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What?s one thing about the Indian Premier League (IPL) that has not changed over the past five years? Well, it is the fixation with the television viewership of the 54 day-long cricketing extravaganza.

Well-coordinated marketing campaigns and strategic ticket selling saw the fifth season of the Indian Premier League draw in fans like never before. The result: packed stadiums and an unprecedented windfall for franchisees.

What?s one thing about the Indian Premier League (IPL) that has not changed over the past five years? Well, it is the fixation with the television viewership of the 54 day-long cricketing extravaganza. It is natural given the fact that broadcasting rights are the biggest source of revenue for the IPL and it is important for the good health of the IPL organisers and the franchisees that eyeballs continue to pour in. The more the eyeballs, the larger the number of advertisers and decent advertising means exclusive rights holder Multi Screen Media (MSM) manages to raise enough revenues, and profits, to not only sustain itself but even the league.

The viewership picture, incidentally, was not too rosy this season. At least initially. Though it was a marginal drop, advertisers, who were already wary of betting their dollars on IPL after the drubbing Indian team got in the international tours, clinched their fists even harder. According to media buyers, MSM ran the initial few matches with only about 50% of its ad inventory sold. IPL ad rates at about Rs 5 lakh per 10 seconds are, anyway, one of the highest on TV. Prime time ad rates for popular shows sell anywhere between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1.5 lakhs. MSM?s refusal to cut the rates saw advertisers staying away from the game and for a long time the tug-war between advertisers and MSM continued to hold the industry?s attention.

In the midst of this brouhaha, these players off-the-ground missed what was happening inside the stadiums. The stadiums were choc-a-bloc. The live viewership was at its peak. ?It was an amazing season for the league,? says Ashish Hemrajani, founder and CEO, bookmyshow.com, the online ticketing platform. Hemrajani whose agency sold tickets for Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Pune besides selling the play-off and the final matches says no IPL season in the past generated the kind of response IPL5 got. ?More than 90% of the matches were houseful,? he says.

According to Hemrajani, ticket sales through his platform were 30-35% higher for Mumbai and Delhi, whereas Rajasthan and Punjab saw almost 100% increase in footfalls. Pune, which did not have its own stadium last year, saw the walk-ins go up 400%. The result: estimates gathered from the stakeholders suggest that around 20 lakh tickets were sold this season and the franchisees raked in around Rs 200 crore through these sales. This despite the fact that at least 20% of the seating capacity in each stadium was held back for IPL?s parent the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), state associations, and sponsors. Seating across stadiums is divided in three broad categories: corporate boxes, grand stands and general stands. Also, the number of teams this seasons went down from 10 to nine with the termination of Kochi Tuskers Kerala. This year it were Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Pune Warriors India were seen battling for the championship. The list of venues included M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune, Eden Gardens in Kolkata, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi among other. The seating capacity of these stadiums ranges between 23,000 to 65,000.

To be sure, fans thronging to stadiums weren?t for no reason. It was the result of a well-thought out and co-ordinated effort on the part of IPL managers and franchisees. To begin with, the organisers adopted a differential pricing mechanism to ensure fans across income groups can join the festivity. Tickets prices could be bought for anywhere between Rs 200 and Rs 1,25,000 for one corporate box.

Alongside the pricing strategy, IPL management as well as the franchisees ran marketing and advertising campaigns to pitch the event as an opportunity for the family to spend an evening together. There aren?t too many avenues for the entire family to go together. To ensure that the fans enjoyed this outing, the organisers worked on logistics such as making the environment safe, the stadiums clean and even making proper arrangement for refreshments priced suitably. ?For the matches we sold tickets for we had made arrangements like ushering in the audience, ensuring the cleanliness on the ground as well as inside toilets, etc. We made good quality food available. All this helped the fans have an overall good experience,? says Hemrajani.

To ensure that the fans do come to watch their favourite players slug it out on the field, several on-air as well as on-ground campaigns were launched. SET Max, for instance, launched a high decibel out of home (OOH) campaign to create a buzz. To highlight the communication theme ?Aapki seat reserved hai?, a packed bus was created on hoardings across Mumbai, with real people sitting on it during peak hours. At other times, the hoarding displayed the match schedule for the day. Another innovation was carried out on a mobile van, with live cheerleaders performing near the hoarding.

IPL organisers also ran a television campaign pitching the games as an opportunity to be enjoyed with friends and family. ?Barring the match with Deccan Chargers, most of our matches saw packed stadiums covering more than 95% of the overall seating capacity at every venue,? says Hemant Dua, sports marketing head, GMR Sports, which owns Delhi Daredevils. ?This happened as a result of the right marketing push and rationalisation of ticket prices. Also, viewers are now realising the importance of the in-stadia experience,? he says. According to Dua, the ticket sale through internet went up 150% this year compared to the previous season.

Without revealing numbers, a spokesperson of Mumbai Indians confirmed how there has been an increase in the investment made by the team for creating the right on-ground experience at the stadium. These were not huge investments but small initiatives meant to engage the viewer. For instance, apart from putting up larger than life posters of players, cut outs of players were placed outside the stadiums. The viewers went and posed for pictures with their favourite cricketer.?We saw more families this year at our matches. It was surprising to see how viewers had booked tickets well in advance. For instance, our team?s matches with Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore were sold three weeks in advance,? he says.

?All the franchisees did a great job in terms of selling tickets in a systematic manner this year. Filling up the stadiums for all 75 matches is not easy,? says Raghu Iyer, CEO, Rajasthan Royals. The massive turnout of fans in the stadium more than compensated for the marginal decline in the viewership. The stakeholders argue fans coming out of their houses battling the heat to watch the matches live underscores IPL’s pull among its target base. ?There may have been a small drop in the viewership but the packed stadiums endorse the popularity of the event a lot more,? says Iyer.

The franchisees are positive that this year has set the tone for the future seasons and audience turnout is only going to bet bigger in future. Some observers, meanwhile, maintain that IPL shouldn’t be compared with cricket alone as there is a difference between an IPL junkie and a cricket junkie. During the regular cricket matches, nationality comes into the play and there is no confusion among the fans about which side they are on. IPL, on the other hand, is not just about the cricket and loyalities. ?Only 10% the people who follow IPL are interested in cricket only,? says Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults. ?The rest,? he says, ?are interested in the game for the love of their favourite cricket or Bollywood celebrity. Extensive media coverage of the T20 game over the years has egged on the junkie who wants his share of limelight by just being present at the stadium.?

Meanwhile, MSM is downplaying the drop in the viewership on television. ?The drop in viewership is not as huge as it has been made out to be,? says Rohit Gupta, President, Network Sales, MSM. ?What we need to understand is that people are comparing IPL with IPL. Sure the TRPs were a little down in comparison with last year, but IPL is still the largest show on TV drawing in the maximum viewership,? he says. Gupta is confident that going by the success of the event this year and the fantastic game played on the ground, advertisers will be thronging to IPL the next year.

Advertisers, meanwhile, are happy with the opening of a new platform. ?The fact that people are willing to spend money for watching the games live says a lot. It is a clear indicator for advertisers to look beyond ad spots on TV and forge association with the game through on-ground sponsorships,? says Shubha George, chief operating officer, MEC South Asia.

The Groundswell

Packed stadiums in IPL-5 translated into a huge windfall for franchisees

* 30-35 crore

Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders

* 20-25 crore

Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals

* 15-20 crore

Deccan Chargers, Pune Warriors, Punjab KingsXI Punjab and Royal Challengers

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First published on: 05-06-2012 at 02:58 IST
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