Mobile cos line up Rs 100 cr for cricket advertisements [The Economic Times, India]

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[December 23, 2009]

Mobile cos line up Rs 100 cr for cricket advertisements [The Economic Times, India]

(Economic Times (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 22--NEW DELHI -- Small mobile phone manufacturers are embracing the big-budget world of cricket advertising as they look to give their obscure regional brands maximum hype in the shortest span of time.

Brands like Lemon Mobile, Airphone, Lava Mobiles, Onida Mobiles and Karbonn Mobiles, launched in the last 15 months or so, have lined up budgets of Rs 50-100 crore to spend on cricket-related advertisement campaigns on television.

The first four brands advertised heavily during the recent India-Sri Lanka T-20 matches while Karbonn Mobile has bagged the title sponsorship for the ongoing one-day international series between the two sides.

"Cricket and Bollywood are the only two high-impact, high-reach properties in India," says Shashin Devsari, executive director of Jaina Group, the owner of Karbonn, which is spending over Rs 50 crore in marketing. Mr Devsari adds that both guarantee a certain return on investments.

The likes of Lemon and Lava swear by the appeal of India's most popular sport, as their target audience is the youth in urban markets and first-time users in semi-urban and rural areas, where cricket scores over everything else.

Onida, for instance, has made cricket its top marketing priority as it is targeting the male population in smaller cities. The company will use a big part of its Rs 100-crore budget for this fiscal in promoting its cellphones.

Pitted against bigger, established players like Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson in the 130-million annual Indian handset market, small companies are targeting consumers with feature-loaded handsets of Rs 1,800-6,000.

"Going after cricket for its universal appeal makes sense," says Shripad Nadkarni, director at Mumbai-based MarketGate Consulting.

The huge costs involved -- cricket ad slots are said to be up to 100 percent more expensive than other prime-time TV placements -- are hardly a deterrent for these companies. They prefer the short bursts of high-impact exposure through cricket to scattering spending across different media, according to industry watchers.

Indeed, cricket serves as the perfect vehicle for small companies looking to ride the shifting brand loyalty in the handsets category. With a countrywide distribution network already in place, the prospective wide reach through cricket also fuels their national ambitions.

"It gives them an opportunity to generate brand pull," says Harminder Sahani, CEO of Delhi-based Wazir Consultancy.

Adds SN Rai, co-founder, Lava International: "Cricket is expensive but it delivers in impact and reach." Lava is spending a major part of its Rs 60-crore advertising budget on the game.

Their limited budgets are another reason why these companies are backing a sure-fire marketing tool like cricket. "Karbonn wants high brand saliency and credibility in a short period of time. Only cricket can help achieve that," says Naveen Khemka, VP, Zenith Optimedia, the brand's media-buying agency.

Shoestring ad budgets also make companies look beyond cricket. "We are advertising only on TV programmes that have TRPs of over 3 and 4," says Intex Mobile marketing head Naved Chaudhary, The brand, which is to spend Rs 8 crore on marketing, is a regular on programmes like Baalika Vadhu on Colors and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee TV. It is also a big advertiser on Mahua TV, a channel catering to audiences in Western UP, Bihar and Jharkhand.

To see more of The Economic Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://economictimes.indiatimes.com Copyright (c) 2009, The Economic Times, India Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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