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.

Another WikiLeak: Afridi-Gilani cable hacked

WikiLeaks has gone the multinational corporation way by investing heavily in Asian markets. The trick seems to have worked for the whistle-blower website, with most humor bloggers and the not-so-humorous bloggers using the "(Famous Person) does the (infamous thing) - latest WikiLeaks revelations" template for their posts, when desperately out of ideas. Here's the latest WikiLeaks revelation.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called up U.S. President Barack Obama and asked for immediate financial assistance in wake of the India VS Pakistan semi-finals cricket encounter. Mr. Gilani is alleged to have promised President Obama that the money given would be used strictly for development of internet centers, buying millions of computers, and training Pakistanis on how to use Facebook. The reason behind this was found from another WikiLeaks cable-hack between Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and PM Yousuf Gilani.

Afridi is believed to told a shocked PM Gilani about Pakistan's exit from the semi-finals on basis of polls on popular social networking site Facebook. He further urged Mr. Gilani to ensure that all the Pakistanis in the world participated in the poll and ensure that Pakistan came head-to-head with India in the polls. When Gilani asked Afridi to walk the talk and immediately vote for Pakistan in the poll, Afridi irritated the PM by saying that he was just 12 years old, and was legally not allowed to use websites.

Meanwhile, US has rubbished the reports. A White House spokesman went on to say that, from their sources in India, they had learnt that Afridi never used Facebook. "Afridi WAS using the internet, but for other reasons. The FBI hacked his computer and submitted to us a list of key words he was using on Google search, which include, but are not limited to 'Hot Girls in Mohali', 'Hot women who love bearded men who lie about their ages', etc". In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, now accustomed to being answerable for everything, held a press conference and spoke the following words: "Inflation is worrying, corruption is bad, WikiLeaks is wrong."

BCCI, after figuring out that the Facebook polls have been very beneficial to Indians, has pushed the ICC to use Facebook Polls instead of the hugely unpopular UDRS. N. Srinivasan, Board President has also hinted that the team management might soon use Polls to decide between Ashish Nehra and Piyush Chawla for water-boy role.

BCCI to rename Power-plays

After repeated failures by the batsmen in Power-plays, and subsequent criticism by media and public, the BCCI has finally acted, and come to the rescue of its cricketers. "We have put forth a request to the ICC, which is essentially BCCI, to cancel the concept of Power-play. Henceforth, all Indian batting overs shall be called Fore-plays. This is to ensure that the batsmen enjoy themselves when out there in the middle, and not throw away wickets." - a pleased looking spokesperson said.

"We are also doing what we can from our side to ensure that batsmen don't return to the crease faster than ShastriBot's tracer bullet. We've requested Sachin to personally go and ask for appreciations from the next 3 batsmen after he's dismissed. All batsmen seem to be in some sense of urgency to rush back to dressing room and congratulate Sachin."

Meanwhile, sources close to the Indian team say a Psychologist has been appointed to help batsmen break inhibitions and perform better during Power-plays. The psychologist is rumored to have advised batsmen to imagine bowlers during Power-plays to be Ashish Nehra. Also, Munaf Patel and Nehra were told to visualize each other as bowler and self as fielder when they were batting.

In related news, BCCI has refused Walt Disney rights to make comedy movies based on Ravi Shastri-MS Dhoni post match presentation ceremonies.

World Cup and Census of India in trouble

The World Cup organizers are in trouble. So is the World Cup, and quite possibly, the Census Commissioner of India. Mahipaleshwaran, from Karur district in Tamilnadu, demanded the school teacher who came home for survey, the World Cup. "Where is the Cup that counts?", he asked. The bewildered teacher tried explaining to him that she was there to take the head count on behalf of the Government of India, but that only enraged Mahipaleshwaran.

"Nothing in India does what it claims to do! Last week I had constipation, and the doctor prescribed me some pills. Since it was the first time I was using those pills, I decided to eat a few Cadbury Diary Milks for a 'Shubh Aarambh'. The constipation multiplied exponentially! Now even government agencies have started advertising tall claims! Why aren't these census officials coming with the cup which they claimed can count?" Mahipaleshwaran has demanded the Census Commission and ICC World Cup committee to declare public their activities using the RTI act.

In a bid to avoid fuss, the ICC sent a replica of the World Cup and a ventriloquist to Karur to convince Mahi that the Cup could indeed count. The move, however failed when Mahi snatched the Cup, went to a crowded bar and asked the Cup to count the number of people. "Blatant lie! They should've clearly mentioned in the advertisements that the Cup can count only one person!" His neighbor, Ponnambalam, had similar concerns. "I was playing Need for Speed on my computer. I wanted to switch to Prince of Persia. Hence I drank Pepsi. But the bloody game never changed! I even painted my body and did all those silly things that the cricketers did in the advertisement, but alas, PEPSI DID NOT CHANGE THE GAME!!" Mahipaleshwaran and Ponnambalam have jointly filed a Public Interest Litigation regarding the issue.

Veteran lawyers predict that the court might issue directives to the companies to add a few lines in the advertisements. "It could be something like: 'The Cup that counts, but not people or anything physical or quantifiable, and most definitely can't take a census.' Yes, that would mean few extra seconds in terms of ad length and a lot more money. But corporates must have a responsibility of being honest and clear with the people, which in the long run could bring loyal customers."

Meanwhile Opposition Party leaders have blamed the UPA government for poor planning. "How can you have a Cup that counts and the Census of India in the same year? It is obviously bound to confuse aam admi. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi should personally take full responsibility for this."