Marketing: The World Cup Googly

The World Cup is not the greatest opportunity for brand-building this year. On the contrary, it may turn out to be the greatest opportunity for wasting marketing budgets this year, argues Shailesh Dobhal.

To: Janardhan Sharma,
CEO, Coldbrands India
From: Girish Nair,
National Media Director, Cerebellum

I've just been told you're planning to play in World Cup 99 too. Samar Sengupta, who services your account, informs me that your marketing people have decided to spend Rs 3 crore on advertising your brands during the month-long live telecast of the cricket tournament. I'm sure you'll be amazed that, as the head of media at your ad agency, I'm not endorsing the idea enthusiastically.

I know as well as you that events like the World Cup come but once in 4 years. Even if the venue is distant England, India will still be riveted to TV, and eating Tendulkar & Co. for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Isn't it a great marketing opp? Not to me, it isn't. In fact, I feel you're going to be wasting money if you choose to unleash a brand-building or promo-powered blitz only for the World Cup--if it isn't for a new product.

Yes, 9 global companies--the 4 official partners, PepsiCo, Vodaphone, NatWest, and Emirates, and the 5 official suppliers, the LG Group, Outspan, Hero Honda Motors, Scrumpy Jack, and The Daily Telegraph--paid a collective œ6.40 million (Rs 45 crore) for their status. However, not only are just 3 of them--PepsiCo, LG, and Hero Honda Motors--looking at the Indian market, they're getting unmatched value from their investments, which others will not. For instance, nobody else has the rights to the use of the World Cup logo, signage, or music. Moreover, each will get billboard space--500 sq. ft for each official partner, and 300 sq. ft for each official supplier--at every venue besides being given first shot at broadcast sponsorship of the event in different countries. In addition, the organisers have devised powerful anti-ambush strategies to ensure that competing brands cannot use the World Cup logo and signage in their promotions.

None of these benefits will come the way of the 100-plus other companies who will collectively lavish Rs 1,000 crore on advertising and marketing their products during the World Cup. Rajeev Karwal, Vice-President (Marketing & Sales), LG, estimates that "this World Cup will be a Rs 750-1,000 crore advertising and promotion phenomenon in India." Of course, I understand your hesitation at staying silent when high-decibel marketing plans are being unfurled. After all, marketers like Vikram Kaushik, Vice-President (Marketing & Exports), Britannia Industries, are convinced that their mega-promotions will help "build saliency and drive volumes." I know, as you do, that:

"This World Cup will be a Rs 750 crore-Rs 1,000 crore advertising and promotion phenomenon in India."
Rajeev Karwal
V-P (Mktg & Sales)
LG Electronics

Will all this money be well-spent? This sounds like heresy, but advertising on TV during the livecast of the matches is akin to throwing good money after bad returns. First, on both DD and ESPN/Star Sports, you have to buy the entire package of matches, the only choice being the number of spots per match. If we concentrate on the high-interest matches, we'll have to stay with DD, which will telecast 11 matches: the 5 preliminary ties featuring India; 3 from the second round--India's, if it qualifies, and other high-interest ties if it doesn't--the 2 semi-finals; and the final. ESPN/Star Sports, however, will cover all the 42 matches live.

Obviously, there will be a trade-off. If you're interested in just the Cable & Satellite (C&S) niche that the ESPN/Star Sports combine provides, you'll have to pay Rs 1 lakh per 10-second spot. Or Rs 6 crore for 8 spots (210 seconds) per match, or Rs 3.50 crore for 5 spots (120 seconds) per match. But you'll be buying plenty of redundancy since low-interest matches--how many viewers do you expect for Scotland Vs Bangladesh?--are part of the package.

On DD, you'll get only the high-interest matches, but unless your brands are for the mass market--which, of course, they are not--you'll pay for many more viewers than you need to. Besides, the C&S sub-set will, certainly, be watching the matches on ESPN/Star Sports. So, the Rs 1.25 lakh that a 10-second spot will cost you--adding up to Rs 2.90 crore for 8 spots (210 seconds) per match, and Rs 1.65 crore for 5 spots (120 seconds) per match--will not bring you a focused audience.

There's worse. Both networks will air your commercials on a run-on-station basis. You know what that means: we cannot tell the channel when to air the commercial. So, we might as well forget our complex scheduling strategies for optimum impact. No wonder Satyajit Sen, Strategic Media Director at Ammirati Puris Lintas, believes that "the World Cup 99 is being hyped far beyond what it can really deliver."

