the sports extravaganza is here, and already we can see the social streams fighting each other in media..India’s prim and proper but poor middle class inherently prefer the non PC non You Tube video TV Ads and Media Contests as social collaboration,! Someone participating in this Nokia TVC for example could very well shut down use of Facebook and Twitter during the game.

Another tired lame and infuriatingly logical trouble maker is the fact that while You tube has made its circulation on highly objectionable material and ads that may lead brand marketers to give their social strategy to young anti social Twenty somethings, The PPP value of the Rupee fails to encourage global corporations unifying their processes for Copenhagen to even think of planning for a $5 bn Dollar IPL when making their friendly social strategy virals and plans. Witness Coke, Ford and any of the global banks in Asia..A simple fracture right in the collarbone, before you pick up the virtual bat

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NASDAQ listed comScore (SCOR) came up with the true impact of IPL on the You tube enabled season 3. Now we know there are around 4-5 million You Tube players expected on for the various SUV and Insurance digital campaigns, as also Tendulkar. Online audiences have increased by 15% yoy in January 2010 to 40 million visitors. Total minutes spent on sports sites as also page views doubled, while the no. of visits increased from 22 million in Jan 2009 to 62 million in Jan 2010

Meanwhile competitor Nielsen reported that world-wide social media usage upped 80% to five and a half hours year on year Online games and instant messaging are the other popular engagement traps where people spent more time. 205 million of the 308 million unique visitors went to Facebook in December 2009. Aussies spent the maximum 6hrs 52 mins on social sites.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report on traffic to Sports sites in India as the country prepares for the India Premier League’s (IPL) third season. The study found that more than 10 million Internet users at home and work locations in India visited a sports site in January 2010, nearly double the number from the previous year.

“The sports category has experienced tremendous growth throughout the last year as more Indians turn to the Internet as their first source of up-to-the-minute news on their favorite teams and players,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. “January saw a particularly strong increase in traffic fueled by the IPL3 player auction on the 19th of the month. With IPL3 set to begin in March, we expect to see continued growth at many sports sites as fans prepare for the tournament’s return to India.”

More than 10 Million Visit a Sports Site in January

In January 2010, 10.3 million Internet users age 15 and older visited a sports site in India from a home or work location, an increase of 97 percent from the previous year. Yahoo! Cricket led as the most visited sports destination with nearly 4 million visitors, up 305 percent versus last year. ESPN grabbed the #2 position with 3.5 million visitors (up 109 percent) followed by Sify Sports with more than 1 million visitors (up 379 percent). Cricket-specific sites also posted strong visitation figures including CricBuzz.com (640,000 visitors), CricketNirvana.com (523,000 visitors),KrishCricket.com (306,000 visitors) and Cricketnext (278,000 visitors).

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When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country.. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.
– Quote about Sachin in TIME, Thanks Parvin Jain.

This double centurion now has 93 Centuries in Tests and One Day International formats, scoring the first double hundred in the game. Sachin has been individually earning more than INR 400 million annually, a huge amount by Indian standards. These are the endorsements he is paid. for diverse campaigns like Pepsi, Visa and MRF(wound down last year). He earns an equal amount from Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Cricket’s biggest brand recently sublicensed the brand “Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar” to Reliance Communications during the last Cricket World Cup.

The current Indian Captain Dhoni also earns an equal amount in endorsements and plays for the Chennai Superkings.

However the LITTLE  MASTER has till yesterday’s game been outbid by a ew in the IPL including Kevin Petersen and now team-mate Keiron Pollard. He is still in the prime of the game. Friendly competition between sports celebrities is likely to have a positive impact on the social web.

For more on the phenomenon head to Ten’s own

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Sports Marketing can so easily be confused with selling the game on TV. In fact in its early days for the NFL and all that is American it used to be so true. Well, out here in Asia or for soccer, Europe, it is still very much true.

