Tag: CSK

  • Gulf Oil & Dentsu Creative campaign with CSK fans

    Gulf Oil Lubricants and Dentsu Creative have teamed up to unveil the ‘Unstoppable Army’ of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) fans.

    The campaign was kicked off with a behind-the-scenes film, featuring CSK players, led by MS Dhoni, as they arrived on set prepared to shoot the Gulf Oil ad.

    Notes a communique: “The Gulf Unstoppable Army campaign is a initiative that fosters a deeper connection between the brand, the fans, and the team. Leveraging digital platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook for the campaign’s launch and subsequent fan-generated content, Gulf aims to create a cohesive and engaging narrative that celebrates the spirit of cricket and its supporters.”

  • Star Sports unveils promo film featuring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff

    Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the Tata IPL 2024, unveils promo film featuring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff.

    The season opener will be between the reigning champions Chennai Super Kings gear up to face off against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Bollywood real action heroes Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, who will also star in the upcoming film ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, set to hit theatres this EID, April 2024.

  • Utterly Butterly IPL-ilicious

     

     

    Not too many of them, but the Amul Butter topicals captured the highlights of the recently concluded Indian Premier League as only they can. From the CSK win to the stupendous performance of Subhman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal to the Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir unground spat.

     

    Created by the team at da Cunha Communications, the Amul topicals have been chronicling the times since 1966.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Brooke Bond 3 Roses collaborates with CSK for new TVC

    By Our Staff

     

    Brooke Bond 3 Roses tea brand launched its new TVC Idhu Namma Tea(m), where it has partnered with the IPL team ‘Chennai Super Kings’ for its 15th edition. The campaign highlights the message of ‘Idhu Namma Tea, Idhu Namma Team’ (It’s our Tea, It’s our Team) to connect with the audience by accepting and trusting the new members of CSK.

     

    Said Shiva Krishnamurthy, Vice President, Tea & Foods (HUL): “Brooke Bond 3 Roses is South India’s most loved tea brand and an icon of Tamil Nadu. Being Tamil Nadu’s favourite tea, we are happy to partner with Tamil Nadu’s favourite tea(m), Chennai Super Kings, during this year’s IPL. Our Idhu Namma tea(m) campaign celebrates Tamilians’ love for 3 Roses tea and for CSK with lots of warmth and affection.”

     

    Added Ajay Mehta, Senior Vice President, Mindshare: “With the IPL season, we took this golden opportunity to associate with Chennai Super Kings, a team that unifies entire Tamil Nadu and resonates well with the brand’s philosophy of togetherness. The films capture this in a light-hearted manner and that too over a cup of tea.”

     

     

  • Brooke Bond 3 Roses collaborates with CSK for new TVC

    By Our Staff

     

    Brooke Bond 3 Roses tea brand launched its new TVC Idhu Namma Tea(m), where it has partnered with the IPL team ‘Chennai Super Kings’ for its 15th edition. The campaign highlights the message of ‘Idhu Namma Tea, Idhu Namma Team’ (It’s our Tea, It’s our Team) to connect with the audience by accepting and trusting the new members of CSK.

     

    Said Shiva Krishnamurthy, Vice President, Tea & Foods (HUL): “Brooke Bond 3 Roses is South India’s most loved tea brand and an icon of Tamil Nadu. Being Tamil Nadu’s favourite tea, we are happy to partner with Tamil Nadu’s favourite tea(m), Chennai Super Kings, during this year’s IPL. Our Idhu Namma tea(m) campaign celebrates Tamilians’ love for 3 Roses tea and for CSK with lots of warmth and affection.”

     

    Added Ajay Mehta, Sr. Vice President, Mindshare: “With the IPL season, we took this golden opportunity to associate with Chennai Super Kings, a team that unifies entire Tamil Nadu and resonates well with the brand’s philosophy of togetherness. The films capture this in a light-hearted manner and that too over a cup of tea.”

     

     

  • A Dream Turning Predictable

     

     

    By Vikas Mehta

     

    Vikas MehtaThe IPL is becoming predictable now. Mumbai Indians have lost another match, their sixth loss in a row. Sunrisers Hyderabad have won another match, their fourth win in a row. SKY Yadav and Dinesh Karthik continue to score consistently, at a good clip, though one is doing consistently for a losing cause and the other for a winning cause. Y Chahal and T Natarajan continue to take wickets, while J Unadkat and T Mills continue to be carted around.