What I've given you so far is only the tip of the iceberg. If you still decide to step out, despite the sticky wicket, let's look at the chances of your not getting stumped. Acquiring a reasonable Share-Of-Mind (SOM) is a very pricey proposition. Even a not-inconsiderable budget of Rs 1 crore-Rs 1.50 crore will get you roughly 3 spots (of 20 seconds each) per match. Take 98 between-overs breaks in a 100-over match, add 4 longer drinks-breaks, and at least a dozen other gaps because of fall of wickets et al--and it adds up to over 600 10-second spots that your commercials will be competing with. Your SOM? A miserable 1 per cent. That's what the 75, at last count, brands who have earmarked Rs 1 crore each for their tele-advertising will get during the event.

The only way to counter that would have been exclusivity; being a main or an associate broadcast sponsor. The price: Rs 7 crore and Rs 5 crore, respectively, on dd. Or, Rs 18 crore and Rs 9 crore, respectively, on ESPN/Star Sports. For this, the 11 sponsors will get 2 benefits: 20 per cent additional advertising time--for a 150 per cent premium--and a cap on competing brands' advertising. Thus, since PepsiCo is a broadcast sponsor on DD, Coca-Cola will get no more than 60 per cent of the time that Pepsi does. Will the customer realise that? I doubt it. Anand Bhardwaj, Vice-President, Maharaja International, warns us that "the clutter and the extremely high costs simply do not justify the investment."

"Our objective with the World Cup Promotion is to build saliency for our brands and to drive volumes."
Vikram Kaushik
V-P (Mktg & Exports)
Britannia

No one doubts the sheer bulk of the viewership. Of course, the fact that it will be distributed between DD and ESPN/Star Sports will dwarf the reach of the State-owned network. Given the relative qualities of its telecast, it would be logical to assume that only the 37 million non-C&S homes will watch dd. However, even then, a conservative Television Rating Point (TRP) of 30--history shows that 40 is closer to the mark--will result in an effective viewer-base of 55.50 million. And a typical TRP of 25 will serve up an audience of 22.50 million people from the 18 million C&S homes. Even the print media will gain readership during the event, making the sports pages prime picks in terms of sheer numbers. I fear, though, that Siddhartha Ray, the CEO of Stracon Marketing, is exaggerating when he says that "this World Cup is a major marketing opportunity. It is the perfect conduit for companies to reach their audience." Ray's hardsell is understandable: his company is supposed to market DD's air-time to advertisers.

Trouble is, the huge, undifferentiated viewership that the telecasts will serve up will hit targeting for a six. We all know--who better than your agency--that your brands are aimed at the male aged between 35 and 44, with a monthly income of over Rs 8,000. But who are you getting by advertising during the World Cup? Males and females aged between 4 and 104, with monthly-incomes of between 0 and infinity. A perfect fit? I think not. On the contrary, you'll be paying for a viewership that is 10 times the dimensions of your target.

There is one opportunity, though. If India doesn't win, 600 million, cutting across region, religion, race, and remuneration is just the right audience for launching--or relaunching--a brand. The issue is not that they're watching cricket, but that they're all watching. The kind of blitz that the advertising for a new brand must create to earn top-of-mind attention quickly is well-suited to the mass viewership of the telecasts. That's why Samsung, LG, and Mirc Electronics are all launching new TV brands during the event while Hero Honda will unveil its new CBZ motorcycle. In fact, J.H. Park, Vice-President of Samsung Electronics, expects the World Cup to take his company's "brand awareness up from the current 74 per cent to 85 per cent"--an opportunity he will use to introduce 15 new models in different categories.

You've got to think of the dangers of World-Cup-related advertising. I know our creative teams have been busy working on imaginative executions linking your brand to cricket--as, in fact, is every other agency. For Asian Paints, Ogilvy & Mather did a witty take on the third umpire, combining the commercial with a highly salient contest asking participants to predict the right shade of blue for the Indian cricket team. But every brand is looking to do the same, running the risk of dulling its differentiation. Was that last commercial featuring Sachin Tendulkar for Visa? Or was it for Adidas? Or perhaps Colgate Dental Cream?

Why, even the objectives sound the same. Atul Sobti, Senior Vice-President (Marketing & Sales), Hero Honda, says that "using cricket to build our brand-franchise is nothing new to us. It worked well with the Hero Cup in 1993." Vibha Rishi, Executive Director (Marketing), PepsiCo, echoes that "for us, the World Cup presents another opportunity to reiterate the link between Pepsi and cricket." Just as it does for Coca-Cola. For Perfetti. For Castrol. Confused? So will be the customer.

