How Brands Have Succeeded Building A Strong Brand Property Though Cricket?

Authored by Ganapathy Viswanathan 

Building a successful brand property will always require patience. When it comes to building a brand property especially through cricket you need a strong idea that can be sustained. Cricket allows you many interesting ways to integrate your brand with in the stadium and which allows you to engage with spectators at the stadium. What’s more it also captures through the television camera which further allows you to catch your audiences on television. I have found a few brands who have been quite successful both through IPL and international cricket in India. Two brands that comes to my mind and is top of mind is CEAT tyres and Cycle Agarbatti. Both of them have been associated with cricket by engaging with the audience inside the stadium.  

CEAT as a brand has been involved with cricket for many years. The CEAT cricket ratings has been in existence for over nearly 3 decades. And for the last 15 years the tyre brand has been the official sponsor of IPL’s Strategic Time Out which has become so powerful and engaging that even the commentators spell out with lot of passion and fun. The color blue of the CEAT logo is very synonymous with many cricketers on their bat. Some of India’s leading cricketers are endorsing the brand through their bats and other cricketing gears. The brand has been engaging  some way or the other through cricket.

There is also the international airline brand Emirates which is permanently owning the branding on the umpire’s coat for years. This is across all matches that is played world-wide. They simply say FLY EMIRATES on the umpire’s Jersey and today the brand is well connected with Cricket internationally. The property has been maintained for ages and the branding is very strong and highly visible. Biscuit and Cake brand Britannia also made their efforts to be connected with cricket but they have not sustained it. Their first marketing campaign Britannia Khao and World Cup Jhao was a hit which was done during the world cup cricket about two seasons ago. One of their brands 50-50 biscuit was also associated with cricket did but did not last for a long time.

Here are my views as to why you need a strong and sustainable idea to build a brand property. With cricket the game is becoming so popular and bigger each year especially after the arrival of IPL there are several opportunities for brands to explore and fully leverage some interesting brand property. While there are different ways of engaging through cricket but creating a long-term property at the stadium helps you to stay top of mind not only with the spectators and the audiences but also through the telecast of the match.

1. Firstly, you have to make sure that the brand is relevant to the game and will get good eyeballs.
2. It works well for many brands brands as you are able to reach to a wide spectrum of audiences across the country.
3. If possible, you should ensure that the brand property idea can be extended to other channels. Which could be beyond sports.
4. You should have a strong self-belief on the ideas. It may not yield immediate returns but in the long run it will have a strong recall value.
5. Brands must be ready to invest and also do good research on the idea that they plan to execute. Research will help your ideas to make it narrower and finally zero it to the most viable one.
6. Today with so much of sports catching up the brand property can go beyond cricket to beat the clutter.
7. Brand property helps in adding value to the brand and as a reminder medium will help in boosting the recall of the brand.
8. You should also extend good support by promoting your brand property with judicious mix of other media.
9. The engagement levels have to be intense with the brand property created to stay top of mind.
10. Cricket is here to stay and therefore more brands are finding news ways to build a brand property around cricket. The current IPL has some interesting properties created by brands but the proof of the pudding is to make it sticky and long term.

Cricket today is more than a sporting event, It’s a global marketing extravaganza with intense brand engagement. Brands that understand the power of the game embrace it closely and will leave a lasting mark on the heart of million viewers. The real time engagement that cricket provides captivates the audiences and helps brands to connect to the right audience. Hence creating innovative campaigns and building engaging brand properties will help in effective messaging and strengthening the brand equity.