     

    And the same is true for the IPL ads. Most of them are predictable and their repetitiveness is also irritating. Cred has some interesting takes on Nirma’s Deepikaji, Antakshari’s Anu Kapoor as well as Vick’s Action 500 haan bhai haan. I also think the ads are taking off on the concept of hammering in the brand name, in this case Cred bounty, as was the case in the 70s. But for someone watching the IPL almost on a daily basis, the repetitiveness of the ad is grating.

     

    Sadly, the same is seeming to be true for the Dream 11 ads. The concept of one doesn’t dream alone has become too trite. Starting with Rohit Sharma, Pant; now with Ashwin, Hardik and Dhawan joining the bandwagon, the only thing new is to guess who could be that benefactor. It also seems a bit unbelievable that all these stars met these unknown good men. The question that comes to my mind is where are these people now? Did the stars look for them? Did they help them out? Or is it just a figment of imagination? Will we see some follow up ads? Or will this be forgotten after a few days?

     

    Last evening, CSK predictably lost once again. And breaking the predictable trend are series of ads for two brands. One, is Swiggy Instamart. I am not getting into the debate of the righteousness of 10-20 minutes delivery and the risk it involves for the delivery staff, for I think the better debate would be if we need such quick deliveries. But the brand has illustrated the promise of fast delivery without getting into the exactitude of time, brilliantly. Be it the husband who is planning to watch matches with his friends while the wife is away or the husband who has an excuse to eat junk food but the quick arrival of healthy vegetables and fruits thwart the plan. Or indeed the ad where a friend refuses to share a packet of chips with his friend as another packet arrives almost instantaneously.

     

    The second is the series of Fogg ads. Initially, I almost missed them. Interestingly, the brand is targeting men without actually featuring any men in the ad. It’s from the viewpoint of the opposite sex who find certain men very irresistible but balk when they are told that these men do not use any deo. With market penetration of deos in India as low as 15-20%, it’s no wonder that the market leader has taken up the task of increasing penetration as it will benefit the leader. And what better way to do that than by showing that women are not too sure about men who do not use deos. It may well fall into the Dream 11 trap of predictability but currently I am enjoying the women viewpoint.

     

    With summer at its peak, AC advertising is also at its peak. But, I am not finding any distinct piece of communication. Panasonic, Voltas, Blue Star, Godrej, BPL, Kelvinator are repeating the same old benefits of pure air, efficient cooling in high temperature, less electricity consumption. So predictable that my head cannot distinguish one brand from the other.

     

    Did I mention BPL and Kelvinator? Well, these old brands seemed to have resurfaced. I thought they belonged to history. But looks like they still have some signs of life. The question is, who are these brands talking to. The elderly millennial who had seen the brands in their childhood and can indulge in nostalgia? Or the younger millennial, for whom the brand is as good as a new unknown brand? Selling durables is not child’s play as it means investment not only in new technology but also in distribution and after sales service. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out. Kelvinator also has an ad for refrigerators and no, it’s not about the coolest one. Didn’t get it? I guess you are not an older millennial!

     

    Interestingly, while Mr Bachchan claimed to have been unaware of the surrogate nature of the Kamla Pasand ad that he did along with Ranveer Singh and had reportedly returned the advertisers cheque, he continues to appear in its ads in various avtaars. I hope, for his sake that the returned cheque was returned back to him. Or it was a PR gimmick hand in glove with the advertiser? Definitely unpredictable. Unlike the Vimal ad, where predictably a third star, Akshay Kumar, has joined the other two, Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan in London. Will a fourth one join soon? Can you predict who will it be?

     

  • Chennai Super Kings promote TVS Eurogrip Tyres

    By Our Staff

     

    TVS Eurogrip, the two- and three-wheeler tyre brand, rolled out its new brand campaign – ‘Whistle Through Every Turn’- building on its association with Chennai Super Kings. The campaign includes a set of three new advertising films that accentuate the positioning of the brand as The Bike Tyre Specialist.

