The IPL Twenty20 - An Incredible Event Branding Opportunity

Branding is an important and enormous opportunity for the second edition of the multi-billion dollar Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 championship to be played at Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. In the build up to 2010, all eyes are on South Africa as a destination and a trading partner. The opportunity is overwhelming to deploy branded and printed shadenet perimeter branding at and outside the venues.

Popular Bollywood actress and stunning model Shilpa Shetty has a share in defending champions, the Rajasthan Royals, and is passionately behind cricket and her team from Jaipur. She admits that although her stake was initially an investment opportunity. The Rajasthan Royals are captained by Australian legend, Shane Warne and include Proteas captain Graeme Smith and pace-man Morne Morkel in the squad; players who can help the franchise build up a large fan-base and following in South Africa.

"The merger between cricket and entertainment is what has appealed to the Indian People. In India, cricket is a religion and so is Bollywood, these two aspects have raised the platform for IPL to bring it's popularity to where it is," said Shetty, who was also the winner of Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2007.

With 56 games played in 34 days, across eight cities, the IPL will offer the public non-stop action from the first ball until the final ball on the 24th of May. Rajasthan Royals will begin the defence of their title in the tournament opener at Sahara Park Newlands Stadium on April 18 against Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Lalit Modi, the entrepreneur who is bringing the world’s richest cricket tournament to South Africa was at Sol Kerzner’s newly opened One & Only hotel. Modi is the brains behind the cricket bonanza — starting in Cape Town on April 18 — that will see Bollywood movie stars, celebrities and beauties pour into South Africa. Among them will be big-screen king Shahrukh Khan, who owns one of the teams taking part in the tournament.

Defending champions Rajasthan Royals, whose ranks include Shane Warne, Graeme Smith and Morne Morkel, take on the Bangalore Royal Challengers, who include Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid and Mark Boucher.

On the same day, 2008 runners-up the Chennai Super Kings, who include Muttiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Flintoff and MS Dhoni, meet the Mumbai Indians, who include Sachin Tendulkar, JP Duminy, Dwayne Bravo and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Tickets for this double-header sold out within two hours on Friday.

South Africa was chosen for its good weather and fans will be sitting in front of a TV set all day watching cricket, presenting an exceptional and valuable sponsor branding opportunity. Covering up existing branding with printed shadenet is the way to go. It is quick and easy to erect, is windproof, durable, flexible and easy to rig. Shadenet comes in a variety of colours and can be printed with the sponsor logos.

“We have 59 games, 300 players from all over the world coming . . The hotel industry, the travel industry, the car rental industry, the advertising industry, the restaurant business, the shopping malls... just all of these tourist attractions, all of that put together, can’t be a bigger bonanza for the country.”

Since joining the BCCI in 2005, Modi has increased its earnings seven-fold. Deals have included, among others, a 103-million team sponsorship with the Sahara group, 53-million deal with Nike, a 1.26-billion media rights deal with Sony, a further 219-million for broadcast rights outside India, and a whopping 723.6-million in various other sales. In 2007, Modi secured the 975-million deal with broadcaster ESPN Star Sports for global rights for the Twenty20 Champions League for a 10-year period. These sponsors can significantly increase their bang for their buck with enhanced branding presence in and around the stadia. Printed shadenet can be supplied in 1.8m height in any length with large format sponsor logos every 5 metres.

The eight competing teams are
Bangalore Royal Challengers (SA Players: Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe and Dillon du Preez)
Chennai Super Kings (SA players: Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini)
Delhi Daredevils (SA players: AB de Villiers)
Kings XI Punjab (SA players: None
Kolkata Knight Riders (SA players: None)
Mumbai Indians (SA players: Jean-Paul Duminy, Ryan McLaren)
Deccan Chargers (SA players: Herschelle Gibbs
Rajasthan Royals (SA players: Tyron Henderson, Morné Morkel, Graeme Smith)

What great entertainment and international TV branding opportunity on the field and outside the stadia on perimeter fence branding for owners India Cements, GMR Holdings, Reliance Industries Ltd, Deccan Chronicle and Emerging Media Group and sponsors Sahara Group, Nike, Sony and ESPN Star Sports.

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Date Created: 2009-04-06 | Last Update : 2009-04-06

The IPL Twenty20 - An Incredible Event Branding Opportunity

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