 "Bank of Baroda backs Under-17 FIFA World Cup")
As India gears up to host its first ever major world football tournament, Bank of Baroda (BoB) has come on board as the first national supporter for the Under-17 FIFA World Cup in football, to be held in the second half of 2017.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) that comprises members from the All India Football Federation and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), world body for soccer, is looking at five more national supporters for the tourney.
These partners/supporters would be in addition to the global commercial partners that FIFA already has. These include Hyundai, Visa, Coca-Cola and Adidas. “Since FIFA already has a commitment to the global partners, we’ll be getting Indian brands as national supporters. We are looking at brands with a broad presence in India and will be involved beyond only putting their name on the hoarding," says Joy Bhattacharjya, project director for the LOC. Tournament director Javier Ceppi adds, “BoB has more than 5,000 (branches) in the country and their involvement will help us penetrate much deeper into the nation as the tournament approaches. The matches will happen in six cities but the interest in the sport is across the nation and we need to talk to people beyond these six cities as well.”
While the deal's financial details of the deal were not disclosed, BoB has earmarked ~80-90 crore this financial year on brand building and promotional activity, including sports sponsorships. It recently hired Olympic medallist P V Sindhu as a brand ambassador.
While e-commerce and payment wallets are aggressive in advertising and sponsorships at the moment, the Under-17 World Cup might not be able to cash on the opportunity. Bhattacharjya explains, “Since Visa is a global partner, we might not be able to get payment wallets on board as national supporters, since this might may give rise to conflict with the global partners. Similarly, while we would love to have an e-commerce player on the roster, we might not be able to, since many of the e-commerce websites would sell brands that are competitors to the global partners.” Having said that, Ceppi and he both emphasise that commercials are secondary in the larger scheme. “FIFA never makes profits on youth events. They might not lose an obscene amount of money but profit making is not the goal. They look at the youth events as development activities and go about it accordingly,” Bhattacharjya says.
Ceppi, who has experience in organising FIFA tournaments the world over, says India poses multiple challenges. While on the one hand it provides massive scale with its 1,200-million population, it poses challenges on the administrative and infrastructural fronts. “It’s like doing a tournament in six different countries!” he exclaims, while talking about the diversity of the venues. The LOC has been working with state governments to ensure the venues are ready in time.
“The great thing about India is that Indians are very, very good at implementation. You want a pandal up overnight? No problem, it’ll be done. The flip side is that they lack planning. So, we have been working with various agencies and governments to ensure there is enough time to prepare, test and implement changes at the venues. Also, as an international body, we understand that people are apprehensive about what we suggest in terms of cost. We are not interested in leaving behind white elephants. So, the effort is to modify or improve the existing facilities instead of starting something from scratch and then leaving behind a structure or equipment that is not going to be used,” Ceppi explains.
To gather momentum for the tournament, the LOC and its contracted broadcaster, Sony Pictures Network, will start promoting the tournament 10 months in advance. This will include on-ground/venue-led promotion and digital promotion. The challenge is two-fold in this case, since unlike kabaddi, also a non-cricket sport, football does not have an immensely popular domestic tournament; players from the under-17 team are fairly unknown.
“We are targeting the youth of today, who come without the baggage my generation maybe had. These are fearless people and the players of the under-17 team are just like them. There is an aspiration attached to the sport now, which we hope to cash on,” concludes Bhattacharjya.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) that comprises members from the All India Football Federation and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), world body for soccer, is looking at five more national supporters for the tourney.
These partners/supporters would be in addition to the global commercial partners that FIFA already has. These include Hyundai, Visa, Coca-Cola and Adidas. “Since FIFA already has a commitment to the global partners, we’ll be getting Indian brands as national supporters. We are looking at brands with a broad presence in India and will be involved beyond only putting their name on the hoarding," says Joy Bhattacharjya, project director for the LOC. Tournament director Javier Ceppi adds, “BoB has more than 5,000 (branches) in the country and their involvement will help us penetrate much deeper into the nation as the tournament approaches. The matches will happen in six cities but the interest in the sport is across the nation and we need to talk to people beyond these six cities as well.”
While the deal's financial details of the deal were not disclosed, BoB has earmarked ~80-90 crore this financial year on brand building and promotional activity, including sports sponsorships. It recently hired Olympic medallist P V Sindhu as a brand ambassador.
While e-commerce and payment wallets are aggressive in advertising and sponsorships at the moment, the Under-17 World Cup might not be able to cash on the opportunity. Bhattacharjya explains, “Since Visa is a global partner, we might not be able to get payment wallets on board as national supporters, since this might may give rise to conflict with the global partners. Similarly, while we would love to have an e-commerce player on the roster, we might not be able to, since many of the e-commerce websites would sell brands that are competitors to the global partners.” Having said that, Ceppi and he both emphasise that commercials are secondary in the larger scheme. “FIFA never makes profits on youth events. They might not lose an obscene amount of money but profit making is not the goal. They look at the youth events as development activities and go about it accordingly,” Bhattacharjya says.
Ceppi, who has experience in organising FIFA tournaments the world over, says India poses multiple challenges. While on the one hand it provides massive scale with its 1,200-million population, it poses challenges on the administrative and infrastructural fronts. “It’s like doing a tournament in six different countries!” he exclaims, while talking about the diversity of the venues. The LOC has been working with state governments to ensure the venues are ready in time.
“The great thing about India is that Indians are very, very good at implementation. You want a pandal up overnight? No problem, it’ll be done. The flip side is that they lack planning. So, we have been working with various agencies and governments to ensure there is enough time to prepare, test and implement changes at the venues. Also, as an international body, we understand that people are apprehensive about what we suggest in terms of cost. We are not interested in leaving behind white elephants. So, the effort is to modify or improve the existing facilities instead of starting something from scratch and then leaving behind a structure or equipment that is not going to be used,” Ceppi explains.
To gather momentum for the tournament, the LOC and its contracted broadcaster, Sony Pictures Network, will start promoting the tournament 10 months in advance. This will include on-ground/venue-led promotion and digital promotion. The challenge is two-fold in this case, since unlike kabaddi, also a non-cricket sport, football does not have an immensely popular domestic tournament; players from the under-17 team are fairly unknown.
“We are targeting the youth of today, who come without the baggage my generation maybe had. These are fearless people and the players of the under-17 team are just like them. There is an aspiration attached to the sport now, which we hope to cash on,” concludes Bhattacharjya.