Advertisers tepid on Bangla tour

Neo Sports on a sticky wicket as big players stay away.

Big advertisers like LG, Samsung, Coke and Pepsi are staying away from advertising during India's upcoming cricket tour of Bangladesh.

Others like Airtel will take a decision only if advertising spot rates on Neo Sports, the host broadcaster for the series, drop substantially.

The 19-day tour beginning May 10 will include three One Day Internationals and two Test matches.

While Neo Sports is asking advertisers to pay Rs 1,25,000-Rs 2,00,000 for 10 second spots, advertisers are asking for a 20 to 30 per cent discount.

"With India's debacle in the World Cup and the recent negative public sentiments about cricketers and brand endorsements, our clients are cautious. We may press for discounts," a senior Delhi-based media buyer said.

But negotiations over discounts take place before any cricket series, he added.

Executives from Nimbus, which owns Neo Sports, believe that the channel will be able to hold up its rates and are looking at smaller and mid-level advertisers.

Senior Neo Sports officials expect the series to generate about Rs 40 crore in advertising revenue. Neo Sports has Hero Honda and Perfetti as anchor sponsors and hopes to generate revenues of about Rs 10 crore from sponsorship.

But media-buying agencies believe that with advertisers like LG, Pepsi and Samsung staying away from cricket, it will be difficult to raise such revenue.

A senior Pepsi executive said they were not looking at any sponsorship arrangements for the Bangladesh tour. "We may look at spot advertising, but no decision has been taken so far," he said.

LG and Samsung are staying away altogether. "Our association with cricket ended with the World Cup. We are not looking at any association with cricket anytime soon," Amitabh Tiwari, business group head, consumer electronics, LG India said.

Samsung India's Deputy Managing Director Ravinder Zutshi said recently that the company was not keen on advertising on cricket. Coke executives said they are not looking at any major investment in cricket either.