Last year, the Kolkata Knight Riders franchisee was the only team which was really profitable. Why? Marketing and Merchandising. The presence of a certain Shah Rukh Khan helped them greatly!
SRK was able to rope in his brands. KKR piggy-backed on Nokia and Tag Heur. Reebok outlets were advertising the KKR No. 12 jersey of Khan and all this ensured that KKR made profits to the tune of Rs 13 crores last year!
This season KKR have tied up with even more brands! SRK continues to get in brands being endorsed by him – i.e. Belmonte and Sprite (Yes SRK has moved from Pepsi to Sprite).
Other teams have realised this and now Making Money is a priority for everyone. This is clearly visible on the official websites of the teams. The number of partnerships have almost doubled. Everyone wants to cash in on the hype. Merchandising options are available for all the teams. Kings XI Punjab is even selling a branded Lassi Da Glass!
Other examples are: Delhi Daredevils tying up with BigAdda, a couple others have tied up with SMSGupShup etc
What is really nice to see is that the teams have realised that they need to get closer to their fans, because their fans are the ones who are going to get them the money. A lot of teams can be found on Twitter, Facebook and Orkut this time around.
Sreesanth has been introduced as the Community Face and Fan Mentor for Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians is offering mobile downloads and wallpapers at a cost, Chennai Super Kings are actually charging users to become part of their Kings Club! I’m sure soon a team will offer a branded Credit Card in tie-up with a bank too!
But the teams are not the only ones which are making money. Popular cricketing websites are gearing up for the IPL too. Traffic is going to being at its peak!
Cricket and Bollywood are the most searched for terms in India if you don’t count sex and porn.
Here is a graph of search volumes on Google last year (May, 2008) for ipl, bollywood and cricket. IPL consistently beat both generic cricket searches and bollywood. Cricket and IPL put together almost beat ‘sex’!
Cricinfo have launched Page2 specifically for the IPL. Other portals like CricBuzz and CricketNext have dedicated sections for the IPL too and so have the popular news portals. A lot of small blogs (IPL09.com and a 1000 others) have sprouted up all over the place.
Another way the IPL teams can cash in on these websites and blogs is by having an affiliate program for merchandise. Let the blogs and sites also sell your jerseys and give them a small share of the profits. This might even result in fans setting up blogs just to support their team! Convert your online savvy fans into profitable evangelists!
The buzz is there and so is the hype, lets see who cashes in the best!
I read same article about that top aussie players to skip IPL, you know why they r not interested in IPL Season 2 here IPL 2009 News
Money is actually drying up for IPL this season both because its in SA and also coz of recession!
Mc Cullum , chris gayle, ishant sharma all are flop ..
Legend Saurav Ganguly is the God of indian cricket.. respect him.
Only he stood strong , last time also , and this year also,
as hes the only one who is contributing in batting and bowling.
but its impossible for a single person to carry the burden of the whole team.
That idiot srk has been blinded, by Buchanan and his flop coaching skills . Buchanan is ruining every thing.
British raaj is over , but still there are people like srk and vijaya mallya, who will forever remain in the shoes of white skin ones, bcoz they are born to do slavery (impressing the white skins is present in their blood and genes).
eklavya da , bhalo aacho to.. saurav dada ke jaa opomaan kora hocche taa niye aami above comment ta post korlam, kichu mone koro na