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Telecom services provider Aircel said it was looking at strengthening its association with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) IPL team.
Responding to a query, Sankara Narayanan K, head of Aircel Chennai and Tamil Nadu, said, “We have invested in CSK eight years ago based on trust and mutual interest. We are very happy with the way things are going and I am glad to confirm you our association with CSK will only strengthen. Each of us have our business interests going pretty nicely.”
The Aircel-CSK partnership is getting into the eighth year of IPL season. The company recently announced various national customer initiatives with CSK, including a new service offerings.
On promotional spending in the association Narayanan said , “As a business head of Aircel, I assure you that we are ready to invest money to make the association meaningful and create necessary impact on the brands”.
Earlier, speaking to Business Standard, Narayanan had said the company was upbeat about its tie up with CSK.
“The company currently has a market share of close to 24 per cent in Tamil Nadu. In the last couple of years, we have improved our market share by about a percentage or so. We will continue to strengthen our position,” said Narayanan.
B Kalyanasundaram, director, Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd, said, “We’re very glad at our long-standing association with Aircel, which has worked tremendously over the years for both the brands”.
Even as the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) IPL team has been facing various issues in the recent past, including the Supreme Court observation regarding the ownership of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise in Chennai, telecom service provider Aircel is looking to strengthen its association with the team.
Responding to a query in a press conference on Wednesday, which announced the consumer campaign of Aircel with CSK, Sankara Narayanan K, head, SBU-1 (Chennai and Tamil Nadu), Aircel said, "We have invested in CSK eight years ago, based on trust and mutual interest. We are very happy with the way things are going and I am glad to confirm to you that our association with CSK will only strengthen. Each of us have our business interests going pretty nicely."
The Aircel-CSK partnership is getting into the eighth year of IPL season. The company today announced various national customer initiatives with CSK, including a new product, Aircel 1+3 offer giving its pre-paid subscribers to recharge in three packages Rs 69, Rs 109 and Rs 209 and get benefits including full talktime, Aircel minutes and data usage equivalent to the recharge value. The campaign also offer its customers along with their friends the opportunity to meet the CSK team and around 800 match tickets at various locations in the country.
The company also launched a television commercial on the new offer. The offer and the commercials are launched for the entire country.
However, Aircel did not reveal the investments into the campaign. When asked, Narayanan said that the company do not want to reveal the details of the financial transactions involved in the Aircel-CSK association. "As a business head of Aircel, I assure you that we are ready to invest that much amount of money to make the association meaningful and create necessary impact on the brands," he said.
B Kalyanasundaram, director, Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd, said, "We're very glad at our long-standing association with Aircel, which has worked tremendously over the years for both the brands".
Earlier, speaking to Business Standard, Narayanan said that the company is upbeat about its tie up with CSK. Every company pick up one main theme to connect with the customer and Aircel has picked up sports as a theme to connect young customers, not only in cricket, but also in tennis and football. While last year the change in venue from Chennai acted as a dampener, this year the home matches are in Chennai, which is a positive sign.
"The company currently has a market share of close to 24 per cent in Tamil Nadu. In the last couple of years we have improved our market share by about a percentage or so. We will continue to strengthen our position," said Narayanan. Association with CSK helps the company to build brand not only in Tamil Nadu, but in the rest of the country, he added.
