India vs SA: Sony Pictures starts campaign, looks for first win of the year

The network has launched an aggressive campaign for the India-South Africa series, wanting to make the most of its pared down cricket portfolio in 2018

Sony Pictures Sports Network India (SPSN) is racing down the pitch to promote its first cricket tournament of the year, the India-South Africa (SA) series. With a promotional campaign called #hisaab 25 saal ka (payback for 25 years) it is looking to keep itself in the reckoning with audiences and advertisers alike even after losing the broadcast rights to the highly lucrative Indian Premier League to rival Star India (now Disney). 

With nine sponsors and advertising rates ranging between one to six lakh rupees per spot depending upon the format of the game (Test matches, One-day Internationals and T-20), SPSN says it has already sold out more than 70 per cent of its ad inventory. And it is expecting that the Virat Kohli led team will help fire up the rates for the rest of the series and the year. 

For its part, SPSN is pulling out all stops to market and present the India-SA encounter, and for good reason. The network’s calendar for the year makes it clear just why this series is so important: this is one of the two cricket tournaments SPSN has that features Team India. The second is India’s tour of Australia at the end the year. Apart from these two, there is India in its cricket portfolio. 

The campaign takes a leaf out of SPSN’s IPL playbook and even past India-Pakistan and India-Australia series where revenge has been the underlying theme. Such campaigns generate interest and talking points on social media point out brand experts but there are others who question the relevance of such a tone for true cricket aficionados. 

Rajesh Kaul, president, Sports and Distribution Business, SPSN says, “The idea was to capture the emotional journey of fans as they saw Team India lose to South Africa for six consecutive series in the past 25 years. After six tours the team is still searching for its maiden Test /ODI series win in the country. While the team is in great form, with nine consecutive test series wins, they will be tested in conditions that they have not, historically, been most comfortable in. The anticipation is running high as cricket fans analyse and debate the outcome of a series between the top two Test teams in the world.” India currently leads the table in the ICC Test Team rankings and is followed by South Africa. The order is reversed in case of ODI ranking. 

 

        Pitch Talk

• The series includes 3 Test matches, 6 One-Day Internationals and 3 T-20s, kicks off with the first test on January 5
• Sony Pictures has signed on 9 sponsors, Raymond, Maruti Suzuki, Idea 4G and Make My Trip are co-presenting sponsors and Havells Fans, BYJU’s, Swiggy, Bajaj Dominar and Ultratech Cement are associates
• More than 70% of the ad inventory has been sold already and the series is expected to net around Rs 2 billion worth of sponsorship revenue for the network

While its consumer facing marketing was one aspect of the business, SPSN also went to market with a plan and managed to rope in nine sponsors—four co-presenting and five associate sponsors. The co-presenting sponsors are Raymond, Maruti Suzuki, Idea 4G and Make My Trip. The associate sponsors are Havells Fans, BYJU’s, Swiggy, Bajaj Dominar and Ultratech Cement.  The advertising inventory sales were opened in the months leading up to the series and a majority of it has been sold already.

Typically, networks sell 70-80 per cent of the advertising inventory before the start of a series/tournament. According to media reports, the inventory has been sold for Rs 1,00,000-1,25,000 to per spot (one spot is ten seconds) for test matches, Rs 4,00,000-5,00,000 per spot for one day internationals and Rs 5,00,000-6,00,000 for T-20s. These rates are at par with an overseas India tour. (An India-Pakistan tie would be a different story however.) An away series usually commands lower ratese as it is marginally impacted by the time difference between Inida and the host country. 

Apart from marketing and ad-sales, SPSN is also focusing on its pre- and post-match shows. “One of our objectives is to ensure that our audiences have the best viewing experience and we have taken several programming initiatives to ensure the same,” Kaul adds. 

The network plans to continue with Extraaa Innings, the live wraparound show and has signed on experts Sanjay Manjrekar and Ajay Jadeja (part of Team India's tour to South Africa in 1992)  along with Harsha Bhogle, Murali Kartik, Vivek Razdan, RP Singh and Deep Dasgupta. Jonty Rhodes will also be on the panel, as will be three studio panelists, Sunil Gavaskar, Shaun Pollock and Graeme Smith.