Will India’s young cricket brigade win over the brands?

In 2018, when Prithivi Shaw was the new cricketing kid and sensational with his bat, he drew a lot of attention from brands to sign up him up. He was the captain of the India Under-19 team, which went on to bag the Under-19 World Cup in 2018. At that time, brands such as Protinex and MRF Tyres signed him on looking at his talent and potential. However, his popularity dropped quickly as his performance dipped. There are multiple examples of cricketers and other athletes who saw a surge, but then faded away. But brands have to take that calculated risk when they sign up an upcoming cricketer, who they think has the right potential.

Brands keep looking for fresh identity and new faces. While there is an element of risk in signing the new and young cricketers butsince theoutlay may not be that huge in the early stages,brands could deep dive and sign a few cricketers for brand endorsements. Brands should benefit from this as they are totally fresh and may help them beat the clutter level and could also standout from the rest of the regular cricketers. Remember you need to catch them young to make the most of it. With affordable endorsement fee it will be a win-win situation for both the brand and the cricketers.

Young cricketers can connect better especially with the aspiration of the younger target audience. They help brands to build a dominant association with the cricketer as a first mover advantage. If the cricketer happens to succeed it will be a huge bonus for the brand to take it forward and leverage it further. Signing up these young cricketers will depend about the marketing goals of the brand. If they want to really cash in this opportunity on the current success of the under 19 squad, brands may look at them.

Some of the brands which strongly believes in tapping themearly while they are still young and talented are two tyre brands MRF and CEAT tyres. Interestingly when it comes to Bollywood, brands quickly look at fresh faces especially in fashion and skin care category. A case in example is Sara Ali Khan, Disha Patani, Mithila Palkar, Jhanavi Kapoor, Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria who have been signed with fashion and skin cream brands. Sara Ali today endorses brands including Fanta, Puma, Ceriz, Veet and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ).

Finally, Bollywood and cricket is a religion in our country and most brands follow cricket heroes and cricket as a sport when it comes to brand endorsements and buying spots over a program. With IPL becoming bigger and bigger every year brands always feel cricket and signing up cricketersas brand ambassadors is the best bet to achieve the desired impact and mileage for the brand in the market place.

In the past, brands always kept an eye on big ticket sporting events to sign up brand ambassadors. Recently, Olympic Gold winner Neeraj Chopra was quickly snapped up by several interesting brands. Presenting his views, Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Marketing Expert, pointed out that the Under-19 team winning the cricket World Cup bodes well for Indian cricket. “This has over the last two decades been the nursery for outstanding Indian cricketing talent with stars like Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, all coming from this fold,” he pointed out.

Continuing further, he said, “Given how expensive signing on mainstream stars is, I think some brands may punt on doing 3–5-year deals with some of these players. Of course, sports talent management companies will play gate keeper.  However, strategically, it may make sense for brands with a long-term view on cricket to work on this direction. I see new age brands from the EdTech space and some of the online gaming brands taking the lead in this.”

Navroze D Dhondy, Founder & Managing Director, Creatigies Communications, noted that a World Cup victory is always special, and added that India seems to have made it a habit at the ICC U-19 event. “The fact that there was so much excitement before the first ball of the Finals was bowled and the fact that quite a few stayed up till the wee hours to watch the Colts play shows a great interest in the Young Brigade,” he said.

Adding further, Dhondy pointed out that this World Cup has allowed some of the youngsters to showcase their talent and he felt that brands with a clear focus on youth would be quickly lining up to sign these young Turks. “The two names to watch out for are Yash Dhull, the Captain, who showed great maturity yet a “fun-side”, and Raj Bawa the effervescent all-rounder, who was also the Player of the Finals,” according to him.

Kapil Arora, CEO and Co-Chairman, 82.5 Communications, remarked that it is heartening to see the Indian cricketing juggernaut roll on. :And surely, some of these winning players are going to be signed on and celebrated by sports brands and a few youths-based brands. But the real deals will happen when they come into their own at the IPL or India senior stage. That’s when they will potentially become individual stars and enjoy all the endorsement trappings that come along with that status.”