     

    The films feature M S Dhoni as the main protagonist, narrating his gripping biking adventures to his teammates. The stories are woven with suspense and light-hearted humor, crafted to connect with the millennials.

     

    Commenting on the new campaign, P Madhavan, EVP – Sales & Marketing, TVS Srichakra Limited, said: “Our last campaign ‘Tame The Turns’ was received well amongst our audience. We are happy to have woven this insight in an interesting way to create a set of #GrippingStories with CSK players. Apart from TV and Digital advertising, the campaign includes on-ground activations and channel partner programmes.”

     

     

  • MI rolls out red carpet to welcome IPL Family

    By Our Staff

     

    With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season set to witness 55 matches be held in Mumbai, five time champions Mumbai Indians have splashed huge hoardings covering the entire city to welcome the fellow nine franchises.

     

    A dash of yellow to ‘Welcome Chennai Super Kings – Whistle Podu Dil Khol Ke,’, while Kolkata Knight Riders are welcomed to the city with their iconic ‘Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Dil Khol Ke slogan. The #WelcomeDilKholKe billboards, customised to each of the visiting teams, have been set up across key locations in the city, uses a creative rendition to bring alive the spirit of sports, excitement and affection.

     

    Said an unnamed Mumbai Indians spokesperson: “The billboards installed across the city capture the creative expressions of the spirit of Mumbai – the city of dreams which welcomes every individual to its land of opportunity. We, Mumbai Indians are a reflection of the city, its ethos and this campaign is a tribute to the warmth of the people of Mumbai in welcoming all the franchises of our IPL family.

     

    “With IPL back in India and in Mumbai, Mumbai Indians look forward to welcoming its loyal blue & gold Paltan back to the stadiums. We take pride in having one of the most passionate fan army –  the Paltan who have backed the team for a decade and more with their unrelenting energy and enthusiasm.”

     

  • IPL Cricket & Ads: The Parallels

    Screengrab from Disney+Hotstar website (https://www.hotstar.com/)

     

    By Vikas Mehta

     

    Vikas MehtaI write this review while watching the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL). For me, the tournament and the players had lot of parallels with the ads that were on the air. Let’s dive into these.

     

    This tournament saw a revival in fortunes of established teams like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). As well as some old stars like Uthapa and Du Plessis. Advertisements which ran in the first edition of this IPL and were then forgotten saw a revival in this extended edition of IPL. Finolex, Phone Pe, Unacademy, Dream 11, Mutual funds….

     

    This IPL saw a lot of established players disappoint. Rohit Sharma, the Pandya brothers, Rahul Chahar, Hazelwood, Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Rabada… all disappointed. Similarly ads from established brands like Coke, Thums Up, Ceat, Berger Paints, Sprite… disappointed. Eminently forgettable performances.

     

    In the league stage, Delhi Capitals dominated the tournament by winning 10 out of their 14 games. Similarly edtech as a category dominated the ad scene. Byju’s, Byju’s Adarsh, Byju’s Whitehat Jr, Lido small group tuitions, Unacademy, UpGrad, Great Learning etc showed the potential and dominance of the category.

     

    For M S Dhoni there was double success. While his contribution to CSK lifting the trophy was not all that significant, his single-handed contribution of appearing in most number of ads was unmatched. Homelane, Dream 11, ITC Yipee, Mutual Funds sahi hai, Indigo paints all benefitted with the free time he has since his retirement. I won’t be surprised to see him soon in some ed tech ad too.

     

    The last few matches of the tournament saw a new campaign by Dream 11. Captioned Dream Big, the campaign I thought was a standout. Using different players, they used a different narrative for each under the Dream Big Umbrella. It’s interesting storytelling and flexible format was excellent. I liked almost all the ads, with Hardik Pandya, Dhawan and Bumrah being my favourites. A standout performance almost like the performance of K Rahul and Harshal Patel who stood tall amongst the batsmen and bowlers respectively.

     

    Venkatesh Iyer was the star new kid on the block. He played aggressively and even had a good differentiation because he can roll over his arm effectively. The Oven Story ad was a good parallel here. A seemingly new entrant, at least as an IPL advertiser, the brand had interesting differentiation in the Pizza category and created a good enough impact for my daughter to order for it.

