ICC World Cup 2015: Brands play their best shot

The broadcaster Star Sports is looking to this tournament to bring in a lot of revenue through brand sponsorship. It has put in efforts to raise the bar of the tournament this time by broadcasting it 6 languages and also raised the ad rates too according to media planners. Ad rates have increased by 50% since the last World Cup to an estimated Rs.5 lakh per 10 second spot. Here’s take a look at some of the brand participation during the World Cup. On-ground sponsorship

The on-ground brands have been locked in since the pervious World Cup in 2011 and include brands such as LG, Pepsi, Reebok, Hyundai, Reliance Communication, MRF Tyres, Emirates, Moneygram, Castrol and SAP. According to media reports in 2011 the on-ground sponsorship for the World Cup then was Rs.1,200 crore. They are also the global partners for the tournament. Recently there were also a few other brands joined in as global partners which included Hublot, ANZ, Victoria Bitter, Matua, Wolf Blass Wines and Tui. Their presence in term of branding during the matches appeared on the LED side boards beyond the boundary line and also on the large screens on the ground. Similarly, the boundary line also had the branding of the on-ground sponsors such as MRF, Pepsi, LG and Reliance. On-ground sponsors such as Pepsi, Reliance Communications, MRF Tyres and LG had their branding displayed on the lawn of the stadiums. Even the stumps of the wicket had the on-ground brand sponsors printed on them.TV sponsorship Star India had announced that it had managed to get broadcast sponsors for the World Cup this year which include brand such as Sony, Airtel, Gaana.com, Hero MotoCorp, Karbonn, Crickbuzz.com, MRF Tyres, Amul, Policybazaar.com, iBall, Lloyd, Philips Pro-skin Trimmer, Volini Spray, Britannia 50-50, Vodafone, Sparx, DIU, CarTrade.com, Layers Shot, Livguard, Endura Mass, Set Wet, Hercules Roadeo, Polycab, FedEx, Maruti Suzuki, Nestle, Yepme.com, Paytm, Pidilite - Fevi Kwik, Marico and Raymonds. There were also ads of brands such as CEAT and Airtel which were seen advertising during the matches in the first few matches since the start. A majority of the ads during the World Cup matches (except for the India-Pakistan match) were of the key broadcast sponsors mentioned above. Uniform sponsorship Brands pay big to be brand sponsors on the team uniform. The Indian team is sponsored by Star India and Nike. It is estimated that Star India which holds the team sponsorship rights till March 2017 had shelled out Rs.1.92 crore per match according to media reports. While Nike as the official kit supplier is estimated to spent Rs.270 crore according to media reports for a five year deal which began from 2011. The England team’s uniform sponsors include Adidas and Waitrose, while Australia has Victoria Bitter and Asics. New Zealand’s team sponsor is ANZ while their clothing sponsor is Canterbury. Sri Lanka is sponsored by Dialog and Ceylon Tea. Pakistan is sponsored by Pepsi and CA Sports. South Africa teams uniform is sponsored by Castle Lager and Adidas is their kit sponsor. West Indies teams uniform sponsors include Digicel and Admiral. These are some of the brand sponsors for the team uniforms. The Umpire shirts had the ads of brands of Emirates and Reebok.Brand innovation Paytm which is a broadcast sponsor for World Cup 2015 had its ad spots appear on screen during the game every single time a player hits 4 runs. While the replays were sponsored by iBall and saw its logo being displayed on the left hand corner of the screen, the info-graphics during the games were sponsored by LG. Another key innovation during the tournament was the post match analysis which was called sponsored by Airtel and called ‘Airtel My Plan Analysis’. The other key innovation was called the ‘Yepme Fan of the Day’ property which was sponsored by YepMe.com and had one lucky fan to speak on television.