few mediums that actively engage consumers. Other media are passive.
* It is necessary to ensure that proper studies are conducted prior and after the sports associations. 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.
* Sports marketing has 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
* There is a lot of emphasis on "here and now" but little effort to measure the impact or create "my media property."
* The investment is still negligible as compared to the value of the entire advertising spend. It is largely a fun thing as the users don't know what works; very little medium term perspective
* Advertisers are too shy to stay off course and there is very little unpaid editorial coverage.
* Research shows that people don't associate brands with the on-ground performance of the sports teams or personalities. However, there is a negative fallout due to the controversies created 'off the field'.
* In a typical one hour of telecast, there are 10 minutes of advertising. Cricket can have a maximum of seven minutes or 420 seconds per match. This implies that the clutter is not as prevalent as during regular telecasts of soap and series.
* Every spot taken during cricket is not necessarily talking to everyone. It catches its core target audiences (especially hot and warm prospects) who have a propensity to buy and converts them.
* Broadcasters cannot accept the responsibility of growing not-so popular games. However, they need to build alternatives and nurture them.
* Associations cannot expect any free lunches as philanthropy has no role to play when serious advertising budgets are at stake.
* The post-CAS (conditional access systems) scene will witness a new revolution. It is possible that cricket will become pay-per-view. * Sports broadcasters can have separate cricket channels and non-cricket channels.
* Pure pay TV sports channels will never come in India - they will depend on advertising to a certain extent.
* However, the programming mix post-CAS - will not change at least for the next two years.
* It is difficult for cable channels to cover local tournaments because they will be emulating Doordarshan's pathetic coverage standards. This will harm the non-cricket games rather than develop them.
* Poor production qualities will not encourage advertisers to commit money.

Every sport need not be a Rs 5 billion sport but could generate smaller revenues. Sports associations and marketers need to formulate a proper game plan before approaching advertisers and agencies M. Suku BroadMind WPP Marketing Communications national director

BroadMind WPP Marketing Communications national director M Suku
* A sponsor or an advertiser is buying an audience. They don't care whether cricket or serials or films deliver the audiences.
* Sponsors are committing serious marketing money and sports should compete with the other streams such as films, serials and celebrity events.
* Every sport need not be a Rs 5 billion sport but could generate smaller revenues.
* The major portion of the Rs 3.5 billion that would be spent on the cricket World Cup 2003 has been diverted from soaps and serials. All the mass entertainment channels have been affected.
* Sports associations and marketers need to formulate a proper game plan before approaching advertisers and agencies.
* Sports associations need a single window contact approach, need to guarantee performances, deliver consistently and be accountable.
* Non-cricket sports need to reinvent themselves. The main threat to non-cricket sports is not cricket but could be a Yash Chopra film
* Brands are associating with core values and the sports packages must address these values.
* If there are no heroes, then satellite viewers will not watch the sport.
* On-screen activities need to be supported by on-ground promotions.
* Lot of international sports marketers such as WSN-Nimbus and IMG has entered the country.
* Agencies have invested more than Rs 5 million in boat races in Kerala because the concept was presented well.

Percept India CEO Rajesh Pant
* Indian sports needs visionaries who could elevate the status of sports. Kerry Packer was a person with vision who changed cricket and defied the existing norms.
* With the kind of response which India generates, in terms of sponsorship revenues and viewers, there is a strong case for India hosting all the future World Cups.
* Sports administrators are not marketers and need to employ professionals to manage the business.
* Post the implementation of conditional access, there could be a basic package, premium package, super premium package and pay-per-view package. Sports will definitely benefit from the same.

Advertisers viewpoint:

Fosters India MD Pradeep Gidwani
* 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?
c) Is the association being effectively leveraged?
* It is difficult to ascertain the impact of the money spent on sporting associations and quantify the results.
* However, 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

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 Pradeep Gidwani Managing director Fosters India

* 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
* More than 57 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.

Procam International MD Anil Singh
* The development of sports in the country needs a change in the basic mindset and evolution of a new culture. Everyone must accept the blame and onus of failure.
* There is need for sports associations and marketers to change the four 'P' - become more professional, package well, present the concepts better and position with confidence.
* There is a need to create unique selling propositions for each game or event. Then communicate the same effectively to clients, advertisers and agencies.
* There must be a vision to create a long drawn process and everyone has to contribute.
* It is time to become self-sufficient and grab a share of the advertising pie.
* Media planners and buyers are willing to listen to well-presented concepts.
* Merchandising sports properties is complex and difficult task due to the unorganised counterfeit market.
* Procam Sports showed that a sport like squash can be converted into a TV friendly and spectator friendly sport.
* The future of sports marketing is bright. India has all the requisite resources. All that is needed is better coordination, minimal bureaucratic hassles and better ethos.
* India must emulate the example of Dubai where sporting events and infrastructure is planned to foster tourism.
* The bane of Indian sports is that the trainers, coaches employed by the associations cannot nurture talent beyond a certain point. These coaches are simply not equipped to enable the sportspersons to the global levels.
* India's hope lies in racquet sports - not those which require physical fitness.

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