     

    While the performer of the tournament was a difficult choice between Gaikwad, Iyer and Patel,  for me the best ad performance came from Neeraj Chopra in the Cred ad. He blended well into the narrative and looked as natural as he does on the athletic field. But the new Cred ad featuring Kapil Dev on the last day was a total disappointment. It did not have the energy and joie de vivre that all the other Cred ads have had. It looked like the opening ceremony of most IPL tournaments. Too much pomp. Very little narrative.

     

    But overall the ads were very tepid. The use of celebrities dominated the scene. Dhoni, Ranveer Singh, Kohli, Bumrah etc were omnipresent. The narrative though was predictable and in most cases just relying on star power. Frankly, the second half of IPL was similar. With just two-three games going to the wire, the one-sided final was a reflection of how most of the games panned out.

     

    The parallels continued right till the end. There was a lot of speculation about Dhoni’s retirement from IPL as a player. And the suspense continued even in the post-match interview. Will he retire or continue?  Exactly the same thing happened with the Kamla Pasand surrogate ad of Amitabh Bachchan. With a holier-than-thou attitude, he made a grand statement of withdrawing from the ad and returning money for the ad as he did not know it was a surrogate ad. He obviously does not live on earth. But like Dhoni, the ad was not retired, even five days after AB’s statement. It was there in the finals too. What did disappear, albeit briefly were SRK Byju’s ads. But blink and they were back. All the twitter brouhaha lasted for just a few days.

     

    There was one area where the parallels ended. CSK proved that old is gold. A team led by a 40-year-old with many players above 30 and retired from all other types of cricket, the team did well to win the tournament. The same, of course, cannot be said of the old traditional brands which have ceded ground to new category and brands and have been totally eclipsed. Let’s hope these new categories and brands do create new benchmarks in their advertising too. The next edition of IPL will tell us if that comes true. Till then au revoir, sayonara, alvida, tata.

     

  • 86mn IPL franchise fans in India: Ormax Media’s study

    By A Correspondent

     

    Media consulting firm Ormax Media has released the findings of its study on ‘IPL Franchise Fans’, based on a research conducted among 3,200 urban respondents across 23 states in India. The data was collected through the course of the eight weeks of IPL 2020. The study pegs the number of fans across the eight IPL franchises at 86 million (8.6 cr).

     

    Chennai Super Kings (CSK) emerges as the strongest franchise, with 26.8 million fans, closely followed by season winners Mumbai Indians (MI) at 24.8 million fans. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ranks third, with 13.3 million fans. Between them, these three franchises account for 75% of the total fan base, while the remaining five contribute to the balance 25%.

     

    As many as 64% (55 million) of the total franchise fans are men, while the balance 36% (31 million) are women. CSK and RCB have the most gender-balanced fan base, with the proportion of female fans being the highest at 40% each. Nationwide popularity of their star players (MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli respectively) contributes to their stronger female fan base. Mumbai Indians leads Chennai Super Kings by a slender margin when it comes to the male fan base, but the latter takes the overall #1 position because of its stronger female following.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor

    Commenting on the findings, Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO – Ormax Media said: “Apart from viewership, a definitive measure of the success of a sports league is whether the teams playing in it manage to build a sizeable fan base over the years. A strong fan base is eventually the key for a profitable franchise, because it offers higher monetisation opportunities through sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandizing, licensing and other such avenues. Over the last 13 years, IPL has done very well, and the fan base estimates of the Top 2 franchises suggest that they are now two of the strongest sports teams across the world. It’s for the other franchises to learn from the success story of CSK and MI and develop a strategy to widen their fan base in the coming years”.

     

     

  • Fantain ropes in Suresh Raina as brand ambassador

    By A Correspondent

     

    Fantasy sports and fan engagement company Fantain Sports announced the appointment of cricketer Suresh Raina as its brand ambassador. The left-handed batsman will be the face of the company across all its brand communication campaigns starting this month.

     

    Commenting on the partnership, Anand Ramachandran, Co-founder and CEO, Fantain said: “Suresh Raina is a legend in his own right and we are delighted to be associated with him. His sheer talent, teamwork and energy have won several matches for India and CSK.  He always plays the game with a straight bat and this partnership is a perfect fit for us, as we build a platform based on trust and transparency. We wish Suresh the best of luck for this IPL and beyond.”

