Will advertisers stick to the high pitch?

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: say it’s going to be tough for the ICL if the IPL is successful in generating television ratings. Since the tournament involves so many established Indian cricket stars and Bollywood actors, one can bet on the fact that all the brands that these celebrities endorse will get associated with the IPL in some way or the other. Of the Indian cricket team, those with maximum number of endorsements are: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Virendra Sehwag and now Ishaant Sharma. Brands ranging from Pepsi, Parachute, Canon and Puma to Adidas, VISA, LG, Videocon, Samsung, Orient and Britannia have these cricketers as brand endorsers.

Franchise owners like Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Preity Zinta are most likely to attract brands including, Hyundai Santro, Compaq, Kukure and VSNL. Besides, owing to franchisees Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya—two corporate goliaths—Reliance Industries and UB Group will be backing the IPL.

R Gowthaman, managing director, MindShare, South Asia, which is a media buying agency, says, “For on-air sponsors, TRPs definitely matter and it is the only way to evaluate the product. However, as far as the IPL is concerned, we have certain benchmarks for the sponsors. Once the tournament begins, any rating between 3 and 4 should be good. A 4 will be very good. As the tournament moves towards the finals, TRPs 7-8 can’t be ruled out. However, for cricket, advertisers do not depend on just TRPs. Most advertisers also consider whether a tournament is giving them the incremental reach or not.”