Bringing Bollywood, Business and Bowling together — Indian Premier League

Prologue:

When I say things like franchise model, marketing budget, ad placements, thinking about the target audience etc. what comes to mind ? McDonalds? Starbucks? Well yes but there is a new kid in the block that has applied all these and a few other well known business strategies to shine. I am talking about the IPL or the Indian Premier league. Since its inception in 2007 IPL as a franchise has seen nothing but success and I want to pinpoint a few of the strategies that were conceptualized by Lalit Modi for IPL which have been the main pillars behind this success story.

Source: Indian Premier League — Wikipedia

Topic Introduction:

For those unfamiliar with IPL — Indian Premier league is a domestic, annual Twenty20 cricket tournament in India, organized by the IPL Governing Council, under the aegis of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). One of the beauties of this game is that even though this is organized by BCCI you will see that players from around the world can be part of a team, example: M.S.Dhoni normally represents India, Faf du Plessis represents South Africa and Sam Curran represents England but in case of IPL they all represent Chennai Super Kings or CSK.

The Conceptual Framework:

Source: IPL Teams — IPLT20.com

I want to take a moment to explain to the game model first. There are 8 teams in all. Each team plays the other 7 teams in both at home and away games making it a total of 14 games/team. For each game winner is awarded 2 pts, a tie guarantees a point per team and loser gets 0. At the end the top four teams proceed to playoffs and the bottom four are out of the race.

The following diagram depicts what follows which is also known as IPL playoffs.

Glimpse of the leadership boards for 2020 and 2021 ( 2021 postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic)

Source: IPLT20.com — Indian Premier League Official Website

Here are a few strategies that have working in favor of IPL

Global players local teams: Cricket as many of you know has so many countries playing. I for one have multiple favorites across multiple countries. Imagine if you could see a team come together with the best in class from across the various teams, IPL has made that into a reality and we have been able to see what it would look like if players from rivals teams were to play in the same team, similarly we have seen what it would look like when there are strategies from multiple countries in the same team. It has been sensational to say the least.

Undeterred marketing campaigns: There are so many streams of campaigns that work seamlessly together here are a few I think are the main ways to keep the spirits high for the game.

• Team logo merchandising via jerseys, bats, stickers/posters etc.
• Players representing main sponsors in advertisements.
• Media partners playing a major role in broadcasting the upcoming games.

Timing of the game: The games are scheduled for the months of April and May, this is the main time frame when kids are home for their summer break and are looking for constant entertainment. The main target audience here as you can see are kids between 5–14 years, as research shows kids that age play a major role in purchasing decisions and thus follows the cascading effect of brands wanting to associate themselves with IPL and eventually be a household name.

Franchise model: This I think probably the icing on the cake. Coming up with a franchise model for both the teams and the players makes it a very dramatic experience to the viewers. There are two sets of auctioning that happens:

• Companies/Firms are bidding for the teams itself, example: Mumbai Indians is owned by the Reliance group and CSK is owned by India cements etc.
• The winning firms then are bidding for players to join their team from a pool of players.

What makes this sensational is the auctioning process itself. Like you see in the movies you see teams battling for a player and are willing to raise their bets for the players they want etc. the stakes and tensions are high to say the least. The added fanfare of having business and bollywood celebrities in the mix makes it a viewer’s delight and I for one live for the drama.

Short Twenty20 over games: Unlike traditional test matches which last for days or the One day games where the players play for 50 overs each, these matches are catered to the short attention span of the current generation. With only 20 overs to play for either side, it makes every run, every ball and every wicket count. Nail biting moments are plenty and you can see that the decision might flip just during the course of an over/6 balls. Needless to say this adds to all the drama, emotions and fanfare that follows.

There is always two sides to a coin, I also wanted to pen down a few reasons why I think IPL might not be the best for the sport in the long run:

Tired players: As I pointed out the games are in the month of April and May which are the hottest months in India and playing day in and day out drains out the players completely. This exertion could then potentially affect their performance for games where they represent their home countries. The long term effects of prolonged exposure to such hot temperatures is not really known but we can only guess.

Learn each other’s secrets: Every team and every player within the team has a game strategy and cricket is no different. I am certain India has a strategy to beat South Africa and vice-versa, there will be instances during IPL when the strategies and weaknesses of certain players are voiced openly. Do these instances turn into moments for international bonding or moments when the players doubt each other when they go back to their home teams is definitely a thing of concern.

Commercializing the game: As I previously mentioned I for one love drama and all the emotions that surround it but thinking about IPL I think we might have gone a tad too far to make it over dramatic and hence introducing a lot of commercialism via sponsors, price money etc. what I think this has done is made it less of a sport and more of an entertainment.

With all things said and done I still believe in the good and believe that IPL has been a gateway for many international connections in the world of cricket.

Nexus Beyond:

IPL is very unique and I personally have not seen anything blend cinema, sport and business strategies into one mix as perfectly as IPL has done but if you can think of others please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.