IPL4, crowd attendance and World Cup impact

It has been just one week since IPL began, and teams have played a couple of matches each. But the hype that surrounds the T20 extravaganza, which is usually high during the start and end of the league stage, hasn’t been quite as it was during the previous editions. Though Set Max is doing a good job not covering the empty stands, it isn’t hard to guess attendance levels are an abysmal low.

Interestingly, people’s involvement and support for IPL was being talked about just five days before the start of the tournament. In fact, right after India won the World Cup. While some people said India’s win in the WC would further boost IPL attendance, a wise few hash tagged IPL with yawn even before it began.

What marketing whiz-kids should be studying is whether the decline in eyeballs and/or ticket sales linked to people’s behavioral pattern, or a failure to promote the product properly. Before discussing if this is due to people’s mindset, let us see if the IPL Marketing department has done enough from its side.

To start with, IPL never did announce its coming properly. Though the “Bharath Bandh” campaign by JWT India was fairly good, the advertisements were never in places where the eyeballs were. In the previous years, the IPL advertisements could be seen frequently even in regional channels. This year, considering that there was already a mammoth product (The World Cup) doing the rounds, they should have tried harder for advertising space. While most billboards, online space and TVCs were booked for the World Cup, the IPL should have had its share of presence to sell itself. From the knock-out stage of the WC, many top brands were ready to shell out millions of dollars to woo consumers. Considering that IPL itself is a billion dollar product, maybe it should have advertised strongly during the World Cup to win fan fervor.

What BCCI must keep in mind is that IPL never succeeded because of cricket. Well if it was cricket, ICL should’ve succeeded too, right? Lalit Modi knew this too well. There was always something to talk about the IPL. The parties, the cheer-girls, Bollywood, something interesting was always on. Mr. Modi made sure of that. The IPL chairman also led from the front, was always ready for an interview, was media friendly, and was everywhere.

Also, there seem to be no innovations this year. Or atleast, none that have been noticed, except better graphics for scorecards and players info. Think what the previous editions had to offer new to the consumers – player mics, the famed eagle cam, even an advertising stint like the MRF blimp was being talked about.

Some studies last year talked about good advertisements having a positive impact on game viewer ship. Many brands, which had a good run during the World Cup, have invested in IPL too, hoping for the momentum to continue, and not to lose out to competitors. These brands, if it is possible, must shoot fresh commercials, and not use the ones they used all through the long world cup. Only then, people will show interest. Else, they hardly seem to notice the advertisements.

And now, the impact of World Cup on IPL viewer ship. Indians had invested a lot of time and money for the World Cup. They might also be emotionally drained. After having seen the cricket’s most coveted prize being won by the country, everything else might seem trivial. Or maybe the World Cup hangover still lingers. Whatever it is, the IPL guys need to think quick, and bring back the crowds. Surely, Lalit Modi’s absence is being felt.