     

     

  • Is IPL the right choice for Pepsi?

     

    By Ratna Bhushan

     

    PepsiCo may not rebid for title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League after its five-year contract ends in 2017, three industry insiders said, a day after a Supreme Court panel called for the suspension of two IPL teams for two years.

     

    “There has been too much controversy in the IPL and the internal thought process is that the company doesn’t want to re-bid for the title sponsorship,” said an executive with knowledge of internal discussions at Pepsi.

     

    “Title sponsorship is a direct association with the brand image, which directly risks getting impacted by controversy,” the executive said.

     

    PepsiCo won the right to attach its name to the tournament with a .’396 crore bid for a five-year period that started 2013, the very year in which the spot fixing scandal broke with the arrest of three cricketers. Pepsi’s bid was almost twice what the previous sponsor, real estate firm DLF, had paid the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the 2008-12 term.

     

    The company declined to comment on the matter.

     

    “We do not comment on speculation,” said Vipul Prakash, vice president, beverages, PepsiCo. “We have not seen the copy of the complete order and hence will not be able to comment any further at this stage. We remain committed to ethical conduct in sport and expect that issues surrounding IPL are adequately and swiftly addressed. The faith of cricket fans is important and needs to be restored in the interest of the game.” The Supreme Court-appointed RM Lodha committee on Tuesday suspended the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) franchises for two years, besides banning Gurunath Meiyappan of the first team and Raj Kundra of the second for life. The move could force the IPL to go into the next season with just six teams, although the CSK owner plans to appeal the decision. The other team is also expected to appeal.

     

    TIES TO CONTINUE

    The beverage company won’t be snapping its ties completely with the tournament after 2017, said the persons cited above.

     

    “PepsiCo, however, will continue to be associated with the IPL through other platforms, such as on-air broadcast sponsorship, pouring rights etc. That’s because IPL, which is held in April-May, is peak season for soft drink firms and PepsiCo spends heavily on marketing,” said one of the executives. Since becoming the IPL title sponsor, PepsiCo has pegged its summer strategy to the tournament. This year, it ran the “Crash the IPL” campaign, which asked viewers to create their own Pepsi ads. The previous year, it had run the “Oh yes, Abhi” campaign. Summer accounts for 40 per cent of overall soft drinks sales, and the April-June quarter generally sets the pace for the rest of the year.

     

    PepsiCo chairperson and chief executive Indra Nooyi had alluded to some discomfort over the IPL spot-fixing scandal in an interview in 2013. “We would like to see no controversy of the sport… We hope they fix it,” she had told ET. “We are a highly ethical and principled organisation. So we want to associate with organisations that are principled and ethical. We hope the current problems of IPL are short term and they are addressed. But if they are not, we will have to go back and rethink.”

     

    Brand consultant Harish Bijoor drew comparisons with the Maggi noodles episode. After the product was banned in June for excessive lead content, brand endorsers such as actresses Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta also got sucked into the row.

     

    “This (latest development) has stirred a hornest’s nest and all lead sponsors would question their association with the team. In the consumer’s mind, lead sponsors could be also painted with a negative brush, which is what the brands have to be careful about,” Bijoor said.

     

    An executive involved with PepsiCo’s advertising campaign said the company may have to rework its marketing strategy because CSK team captain MS Dhoni has been one of the most visible brand ambassadors of Pepsi Cola and Lay’s chips.

     

    “As a brand, anyone wants to be associated with something positive,” said Varun Gupta, managing director at global consultancy American Appraisal. “There will be some negative connotations with the tournament at least in the short term. But this also gives the IPL an opportunity to clean up and move forward competitively.”

     

    To be sure, IPL has been an attractive property for advertisers despite the various controversies attached to it. This year, tournament broadcast rights holder Multi Screen Media (MSM) generated about Rs 1,000 crore from sponsors and the sale of advertising time. Besides PepsiCo, key IPL sponsors included Vodafone, Hero MotoCorp, Amazon, Paytm and Magicbricks.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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