It’s barely 65 days ahead and the cricket fever is inching up with each passing day among the corporate India. As the popularity of the game cuts across all regions and age groups, marketers varying from television to biscuit, toothpaste to credit card and motorcycle to cold drinks, all are betting high and expecting high.LG Electronics which is one of the global sponsors of the event has recently unveiled its ‘Cricket First’ campaign for which LG has signed all the captains for the 14 cricketing nations. It has the highest number of 22 commercials done for a single campaign ever.Elaborating on the marketing initiatives and plans for the World Cup 2003, LG’s general manager (marketing) Ganesh Mahalingam said ‘we have earmarked an amount of Rs 30 crore for the event and will also be launching a special consumer promotion in January 2003’. LG is expecting almost 50 per cent jump in its CTV sales during the first quarter of 2003 when the World Cup will be played.Another Korean consumer durable major Samsung Electronics has also come up with Team Samsung and will be launching new advertising campaigns soon. Samsung’s vice-president (sales & marketing) Ravinder Zutshi said that ‘we are expecting 40-50 per cent growth in CTV sales by selling 400,000 units’. It will also be launching five new CTV models in January 2003 in 21 and 29 inch category. Soft drinks major Pepsi, which is also one of the official sponsors, has ushered in the cricket season with the ‘Cup Fever’ and its ‘Men in Blue’ advertising campaigns. It has signed 12 cricket stars—eight from India— who will feature in all its campaigns. Pepsi Foods’ chairman Rajeev Bakshi said ‘the thematic ads and series of consumer promotions will leverage our exclusive rights and privileges with the ICC for the World Cup’. Pepsi will also unleash a number of innovative consumer promotions, offering fans exciting prizes including all-expense paid trips to South Africa to watch some of the matches during the World Cup. The International Cricket Council sold the marketing rights of World Cup to four sponsors—Pepsi, LG Electronics, Hero Honda Motors and South African Airlines. However this has not deterred other marketers like TVS Motors Company, Britannia, Colgate, Bharat Petroleum or ABN Amro Bank to built their promotions around the same event. It is estimated that about 45 million households will be watching this World Cup. The match timing between 2:30 pm to 10:30 pm coincides with the prime time, thus getting large number of audience which companies just can’t afford to miss. It is estimated that almost Rs 300 crore of ad money is expected to flow into TV alone.Says Atul Sobti, senior V-P (marketing) of Hero Honda Motors ‘there is no other way I can reach to my target audience of 18 to 40 years male across the country’. Hence we are spending a substantial part of its annual publicity budget during the World Cup and presently running a Wonder Cup campaign offering gifts on every purchase and also free tickets to South Africa. Under TVS Motor Company’s offers, all TVS owners can be one of the Lucky 7 to tour South Africa with the Indian team by filling a form and answering one simple question.Britannia’s Britannia Khao, World Cup Jao promotion offers 100 cricket enthusiasts an opportunity to visit South Africa and cheer the Indian team in person in a match against Pakistan on March 1, 2003. Wrappers of every such offer pack would carry a certain number of runs which could be exchanged for a specially designed ‘World Cup 2003 scratch card’. The ad spend for the current promotion would be close to Rs 10 to 12 crore.Colgate is also giving miniature icons of Indian players who would be playing for the World Cup in each Colgate toothpaste pack. One can even win free tickets to South Africa by applying for ABN Amro credit card and participation in the ABN Amro Cricket Safari Contest.
