(This article was sourced by our student team member, Priyanka Grover)
On Sunday, 4th December 2016, Team PRiSM (Marketing Cell of IIM Lucknow) organised a session on 'Sports Marketing in India', conducted by Mr. Sandip Tarkas, CEO of Future Group's Media, Sports & Special Projects division. He recently also became the CEO of the Bengal Warriors franchise in the Pro Kabaddi league.
Mr. Tarkas started the session by discussing the contribution of sports to India’s GDP, in the form of sports tourism and equipment, and then proceeded to compare the sports sector in India with that of China. He explained how China once upon a time had dismal performances in the Olympics, similar to India’s performances in the recent editions. However, due to the sports related reforms taken up by the country at that time, today China is always among the top-5 in the final medals tally. He feels that India can also get to that point and the creation of non-cricket sports leagues is a step in the right direction. Also, the entry of private enterprises will help change the current scenario in India, where a majority of the parents don’t encourage their children to take up sports as a career.
He spoke about his journey in the Pro Kabaddi league (PKL). Initially, he had no idea about how it is played, but today even his son watches every single game! Also, Kabaddi wasn’t popular in Kolkata and to change that, he came up with various promotional tactics. He organised an inter-school Kabaddi competition which had teams from 64 different schools. He donated Kabaddi mats and other equipment to local clubs to encourage kids to take up the sport. Through these clubs, they will also be able to discover talented kids and proper grooming can be provided to them for a future in the sport.
Mr. Tarkas also spoke about the innovative marketing techniques used by Star to change the perception of the sport in the minds of the city-dwellers, who always viewed it as a ‘rural sport’. The presentation was very important and so they modelled it on the ‘WWE’ with colourful mats replacing the sandy fields. They didn’t hesitate to make a big initial investment. Changes were made to the rules to make it more interesting. However, this tweaking was controlled and not excessive, which may lead to viewers losing interest. These strategies had a great impact! PKL’s first season had 435 Mn. viewers over its five-week run. Kabaddi academies were set up and city-kids actively started playing the sport, apart from watching and following the league.
Apart from Kabaddi, he discussed the marketing strategies used by other sports leagues and even Formula 1, which contributed a lot to sports tourism. Marketing will play a big role in taking these leagues to the level of the football leagues in Europe where the supporters are extremely passionate about their local teams. After many success stories, even failures in sports marketing such as that of the Indian Hockey League were discussed.
Through a lot of funny anecdotes and experiences with a lot of famous personalities like Lalit Modi, Kapil Dev and Kishor Biyani, he had the audience listening keenly to his every word. Trying to cover up for his team’s bad performance in the PKL, he jokingly said that his team lacked motivation. If his team won, they would get a chance to celebrate with him, as compared to the Jaipur Panthers, who would get a chance to hug and celebrate with Aishwarya Rai, since Abhishek Bachchan is the owner! The event was wrapped up with an insightful Q&A session.
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About the Author:
Akshay Bapat is a First-year MBA student at IIM Lucknow and a member of PRiSM, the Marketing Cell. Occasionally writes short stories with twists in the end.
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