Star Sports’ smart marketing move bring cricket fans closer to Kabaddi

With the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 over, Star Sports is turning its attention to another of its major sports properties – Vivo Pro Kabaddi League. Here’s how the broadcaster is uniting cricket with Kabaddi with a slew of programming and marketing initiatives.

Vivo Pro Kabaddi League has today become the second most watched sport after cricket. The League is set to begin on July 20, and ahead of the big opening, Star Sports is bringing fans an amalgamation of cricket and Kabaddi with a few programming and marketing initiatives.

Integrating Kabaddi onto the largest cricketing platform by the network is an effort to showcase the growth of the league and to introduce popular Kabaddi heroes like MVP of season 6 ‘Hi-Flyer’ Pawan Sehrawat, ‘Dubki King and Record Breaker’ Pardeep Narwal, ‘Ice Man’ Ajay Thakur, Raid Machine and ‘Showman’ Rahul Chaudhari, Season 6 debutant ‘Baahubali’ Siddharth Desai and the Iranian ‘Sultan’ Fazel Atrachali.

Read More: #IsseToughKuchNahi- Kabaddi fans to witness VIVO PKL All-Star match

The just concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 saw Irfan Pathan and Brett Lee indulging in a friendly Kabaddi match during the pre-show Philips Hue Cricket Live. Stephen Fleming has played and motivated a talented group of young Kabaddi players. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has lent his support by being part of the Vivo PKL campaign. Shikhar Dhawan’s famous moustache look and his adopted celebratory Kabaddi Thigh Five will stay among all cricket and Kabaddi fans. Team India captain Virat Kohli is not far behind, he has graced his presence at various matches in the past and has enjoyed the sport as a spectator.

Star Sports’ initiative of bringing cricketing fans closer to Kabaddi is one-step towards the sport growing leaps and bounds with every passing season. Through clever marketing initiatives, including branding during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to launching the main thematic campaign “Isse kuch tough nahi” for Vivo PKL 7 during the games, the network has left no stone unturned in creative enough preseason buzz ahead on the July 20 opening in Hyderabad.

Another promo launched by Star Sports integrating Kabaddi in the cricketing field of play was with Pardeep Narwal. During a cricket match, Narwal is seen shifting a sight screen with just one push – #IsseToughKuchNahi to make sure the game goes on. The promo beautifully integrates cricket and sums up that the Genius ‘Record Breaker’s strength and sheer power.

The opening match in Vivo PKL Season 7 will see Telugu Titans clash with U Mumba, followed by Season 6 champions Bengaluru Bulls taking on three-time champions, Patna Pirates. Fans can catch the live coverage with telecast beginning at 7.00 pm and matches beginning at 7.30 pm on the Star Sports Network and Hotstar in multiple languages, including Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, English and Hindi.