Madison bats for sports marketing

Madison Outdoor Media Services (MOMS), a division of the Rs 750 crore advertising agency Madison Communications, has made a little profit from its first sports marketing event: the Indo-Pak cricket series held in Pakistan.

Buoyed by its success, MOMS is said to be looking at entering the sports marketing business in a big way. Says the agency's chairman & managing director Sam Balsara: "We are eyeing the future tournaments. And we are looking beyond cricket."

Though MOMS opened its sports marketing innings by winning the bid for the in-stadia rights during the cricket tournament, Balsara says that the company plans to venture beyond ground advertising.

"Sports marketing includes sponsorships and celebrity endorsements and we are interested in these areas too," says Balsara.

He says that Madison is venturing into these fields because the percentage of the clients' spends on the mass media such as print and television is shrinking and moving into other marketing and promotions activities. We want to be present in all those areas," he explains.

The agency jumped onto the sports marketing bandwagon in the last cricket tournament when one of its clients' indicated its interest in the in-stadia display boards. "We decided to jump in since it was in line with what we were doing and what we wanted to expand into," says Balsara.

So when the Pakistan Cricket Board asked for bids for the in-stadia space, MOMS applied and won 40 per cent of the ground rights. The PCB, apparently wisely, divided the sites into two lots. One lot of 40 per cent space was reserved for sale only to brands, local or international, available in Pakistan.

"If this was not done, Pakistan being a relatively smaller market than India, no Pakistani company would have been able to participate in this historic series despite it being played in their own country," says Balsara.

The other lot of 60 per cent could be sold to anybody and was won by Nimbus. Among the other companies who bid were Twenty First Century Media, Percept D'Mark, S&S Sports, Sign Source, Ten Sports and World Sports Nimbus.

"We managed to sell all the sites despite the restriction, proving that there is no shortage of advertisers wanting to associate with cricket," observes Balsara.

Some of the prominent brands, which availed of this opportunity through MOMS were: Hyundai, ESPN Star Sports, Strepsils, Saridon, Montex, Maxell, Instaphone, Tetrapaks, Adidads, Dollar East Exchange Company, Metro Rice and National Aids Control programme.

Predictably, Balsara refuses to divulge the profits from the company's first sports marketing deal. He says that in a short span of three years, MOMS has come a long way and will continue to grow in outdoor, retail merchandising and sports marketing.