IPL 2018: What makes Mumbai Indians a successful brand?

The mega-auction of the Indian Premier League's 11th edition is scheduled to be hosted in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28. Building up on the same, this is the first part of an IPL series around discussing brands association and value of each IPL team ahead of the scheduled auction.

MUMBAI INDIANS
The year 2013 will always be special for the Ambani owned and Tendulkar mentored Indian Premier League (IPL) Franchise –Mumbai Indians as the year marked their first big win in the league. They repeated this feat in 2015 and in 2017 and put into perspective the rationale behind high sponsorship rates that the team commands.With a brand value pegged at Rs $54.1 million in 2017, which is 17 per cent higher than its brand value in 2016 which was $46.4 million as per the report by brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, the team is looking to hit a new high in 2018.

The big moolah format
There is no doubt that IPL has a robust revenue distribution model in place. As per this revenue model, BCCI collects revenue from distributors and shares it with the teams. Given the quantum jump in broadcasting revenue last year, IPL teams are set to reap the benefits of this surge. Just to add some perspective, in 2017, IPL title sponsor Vivo coughed up Rs 2,200 crore for a five-year deal, while Star India paid a staggering Rs 16,347.5 crore to bag the media rights of the game making this league among the most expensive sporting leagues in the world.
On an average, team sponsorship revenues are between Rs 30-40 crore and ticket sales account for around Rs 25-35 crore. Central pool revenues are in the Rs 75-90 crore range for franchises. According to some estimates, franchises are expected to clock 20-25% increase in overall revenue from 2018 on-wards.

Sponsors & Partners

According to IPL rules, advertisers can buy space on anything—from a player’s jersey to his helmet and trousers—to get to inscribe their brands. This includes any available spot—chest, back of the jersey, sleeves, rear and sides of the helmet and trouser pockets. While the cost of sponsoring the fronts of jerseys for Mumbai Indians ranges between Rs 8 crore and Rs 22 crore; backs of jerseys are priced at around Rs 10-12 crore. This is expected to go higher by at least 20-25% as IPL enters a new phase of growth with Star India having bagged its distribution rights.

Jio Digital

Reliance Jio partnered with Mumbai Indians to bring JioMoney users and Mumbai Indians’ fans an opportunity where by using JioMoney they can be among the first to book vantage seats for the Mumbai Indians home matches at Wankhede Stadium.

Etihad

Under this sponsorship deal, Etihad Airways’ logo will appear on the back of shirts worn by the Mumbai Indians for home matches and the Jet Airways logo will be featured in the same position for other matches to be held away from home. Both Etihad Airways and Jet Airways will enjoy extensive branding and messaging beamed across LED pitch-side advertising and on giant screens near the match venues.

DHFL

DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd) one of India's largest housing finance companies and the second largest in the private sector is the associate sponsor for Mumbai Indians.

Dheeraj Realty

The brand is paying between Rs.2-3 crore, one-tenth the money spent by bigger brands for the right to inscribe their logo on team uniforms and accessories.

Videocon D2H

Videocon D2H has continued with its association as the principal sponsor for the Mumbai Indians franchise. Under the agreement, the logo of Videocon D2H will prominently feature on the front of the jersey of Mumbai Indians players.

The official partners of the team include names like Samsung, Kingfisher, Usha, Officers Choice Blue, Kenstar, Taiwan Excellence, Performax, BookMyShow, JioMoney, Fever 104FM and radio City.

Mumbai Indians in 2018

At the recently held IPL retention event, three players on their retention list – captain Rohit Sharma at a price of Rs. 15 crore, star all-rounder Hardik Pandya at 11 crore and Jasprit Bumrah at 7 crore were retained for IPL 2018. So far, the franchise has spent 33 out of their 80 crore, which leaves with a balance of Rs. 47 crore for the mega auctions to be held on January 27 and 28 in Bangalore.

EXPERT TALK
Experts are optimistic about the overall sponsorship growth and individual team sponsorship revenue of IPL 2018. According to Aman Abbas CEO, Commwiser Consultants LLP, “With both global and Indian economy looking up and demonetization and GST well behind us, brands are likely to be bullish about IPL 2018 compared to last year. Star Network will also have a great role to play in it with them owning both digital and TV rights. Some of the new sectors that are going to join the bandwagon would include Fintech, edu-tech, education and e-commerce space, though fewer brands in it. The spend is likely to be skewed towards digital. It will be interesting to watch the triangle of Vodafone-Idea, Airtel and Jio’s strategies of activations, digital and TV advertising.

Speaking about the viewership tends to watch out for in IPL 2018, he adds, “Facebook outbid television networks to air Golden Globes. Stickiness of social is guaranteed by its inherent ability to share content, making it the preferred channel for native programming. Livestream is the future, and a big earner for digital media networks. Brands will find it much easier to amplify exposure through re-targeting. Sensing this huge potential of ad revenue, we will see social networks bidding for IPL broadcast rights. Brands will be looking for the right mix of endorsements and ad placements, strategizing to create viral content by capitalizing on social trends in real time.”

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