Think of a game, and automatically you think of the TV stars that made the game. The Tendulkars and the Sehwags in Cricket, the Bhaichung Bhutias in Indian soccer have an umbilical cord link with the game, and for us marketing people that  cord is the TV Remote. India’s fortunes in Cricket are directly linked with its revenues from TV advertising. Other BRand promotions, events and the game itself were almost pushed to a secondary level everytime its revenues were at a peak.

The situation on the ground is the exact opposite. Players have struggled for real remuneration and spend retirement in various stages of ‘disuse’ and ‘disenchantment’. There are rare coaching opportunities, there are rare royalties and no one but yourself to remember your own records. The broadcasters and the marketers are conspicuous by their absence just 5-10 years ago. It was in this scenario that NEO Sports made a start in India as a game broadcaster, asking ESPN Star Sports and DD to face up to competition. The story of the NEO Sports franchise is thus as old as India’s new found hegemony in Sport.

Apart from its Cricket centric beginnings, it has also promoted the German Bundesliga with a recent 3 year contract. The Hockey World Cup is next. All NEO channels are paid additions to Cable and DTH households within the subcontinent and in the middle east and maybe UK. As recently as April 2009, NEO has received $64 million in funding from 3i and Oman Investment Fund.

Perfetti and Hero Honda are the anchor sponsors for NEO Sports and one can easily assume a less than $25 million billing for them at this stage when the entire cricket universe is $250 million, out of which a good $150 million goes to IPL. NEO Sports has made $95 million across the India Australia series in 2009 and the recent India Sri Lanka series. Even for the current SA visit, sponsorship bands are available for less than $2 million and advertising at $8k per 10s. Idea and Tata Docomo are both part of it since Airtel and Vodafone Zoozoos pretty much monpopolise everything IPL next month ( Our Telecom market is growing at 10 million connections a month and needs constant sustenance for the brand in the face of sometimes more than 5 players in each circle)

NEO also brings the Domestic Cricket league telecast to the 20 million DTH and over 80 million Cable Homes. The recent Lanka series infact crossed TRPs of 8 for the series where the Colors Big Boss and IPL opening matches and finals do not cross 12, A 5 or 6 average for TRP is good and that means 5 million TV Sets were on for the game

NEO is floated by Nimbus sports and in an earlier round of funding it had raised $125 million from Deutsche Bank and Americorp with 3i. It has Indian cricket rights only till the end of this year.

Among competitors Times Global and Network 18 Viacom would be looking for public funding this year. In rights bidding, ESPN Star may be still competing with MAX for future Cricket, Hockey and Soccer rights. Doordarshan as the only Terrestrial partner gets to carry any and all TV telecasts of games free. .For the Commonwealth games, TEN in Australia, SIS (UK) and SKY TV ( NZ ) are among those who have landed broadcast rights. DD/Prasar Bharti are host broadcasters for the game, including the first ever HD broadcast.

NEO campaigns are noted for their bent as pioneers of the game. Its tagline in 2007 was ‘The home of Indian Cricket’, its campaigns used as fillers when air time could not be sold in the early struggles. ‘Dhak Dhak Go’ from Hero Honda supplements the taglines for the FIH Hockey World Cup promotions.

NEO won 11 awards in the 2008 Promax BDA Broadcast Awards for its campaign shorts after the rules of Cricket were changed to bkeep spectators engaged.  This years promos to watch are Power play, Rusty Nail and ‘Tension’

Dhoni and Sachin are batting for India as we write, and India are still holding on to the #1 position in Cricket.

