The Indian Premier League (IPL) has already won many hearts and made a huge fan following among all cricket lovers. This is not all. It has also given a platform for budding cricketers to showcase their skills and thanks to IPL some players have left their country to play full-time in the IPL. And as far as cricket in India goes, IPL is the only major tournament that is using the power of web (although not to the fullest) for publicity and as a way to reach out to more fans. According to a brand strategy specialist Fans can look at match replays as well as build something like a second life where websites create a social platform for fans to interact with the teams or even with their friends.
So let us find out how well is the web being used by IPL honchos and teams and whosoever that is associated with the IPL. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi himself tweets not only to give updates, but also to comment on controversies. Kings XI Punjab owner Priety Zinta also uses twitter to tweet about her team updates. We recently told you about Shah Rukh Khan using the web to promote his film My Name is Khan, the same kind of publicity is also expected from him for his team – The Kolkata Knight Riders.
Teams like Chennai Superkings, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians are even redoing their official websites in order to make cricket more fun for the fans with the launch of several “cricketainment”. Microsoft has signed a Deal Mumbai Indians team to redo their website and implement social features. Chennai Superkings has also tied up with Yahoo! to redo its website to make it more interactive.
Although IPL teams have their own online monetization strategies, and now with online streaming rights and the Google, Youtube deal in the bag, industry estimates peg revenues for IPL III to touch Rs 700 crore — a 50 per cent jump in revenues this year from season two held in South Africa last year. Mumbai Indians has tied up with bookmyshow.com for online booking of tickets. Cricket fans get to choose their favourite view seats at the time of booking (gosh, even at a cricket stadium!). All this did not eBay back too, eBay also launched it’s IPL merchandise section on their online portal.
