Cricket comes roaring back

September 24 has set the meter ticking again for cricket. The closely contested win for Team India over arch-rival Pakistan has changed vision, the Twenty20 way. Without an exception, all advertisers— Reliance Communications, Nokia, Emaar MGF, among others— who had bought ad spots for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup, are feeling rather smug about their decision.

And ESPN is said to have raked in over Rs 120 crore from the tournament. “The numbercrunching has begun and all the usual suspects who have been traditionally associated with the game are back,” says Sundar Raman, MD, MindShare, a media investment management unit of the WPPowned GroupM.

In fact, last minute advertisers had to shell out Rs 10 lakh per 10 seconds—the highest ever—for the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup final. Then, BCCI expects to generate around $300 million (Rs 1,200 crore) this year from T20 alone. So, the good news just keeps coming on for everyone concerned. Nimbus, which holds the rights for all matches played in India from 2004-2010, is now looking forward to better realisations from the India-Australia One Day currently underway. “Most of the hype around rates is largely a media creation.

But, it’s true that One-Day matches have benefitted as we are now offering a composite rate (which includes Doordarshan) of Rs 3.15 lakh per 10 seconds. It is only the last 1,000 seconds in the ad inventory that gets affected when rates shoot up or go down, or in some cases, are not sold at all. But most of the airtime is sold in advance,” says Shashi Kalathil, CEO, Neo Sports

Brands like Vodafone, Perfetti, Hero Honda and Airtel, among others, that had always backed cricket, but were having second thoughts about their love affair with the game following India’s dismal showing in the ODI World Cup in the Caribbean earlier this year, are back. Check out the manner in which advertisers are capitalising on the buzz and making the most of the moment (see The Empire Strikes Back).

This is only expected, as a TRP of just 4 is considered good by most media experts; the recent T20 match managed to garner TRPs of up to 15, according to aMap, the overnight TV measurement system.

This, however, does not imply that advertisers are vacating ground on other sports or that their rates will dip. “Those interested in other sports will stay put. But cricket is no longer a game only for the big boys and we see many small and medium enterprises entering the fray,” he says. And it’s not as if only TV has gained all the moolah. Companies such as Reebok, Videocon and Castrol are using the event to come up with fresh initiatives in the print and outdoor media. The good news just keeps flowing.