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Even though the slight suffered by Pakis in not being bid may rankle sports lovers, the money train is here for the IPL. The Royals of Rajasthan, will now have the Cape Royals which could be as easy as $20 million, the Victoria Royals that could be a prize catch for $40 million, the TNT Royals and a couple more from England and Pakistan could go up for bidding for stakes from Manoj Badale and Lachlan Murdoch’s dream franchise in royal blue steed/. The Lion as mascot, btw, is Moochu singh and he may get a few avatars as well in each Na’vi land that the Emerging media team purchases. Sure to make thier 25% IPO a $! billion candidate, and the game could do with some money outside India. Downstream deals would solely depend on the right pricing at this juncture as many others would be eager to follow if the doors are opened. At this time, national sponsors fetch an annual $7.5 million and regional sponsors are being sought by IPL for $1.5 million. The team sponsors like Ultratech, Fly Kingfisher and Reebok in some cases each have been bagged by teams for $1-$10 million while smaller players like Wrigley’s and Nimbooz have contributed in bits nd pieces. The IPL franchise is currently valued at around $2 billion, while KFC T20 Bash and the SA Club tournament would each be $200 million and $100 million, presumably across 10-12 teams. Ofcourse there would be adjustments for the fact that IPL is a non profit in India’s case.

IPL’s aggregate valuations could cross $3.5 billion this year including the two new teams.

The Rajasthan Royals co-owned by Raj Kundera, Lachlan Murdoch and chaired by Manoj Badale and Emerging Media were recently valued at $300 million. The team is set to grow the game franchise and take a larger piece of the growing pie. The Royals are on way to owning four more International T20 teams, The Victoria Bushrangers now to be known as the Victoria Royals, The Nashua Cape Cobras, The TNT team that will become the TNT Royals and maybe one more in England or Pakistan. All these teams made it to the Champions League of National Champions / Victors in the first edition of 2009. The Royals will own a sable stake in each of the teams and share revenues and expenses correspondingly with the current owners in each case.

IPL as definitely been the story of growing franchise and easy access to investment in the world’s greatest sport ( after the Saints kept their part of the bargain in NFL of course).

The no. of foreign players in each IPL franchise was recently raised from eight to ten, while four can play in each game. RR’s wider ownership of teams will de-risk team revenues from such patriotic and seasonal vagaries and bring more certain cash flows investment bankers love to see in any product for sale.

Punjab Kings XI meanwhile have recruited a local industry luminary to support its marketing and are looking to offload a similar ownership stake in India or abroad for their $300 million team, that fared well in the first edition and is looking to come back in the third edition with a new captain. Shane Warne captains the Jaipur based Rajasthan Royals

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It isn’t early days, no sir

Getting together for the Mountain and the 2012 rush

Of course, out here in this part of the world Soccer is a more easy Football name to mind. But it is not happenstance that America and MNCs led by Marketing of Strong Global Brands from around the world have a time-tested affinity for the Superbowl. Global diaspora have time and again, found the Superbowl to be an exacting opportunity, even as GM, Pepsi and Fedex bow out this year. The Social World and the recession has had a normative effect. We’ve definitely accelerated the availability of Superbowl information this year. Before we in the social media glitterati start congratulating ourselves however, this phenomenon could be derailed sooner with the next Superbowl bring back the previous higher spends and low-marketing dollar Superbowls. This February event would still net the larger dollars as the bookings are full and that would keep us glued to more brand action for the hoi polloi amongst us and the farther reaching shores of the sport.

Nearer home in Asia, IPL has had a exponential normative effect at the same time. And the calendars clash too. So sooner than later despite the different sports followers in both ‘worlds’ we are going to have a unique competitive saga which has never been replicated earlier (muse delta) with NBA or MLB. The game of cricket and the IPL format have run the run-rate of a jingling theater to perfection causing a little heartburn and greater celebration in the cricketing fraternity for the higher dollars and the higher ad-spends. Howver the hyper eclectic ramp up also means the cricketing dollars roi has been weak for the exacting spends ( Obama would’ve stop criticising Landry and Chrysler if he knew) Also, we are just about setting up the benchmarks for each new channel. but, to sign off for now, it isn’t early days, no sir.

