Advertisers have finally started looking beyond cricket and begun lining up for its ?poor cousin?, hockey.
More than a dozen advertisers have bought on-air time on Ten Sports, the host broadcaster for the upcoming Hockey World Cup in New Delhi.
Ten Sports expects to generate around Rs 20 crore from on-air sponsors while several ground promotions are likely to generate another Rs 10-15 crore during the 14-day tournament?the first for hockey in India?between February 28 and March 13, experts say.
Big advertisers like Hero Honda, Coca-Cola, ING Life insurance, MTS and Seagram have bought air time on Ten Sports for the Hockey World Cup, being organised by International Hockey Federation (FIH) from 1971.
India has won the cup only once (in 1975) though it reached the finals thrice.
Media planners say the tourney is attracting sponsors because it is being played in the Capital ahead of the high-voltage Indian Premier League (IPL-3) cricket tournament that begins on March 12.
“Being a non-cluttered sports property, hockey is seeing a renewed interest of sponsors. This is also the first time hockey has got so many sponsors,” says Atul Pande, chief executive, sports business of Essel group. Pande is the in-charge of Ten Sports and Zee Sports channels.
Termed as the Hero Honda FIH World Cup, there will be 38 matches between the world?s top 12 teams, including India, Pakistan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and England. Inventory for the India-Pakistan match on February 28 is sold out, sources in Ten Sports said.
The Hockey World Cup telecast son Ten Sports is offering 18 minutes of on-air advertising time per match to the sponsors. “The India matches are likely to generate TV ratings of around 1.5-2, almost at par with the average ratings of cricket test matches, which will give greater mileage to advertisers at much lower investments than cricket,? says Pande.
Main sponsor Hero Honda is using sports and film celebrities including Virender Sehwag, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Priyanka Chopra among others to promote the FIH World Cup. ?The aim of the Hero Honda FIH Hockey World Cup teasers across channels is not just to promote the world cup. It is also to bring back the viewers interest in a sports that has been grossely shadowed by cricket in recent times. Because of the ads, we have managed to generate the interest of several advertisers too,” says a Essel group insider.
According to sources, several corporates are likely to announce cash-awards and incentives to the Indian Hockey team on every win registered in the World Cup. ?Cash prizes will soon pour in for the Hockey players once the Indian team makes its way to the finals. Several sports marketing agencies are also looking at signing some of the Hockey players after the world cup,? a top executive of a leading sports marketing firm said.
In order to promote the event as a significant sponsorship opportunity, Ten Sports is conducting road shows across 13 cities and making heavy cross channel promos across the network.