Reverse swing in cricket ad sweepstakes

The marketing blitz usually associated with an India-Pakistan cricket engagement is strangely missing from the coming series that begins on February 27. No special promotional campaigns built around the series have been launched.

The telecast rights for the three Test matches and five One-Dayers are yet to be handed out. A decision on this is likely to be taken only a few days before the series kicks off. Owing to the uncertainty, most big advertisers are unable to put together a special campaign for the event.

Samsung, which was the lead sponsor for the last Indo-Pak series played in Pakistan and is learnt to have spent Rs 40 crore on it, is yet to draw up a media plan for the 2005 tie.

"We are still undecided. Nobody knows who will own the rights and what the pricing will be," said Ravinder Zutshi, vice-president, Samsung India.

Big-ticket cricket tournaments like the World Cup and matches involving India and teams like Pakistan and Australia are big money spinners for colour television makers like Samsung.

During the Indo-Pak series last year, Samsung had claimed that its sales went up by nearly 40 per cent because of sales promotions and advertising built around the matches.

Hero Honda, which has several key Indian stars like Saurav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan as its brand ambassadors, is not planning any special promotions or fresh cricket-based ad campaign either.