The Hindu Business Line : Fans roll out red carpet for T20 team; so do advertisers

Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 ePaper

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Fans roll out red carpet for T20 team; so do advertisers

Brand endorsement rates set to soar

— Paul Noronha

Champions all: The jubilant team proceeding to the Wankhede Stadium for a felicitation function in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Purvita Chatterjee
P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai, Sept. 26 Intermittent rains did not dampen the victory lap of the Twenty-20 champions team, as it rolled into Mumbai from the Wanderers in Johannesburg, where it had clinched an edge-of-the-seat World Cup victory.

Mumbai was high on MSD (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) and his young team, as the cheering crowds thronged the 30-km route leading from the city’s international airport to Wankhede Stadium in the heart of the city. And as though on cue, the stock-market gave its record-breaking 17,000 point salute.

The last time Mumbai rolled out such a red carpet was for Ajit Wadekar’s winning team in 1971, a celebration the T20 team with an average age of 26 years was not witness to! In fact, captain Dhoni was all of two-years old, he said, when India under Kapil Dev brought back the World Cup in 1983.

While State Governments joined the celebratory race to felicitate players hailing from their region, corporates were not too far behind to seize the endorsement opportunity.

Giving a birds-eye-view of endorsement rates, Mr Prashant Singh, Business Head of Ogilvy Sport, said cricketers would be able to hike their price purely on their performance in the pre- and post T20 World Cup.

“Performers such as Yuvraj, Dhoni, Gambhir, Irfan Pathan and R.P. Singh would be able to hike their endorsement fees from between 70 and 100 per cent. In cricket there are no boundaries,” he said.

Ms Vinita Bangard, Chief Executive Officer of Percept Talent Management ( which manages endorsements of Yuvraj and Sreesanth) said that Yuvraj’s price has gone up from about Rs 1 crore to almost Rs 1.75 crore per brand endorsement.

“Apart from the recent Donear brand, we are in the process of getting 5-6 brand endorsements for him,” she said.

After the six sixes hammered by Yuvraj against England, his fortunes are on an upswing. Good performance has helped lesser-known brand endorsers such as Sreesanth also.

After endorsing Nike, Pepsi and less high-profile real estate and education firms, Sreesanth is now poised to sign on a leading hair-care brand.

He has hiked his endorsement rates from the Rs 20-25 lakh bracket to double the amount at Rs 40 lakh per endorsement, according to Percept. Captain Dhoni’s endorsement fees may not change immediately, according to Gameplan, the agency handling him. Mr Jeet Banerjee, Gameplan’s Head, said Dhoni has almost a dozen endorsements and they are long- term contracts.

“Things don’t change in 24 hours and at the moment all his endorsements are intact. Going forward he may or may not hike his price for certain brands.”

‘A’ category

However, industry estimates reveal that Dhoni could well command up to Rs 2 crore for every brand endorsement and would be considered in the ‘A’ category among cricket-based endorsements.

Not just money

But it was not just about the money for tri-colour-waving fans who made it to vantage points to spot their cricket hero.

Walking away from a packed-house at Wankhede, the stream of fans could be overheard screaming excitedly into their cell-phones, “I saw Dhoni” or listing out, “I saw Yuvraj, Pathan, R.P.Singh….” Clearly, the new cricketing order has come to town.