Football is grabbing eyeballs and ad revenue

Big daddy of football and FIFA chief Sepp Blatter has clearly set his eyes on the subcontinent. On his visit a few months ago, he committed $1 million to promote the game in this country over the next four years. His timing is spot on— soccer is already emerging as the second-most popular sport in India after cricket.

This August has seen the Barclays Premier League (that is the official name for the English Premier League or EPL as it’s popularly called) kick off on ESPN STAR Sports, and for Indian viewers, it’s an addition to the growing list of soccer-related global sporting events to tune into. Growing stickiness to the game, especially among viewers in the higher socio-economic subset, has resulted in advertisers queuing up to reach the audiences that football is beginning to attract in India.

This year’s soccer calendar includes Manchester United, FIFA U-17 World Cup, Scottish Premier League, the Dutch and French leagues and UEFA Champions League on Ten Sports (owned by Zee TV). Other channels are also jumping into the fray. Neo Sports has plans on this front and ESPNSTAR Sports admits that it has taken to soccer, hockey and motor sports in a big way. The “response to Barclays Premier League is encouraging, and the tournament has caught on with youth in big metros.

We see this gaining momentum,” says an ESPN-STAR spokesperson. Most importantly, advertisers are buying into this phenomenon. “We have already struck a threeyear deal with Nike for Barclays Premier League, and think that it is a long-term strategic leverage that will stand out,” says Sundar Raman, MD, Mindshare, GroupM’s media investment company.

Most media heads say that some games have begun to get average TRPs of 1, which is what non-India cricket matches typically get. “We have observed growth in viewership; the FIFA World Cup last year is one of the glowing examples. These new platforms provide interesting investment opportunities for marketers and advertisers,” says L.V. Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research.

Of interest is also the quality of audience that is so relevant to brand custodians. “Lifestyle brands are riding this trend. Also, we notice that the trend of young people, especially male young adults, getting together to watch games either at home or at pubs is catching on,” says Mahesh Ranka, General Manager (India), Relay Worldwide, which is the sports practice of Starcom MediaVest Group.

Game trackers say that cricket accounts for 80-85 per cent of the Rs 1,200-crore sports advertising and marketing spend. “Soccer easily vies for the second spot in televised sports in India,” says Ranka. This is because tennis, its rival, typically has selected events, that are not sold as aggressively as soccer.

The average rates for soccer hover in the region of Rs 5,000 per 10 seconds and the inventory usually gets sold within a short span of time. Companies such as Motorola, Philips, Wrigley’s, Parle Agro, Hindustan Unilever, Sony India, Reliance Capital, ITC, Airtel, Idea, Hutch, Hero Honda and Maruti, among others, are associating their brands with soccer. So, this is as good a time as any to aggressively market soccer and bridge the yawning chasm between cricket and other sports.