Spirit W | There is no differentiation in genders: Univ Sportsbiz's Anjana Reddy

As Managing Director of Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd, twenty-four year old Anjana Reddy aims to transform the branding landscape in India, by introducing the concept of brand extensions in the sports and entertainment ecosystem of the country. Arising from a personal passion and connect to sport and entertainment, Reddy embarked on her biggest entrepreneurial journey in 2011, incorporating an ecommerce and celebrity branding venture - Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd.

Built to cater to an untapped sports and entertainment ecosystem in India, Universal Sportsbiz under its brand ‘Collectabillia’, is every sporting enthusiast’s dream. The brand offers opportunities to fans to own memorabilia personally autographed by their icons, and assists celebrities by extending their brand connects beyond endorsements.

Like all successful entrepreneurs, Anjana displayed her entrepreneurial abilities early in life. It was evident when she set up a bookstall on her high school premises during Parent Teacher Conferences, displaying her keen ability to understand and cater to the needs of a captive audience. She further honed her entrepreneurial spirit in a university abroad when she built Hindi movie package tours for her fellow students providing them with transport, a movie, and of course the essential bucket of popcorn.

Adgully caught up with Anjana Reddy, MD, Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd. to know more about her celebrity branding venture and learn about her views on the scope of e-commerce and the digital industry today.

Reddy, an enthusiastic and young entrepreneur shared with us the two things that made her choose this as her profession. In this regard she says, “I love sports, I myself have been a national badminton player and Saina Nehwal used to be my doubles partner. I did my graduation in accounting and masters in finance both from universities in the US. I always wanted to do something which would engage me more and hence came the thought of returning to India and doing something here in the field of sports.”

With an accounting and management background she is now a part of India's first celebrity-commerce company. Telling us how it all happened, Reddy said, “I think e-commerce is the fastest growing medium in India and probably the best way to reach out to fans, that's why we launchedCollectabillia.com. We launched it last year in December. Offline we are doing it with CCD's and we will be opening 50 outlets across India by March and later will be placed worldwide.”

Where response is concerned it has been overwhelming, especially during Sachin's last test matches! The most thought provoking ‘memorabilia’ that they created was during Sachin's retirement and Reddy is proud of the fact that almost 52 of Sachin’s cricket bats were sold during that time.

When asked to define her stint with Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd, she said, “As the company is in its start up stage where I handle loads of responsibilities being the MD of the company.”

Elaborating further on Collectabillia and the rationale behind launching the same, she said, “Collectabillia aims to bridge the connection between fans and their icons.  Its online platform allows every fan an opportunity to ‘own the moment’ for personal pride or as a strong investment proposition.”

Collectabillia.com auctioned the first 20 Luxe Edition copies of Yuvraj’s memoir ‘The Test of My Life’, earlier in 2013 and recently held a stall at the World Chess Championship in Chennai, to launch exclusive Viswanathan Anand Merchandise.To mark the Master Blaster’s 200th test the celebrity commerce company also launched an exclusive Sachin Tendulkar 200th Test Commemorative Memorabillia- a niche collection that included, 'The Immortals' a signed bat by Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Don Bradman and other memorabilia autographed by the legend himself.

The team at Collectabillia under the watchful guidance of Reddy herself is always on the lookout for unique and inventive representation of ‘moments’ for the most loyal sports fan.

Collectabillia, also reinventing in the entertainment ecosystem, is one of the leading in-film marketing agencies, having partnered exclusively with Eros Entertainment and Sony in India for all their film branding and marketing. The best part of the product is that they do not see any competition. “Presently among our celebrity brands we have Sachin, Virat, Rajnikanth, Katrina and Dhoom 3. We are really passionate about what we do, and proud of the merchandise that we have,” she added. 

An entrepreneur herself, her mother has been a huge source of inspiration for Reddy from whom she has learnt a lot. A really passionate and strong headed person, she does not believe that women have an edge over men in the marketing space. She said, “Today there is no differentiation in genders as we are all living in the 21st century.”

Sharing about their forthcoming association and also her vision for the future Reddy signs off saying, “Our next association is with film Dhoom 3 and their products have already gone live on 2nd December’13. The idea is to launch more memorabilia with global celebrities as well.”

Backed by the team at Accel Partners, of the Facebook and Angry Birds fame, Universal Sportsbiz’s story is just being written.

With a childhood spent in India’s cyber-city, Hyderabad, Reddy moved to Purdue University, USA for her undergraduate degree and continued at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Business for a Masters degree in Finance. A talented badminton player, Reddy has been a familiar name on the national junior circuit, ranked amongst the top 3 players in her generation. She stepped off the circuit to actively concentrate on studies. However, she continues to remain committed to the game by personally sponsoring India’s most talented badminton players that includes World # 3 Saina Nehwal and more recently, the new kid on the block, P. V Sindhu, who is climbing the ranks while defeating London Olympic Medal winners.

She is also actively involved with multiple Charity initiatives; assisting foundations such as the GoSports Foundation to raise funds for the aspiring Olympic athlete through unique sports memorabilia auctions.Currently based in Bangalore, Anjana Reddy equipped with a unique foresight will soon be a global household name.