corporate sports marketing is big business

Images of Anil Ambani running the Mumbai marathon is the stuff of dreams for corporate brand managers. It portrays him as a young energetic long-term player. Coming as it does, near his firm’s Initial public offering, the association obviously lends the firm a dynamic image.

The hidden persuaders are now trying their guns on sports sponsorship in a big way. Some of this is out of personal affiliations. Entrepreneurs inevitably turn out to be sports lovers. Like in the West so in India, owning say a football club is like having a trophy wife. So we have Vijay Malaya putting the Kingfisher brand as well as its Indian identity by on the world map by purchasing a formula one team and UB has bought almost all the football clubs in Calcutta.

However when sports sponsorship meets a clear-headed corporate objective both the firm and sports can blossom. The case in point is the reported decision by Bharti telecom to put a few hundred crores in football to create a team that can make it top the world cup football.

. The interesting development in corporate association is that a lot of new players are moving away from Cricket, which still remains the original 800-pound gorilla. Sports such as golf football and hockey have seen a renewed interest. The global sports sponsorship market is estimated at $40 billion while in India the current market is estimated to be $4 billion out of which the board for control of cricket in India alone is worth $1.5 billion.
It is time to device special incentives and tax breaks such as the ones in place in China and Russia for dedicated efforts to develop Olympic level sports teams. With a policy initiative the nascent market for sports sponsorship can explode. The lack of proper infrastructure on the ground is also a hindrance for corporate involvement. Funds that accrue from tickets and hospitality add up very little to the overall sports revenues - unlike in the west where they are through to constitute one third of all accruals.
Even with these impediments it is clear from the last few big-ticket sponsorship announcements that corporate India big on sports sponsorship.