Corporates jump on the Navratri bandwagon

Corporates rarely miss an opportunity to showcase their products. The latest example is the 'Vibrant Gujarat' festival. From companies which have a national presence to state-level companies have fighting with each other to sponsor various programmes during the Navratri festivals.

Telecom majors such as Hutch, Airtel, Idea, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices and are the major sponsors of the various garbas organised across the state during Navratri to build and promote their brands.

Generally the corporates pays anything between Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000 per day for banners, between Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh per day as main sponsors, around Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per day for stalls depicting their products amongst others. The major corporates sponsoring the state organised Garba include, Torrent group, Nirma, Adani's Birla's, Gujarat Ambuja, British Gas, Sanghi Industries Ltd, Reliance and Essar amongst others.

Reliance will be spending over Rs 1 crore for sponsoring the private garba's apart from Rs 1 crore to be spend on the state organised garba. Reliance has tied-up with the 'Falguni pathak Nite' in Surat, 'Arkeli Garba Mahotsav', 'Bal Shishu Garba' and 'Air Force Station Durga Puja' in Vadodara and one of the biggest garba events 'Garbanites' in Gandhinagar.

Reliance has introduced 'R - World Contest' and will give away free passes to the winners.

"This is for the first time that Reliance is sponsoring private Garbas. Apart from the three, presently we are in talks with few other Garba organisers for sponsorships." said a senior official Reliance.

Sanjoy Mukerji, chief executive officer, Hutch said, "Navratri is the most important function in Gujarat. We are just not the garba sponsors putting up our banners and hoarding at the garba venue.

"This year we are participating in over 10 major garba venues across the state, where we will target to reach our customers as a true service providers through providing recharge coupons and recharge zones in the garba venues as a part of our public utility services amongst others," he added.