You must be tempted to ride the wave of consumer-buying that the World Cup is supposed to trigger off. CTV-makers are actually counting on a 40 per cent increase in offtake. And outbound travel companies--such as Thomas Cook, SOTC, and Cox & Kings--expect to rake in Rs 25 crore with their special World Cup packages. Their customers: people who will use the World Cup as the starting-point for holidays in the UK and Europe. Ravishankar Iyer, Senior Manager, Thomas Cook, feels that "most customers will be fitting the World Cup into general trips."

Do you sense an opportunity here to use the heightened awareness about the World Cup for some associated selling? I'd advise against it. Cash-strapped customers are too canny to be lured by such ruses. A better option might be the one chosen by companies like Emirates, LG, Britannia, PepsiCo, Samsung, and Hero Honda: organising contests focused on the event. Not only is the prize cheap--flying a couple out to watch the World Cup and offering them hospitality in England for a week will cost as much as 2 TV spots or Rs 2 lakh--the clutter is lower and the involvement, higher. LG's Karwal says that "the expense is even smaller when compared to the aspirational value that the customer puts on the trip."

What I'm saying is that guile, not power--spin, not pace--is essential. But how can we afford to stay low-profile during the biggest event in the world, you will ask, especially since all of India--that's 600 million consumers--is passionately involved with it? That's what many marketers said 4 years ago, when the event was hosted in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Considering that it was staged on our own soil, the 1996 World Cup, sponsored by ITC's Wills brand, should have offered even more marketing opportunities than the current edition, right? Every one of the Rs 600 crore that was lavished by corporate India on advertising and promoting their products should have brought enormous returns, right? Wrong.

Many of those mega-spenders now wish they'd been less lavish. The reason is the same as the one that could make this year's munificence look like a waste: the difficulty of rising above the clutter. Moreover, there were no long-term rub-offs either. Ammirati Puris Lintas' Sen wonders "what the residual impact of all those millions poured into the Wills World Cup 1996 is, when all we can remember is Pepsi's Nothing Official About It spoof on Coke." PepsiCo does claim a 50 per cent increase in volumes and an 8 percentage point increase in brand-salience in the 3 months before and during the event as the reward for its Rs 15 crore of spending. And Coca-Cola says its sales grew by 70 per cent during the tournament, thanks to the Rs 40 crore it spent. Is that good enough for you?

So far, I've told you what not to do. But there are a few leaves not in the book on how to bat on the World Cup marketing pitch:

CREATE AN EXCLUSIVE SUB-EVENT. Pepsi, for instance, brought the World Cup trophy into the country for a 22-city roadshow.

PROMOTE SPECIFIC PRODUCTS. Leverage the timing of the event--the height of summer--to promote seasonal products. Samsung and LG are offering a bundle of a CTV--the primary attraction--and a refrigerator or an air-conditioner.

MOTIVATE THE CHANNELS. Use the contest to offer rewards to your channel partners. Samsung is holding contests among its dealers, with 200 passages to England as the prize.

REMEMBER 1983. The best endorsements will come from the previous champs: the World Cup-winning squad of 1983. LG has signed on Mohinder Amarnath, Roger Binny, and Madan Lal; Samsung has picked up Kapil Dev; and Hero Motors, the whole team.

USE MULTIPLE CREATIVES. Samsung will use 7 different commercials, Pepsi, 6, and Hero Honda and LG, 3 each. If you must advertise during the World Cup, remember to prevent fatigue by having enough creative executions to rotate through.

The googly, of course, is that between May 14 and June 20, 1999, the World Cup may be your only vehicle for advertising in this period. No one will be watching anything else on TV. Staying away, therefore, might mean losing touch with your customer altogether. Sushil Pandit, Vice-President & National Media Director, Contract Advertising told me that "buying such events is a neutralising strategy. If you don't, your competitor will."

Remember, if India crashes out early, viewership will drop immediately. My advice? Spend money during the World Cup if you must--you won't catch me turning away 15 per cent of the billing--but create a separate budget for it. For, the returns on your ad rupee will not be high. And, if lavish spending in these 4 weeks means cutting into your ad budget for the rest of the year, I'm afraid your brands are bound to be out--without any reference to the third umpire being necessary.