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Our New Markets Blog goes Powerblog

Adage Power150 proudly sports us on their list at a spanking #300 for http://twitterone.com , our first spanking new medal on the web. The Advantage Brands leader in marketing, Twitterone is not only the call out for Our ‘Social Networking and New Markets’ Web home, it is alo a social media newstracker at http://twitterone.mobi and an aggregate blog at http://twitterone.mobi

Also look for more Asia stories this year on this brand blog apart from the continued resolve to deliver even more punch words to the cause of web celebre

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Barack Obama is learning testimonial marketing on the ground for healthcare, clunkers are away and superbowl is already 2/3rds sold with Red Sox and Cardinals falling away to give a sticky brand even with fat expenses for Yankees, Phillies and both the LA franchises ( Dodgers – NLCS and Angels – ALCS, for the newbies)

In Asia, IPL has taken root, Champions League has shown the other Cricket brands in the Commonwealth and probably US has a couple of teams switching from Soccer to T20 Cricket this time

Closer to where it hurts, Apple is redesigning Disney retail ( one last time?) IBM is riding god knows what hopscotch strategy, and Amazon and Walmart are getting ready for the holidays – some more would be shutting down this time in the face of retail discount wars…

Funding new infrastructure..a global imperative The new USA with new infrastructure « Obamanomics http://bit.ly/3kSJ2k about 3 hours ago from HootSuite

Apple is not going to ruffle anyone as Windows 7 brings $MSFT back into the game (by the by, just to wake up your senses before dinner ..) about 5 hours ago from HootSuite Two-thirds of Superbowl AD inventory was sold/booked even before Week 1 of NFL..and there is six more months for the “new” network CBS about 6 hours ago from HootSuite

If the Chargers win today, they will likely meet the Blues for the next KITA motivation #clt20 about 20 hours ago from HootSuite

Welcome @hotshotsin to the Advantage zyaada fold @zyakaira @zyaada 8:13 AM Oct 14th from web

Gyancafe follows http://advantages.us/brands for updates on Sports Marketing, IPL and social media #clt20 7:48 AM Oct 14th from HootSuite

By @zyakaira Cape Cobras meet Victoria Bushrangers in the Super League Kickoff #CLT20 Sad day for Wayamba and Sussex #clt20 7:48 AM Oct 14th from HootSuite

By @boutred :ask for analysis CIT debt swap struggles, bankruptcy looms: NEW YORK (Reuters) – CIT .. http://bit.ly/9hApR @zyaada 7:47 AM Oct 14th from HootSuite

Wonder how soon we can extend the IPL club brands to Cape Cobras and the Sydney Blues ( sponsor the SA/CA teams) #CLT20 #ipl

a selection of other tweets in the inbetween ( Advantage zyaada )
Dow 10K definitely took its time coming! G’night all about 13 hours ago from HootSuite

Gas sales ( At pump) down 25% from last year ( US, September 2009) about 16 hours ago from HootSuite

car sales dropped 10% in september “After Clunkers” shock, October shd indicate holiday season about 16 hours ago from HootSuite

$GLD up above $107..can it cross $115? about 16 hours ago from HootSuite

Why is $CI getting such a great buy rating? One can’t believe the industry’s whitepaper of all things! The fool’s in goop http://ow.ly/un4a about 16 hours ago from HootSuite

Will $GS follow $JPM into the emerging markets, and expand globally? $GS earnings could far exceed expectations of $4.24, JPM likewise about 18 hours ago from HootSuite

Sign here! RT @barackobama Health reform just took a huge step—but the insurance lobby is.. Urge Congress to pass reform: http://u.nu/6jhi3 about 19 hours ago from HootSuite

$JPM Treasury and Custody Portfolio of $16 trillion likely to grow along with fee services of investment bank.. Buy to USD 60-65 in 2009 about 19 hours ago from HootSuite

And after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize! RT @barackobama humbled. about 19 hours ago from HootSuite

$JPM reports restructuring with Jes Staley taking over as CEO at the $1.9 billion richer investment bank, Mary C Erdoes takes over at AMC
about 20 hours ago from HootSuite

$JPM reported a further $2 billion added to loan reserves and $3.7 billion in extra charge offs in retail, Credit card losses of $700 m about 20 hours ago from HootSuite

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