Marketers go long on cricket derivates

Relief is at hand for those advertisers who want to be part of cricket, but find participation difficult due to the stiff rates charged for live action. Therefore, many programmes centred around cricket are queuing up to fill this gap. Most marketers want to be part of the buzz, but shudder at the clutter and the fact that they may get lost in an ocean of other brands. So, to gain mileage out of the game, marketers are now eagerly hopping on to shows like Lotte Superskills, Cricket Star and others.

And it’s not as if the television market leader has been taken by surprise. “The market for original programmes around cricket and other sports is growing. We already have programmes around cricket that work well,” says Manu Sawhney, MD, ESPN STAR Sports (ESS). In fact, Harsha Ki Khoj, launched three years ago by ESS, was presented this year as Clinic All Clear Dream Job. It seeks to combine the magic of cricket, with the thrill of a reality show. In its first innings as Close Up Dream Job in 2005, it drew over 40,000 entries; over 750 contestants auditioned, of which 32 finalists were chosen. The winner, Anand Narasimhan, today has his “dream job” as a sports presenter at ESS.

Little wonder, there’s a follow on this year with Clinic All Clear Dream Job on ESS. “In the past, the show has garnered TAM ratings in decimal points like 0.3, which is not very high. But ESS has been actively running the promos and vignettes in between other programmes, thus, giving value to advertisers,” says Mona Jain, Executive VP, India Media Exchange (Publicis Group). Moving forward, there are more new products being launched— games being developed around the sport that can be played real-time even as a match is on. “We have a format ready called Beat Them All, which can be aired on a channel even as a live match is on. Viewers can participate through mobile phones or online,” says Pankaj Thakar, CEO, Cellcast Asia Holdings, that has the technology and creates content for TV where real-time participation is possible via many routes. This is a cricket-related version of Gold Kick, a multiplayer soccer derivative very popular in the UK and South East Asian countries.

Lotte Superskills, meanwhile, is a TV cricket programme, that was conceived by late Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer, and the last two editions, shot in 2004 and 2005, had seen fierce competition from players like Wasim Akram, Chris Cairns, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif and Kevin Pietersen, among others. The game checks the skills of each player on various parameter like strokes, power drive, deadeye (where fieldsmen chase and throw balls at stumps within a time restriction), etc.

SPIN-OFFS IN HUGE DEMAND
These are some cricket-related properties on TV.
Contest	Broadcaster	Schedule
Clinic All Clear Dream Job	ESS	Friday 8-9 pm (has repeats on weekends)
Lotte Superskill	Zee Sports	Slated to start on Oct 19,  2007 on Friday at 9 p.m.

 

 

Then, there’s Cricket Star— which organises cricket matches between company teams and fresh finds in different Indian cities and gets them trained for real exposure— that is gearing up to launch its second edition soon.

The first edition early this year saw Fair & Lovely Men’s Active and Airtel as the main sponsors and it got support from Reebok and Air India. Though the TVRs hovered at the sub-1 levels, clearly brands want traction with male viewers that are into hardcore sports involvement. And it’s clear that the market for all these “cricket derivatives” is only growing.