Here's how the CTV sales moved for the group: while Videocon rose from 60,000 in April 1999 to 85,000 units in May 1999, Sansui really clipped ahead with sales rising from 27,000 in April to 39,000 in May. Akai, however, failed to show fire with sales rising from 24,000 in April to just 27,000 in May -- while Toshiba, at the top-end of the Videocon suite rose from 7,000 to 9,000, in the same period.

Pointing out however, that the sales of all its brands showed an increase in May 1999 due to the World Cup, N Gupta, director, marketing and sales, Videocon International says: ``As the World Cup fever was on, we took this event as a creative platform to air our brand image and it has paid off.'' Consider Videocon first. For thisparticular brand, the media plan was divided into two parts: the World XI contest and a corporate campaign. The contest invited people to select the best 11 players. Ajit Wadekar, former captain of the Indian cricket team and Mohandas Menon, official statistician of the Cricket Club of India were responsible for ranking the various teams and combining the figures. The entire contest was monitored by KPMG. The contest closed on June 3, and the results would be announced soon after the World Cup.

Says Gupta: ``Our contest involved a certain degree of skill in predicting the best 11 players. The winners would get full refund for the Videocon product that they bought. It had nothing to do with India losing or winning the Cup. The scheme was not associated with India's performance either.'' The corporate campaign featured five heroines cheer-leading in white cricket gear. ``We love winning. We love Videocon'' was the adline. Says Gupta: ``Brand recall and visibility didn't make sense for us because ours isalready an established brand. But, we definitely gained market shares.'' Videocon claims to have gained a 58 per cent increase in sales in May over April 1999 sales. The company claims to have increased its market share from 20 per cent to 21.25 per cent this month.

Akai, gave price-offs against an exchange scheme that mainly focussed on televisions. The tagline in the advertising was: `In this World Cup, the Japanese are the favourites'. According to an Akai India spokesperson: ``The scheme gave brand recall and visibility to the brand. We had to get ourselves registered in the minds of the consumer as soon as possible. The World Cup promos served the purpose.''

Akai was bought over by Videocon International from Baron International in January 1999, following differences between Baron and Akai. As a result, a new company was formed called Akai India where Videocon International now has a 70 per cent equity stake. By linking its promo to the World Cup, the once-aggressive brand saw sales rise by 12 percent.

But perhaps the best performer in the suite was Sansui. Quick to take leaf out of Aiwa's book and launch a scheme which linked the pay-out to an Indian victory at the World Cup, Sansui was able to generate consumer pull -- without putting too much cash on the line. Under the Sansui `Win-win offer', all Sansui colour TVs customers -- who bought a 72 cm, 63 cm, or 53 cm CTV model between April 12, 1999 and June 3, 1999 -- would be eligible for: a VCD worth Rs 12,000 if India won the World Cup; a semi-automatic washing machine if India scored in the semi-final stage; and a gold-plated twin-watch set, if India cleared the Super Six.

With India obligingly bowing out before the Super Six even, all Sansui did was enjoy ringing cash registers: between April and May 1999, Sansui increased sales by 28.75 per cent. This brand was acquired by Videocon in September 1997.

Videocon International sells its products through 7000 dealers. While 2000 of them are dealers who serve all brands, Videocon alone has 5000dealers, Akai 1000 dealers and Sansui 2000 dealers. With the World Cup activity now over, the group will have to once again go back to the moot question: how do you keep four balls in the air simultaneously?