 Good evening everybody, good time to talk about Royal Challenges Bangalore as today is the first World Cup game between England and South Africa. Before I start I'd just like to ask one question, how many of you followed this year's IPL? I won't ask how many of you supported RCB, how many of you supported any team for that matter? Yes we are very fortunate to have a fan base like RCB in Bangalore. They're emotionally connected to our team like no other business and this results in a huge amount of responsibility on us. The reason being we have to be consistent in our communication and true to our values, very very very critical. When we started this journey of RCB in Bangalore even we were really fascinated to understand what is happening because the fans just knew, just knew, just knew. We were not able to understand what made them tick. Then we spoke to all the fans and understood what is making them relevant to our cricketing fraternity and RCB. If you look at this super fans I'll call I'll use this word super fan. Super fans are guys who are heavily invested in the team. They wrap the selfish team in the inner team. I'll give an example in terms of before I go into the example I can tell you saying that super fans go to any extent, see for example Sukumar here, any extent to do anything for our team. See this, this is a Chennai Superking super fan who has reacted to the loss when Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Superking. These guys are really invested in the team and this is what and kids they need, they are like that and they are bordering obsession. I can say even addiction for that matter in terms of. So who are the super fans? What influences them in terms of being a super fan? A super fan is mainly influenced by maybe their parents who are already a super fan or their sibling who are also a super fan or they have introduced the stardom at a very early age. So what is resulting in this? What it really breaks down to one single human behavior which is group. Biologically we all want to form groups, simple as that. The reason being if you see hundreds of years back we used to form groups, we are smart enough to form groups and hunt for survival. But now we don't have to form groups to hunt. So what do we do? We group around interspaces and sport is one of the biggest interspaces in India. That is the fundamental of fandom here. And what happens? What happens if you look at from that point of view? And this also helps in giving a lift to their selfish team and other things. Take for example our super fan here. Did I miss Sukuma? Can just go back. See this guy. This guy's name is Sukuma. He's a RCB super fan. He's from Bangalore. Like any one of us. If he's sitting in this crowd you won't even notice him. But what does he up to? He's been hard on fan for last 12 years. He has been visiting Chinnaswamy stadium every single game. And check out his attire. He spends around six hours getting this done before the game. I asked him what makes him do all this stuff? One is his passion for the team RCB. Other one is he wants to be distinctive. So when I spoke to him in depth I understood one critical trait. One is the need for optimal distinctiveness. Which is nothing but he wants to fit in and he wants to be distinctive. And all the fans at any given point of time would have crossed that line being distinctive and wanted to fit in. And if you look at Sukumar will be up there in terms of being distinctive. So that is the reason what is driving these guys. And if you look at other fans in terms of the normal fans not like super fans. They are also is craving for being distinctive. If you see them in terms of painting the face having a new jersey. But they are also trying to find that equilibrium where they can land on distinctiveness and fitting in. That is where it is. So on fandom what I want to say is if you see when our society is divided. Where we can't even reach out or it is becoming harder and harder to accept other person's point of view. It is fandom which is acting like a bridge. Otherwise why on an RCB game all the watching holds a full. And what happens there are you're meeting strangers. Strangers are socializing with you having beer having having a drink and when a wicket falls on RCB wins they give hi-fi and hug and give a hug. Why is that happening? So fandom is very critical for anything for that matter. But the question is this fandom doesn't happen all of a sudden. Clicker for button we get fans. No. So how did we at RCB build this this this huge base of passionate fan. One thing we clearly understood in India cricket is a religion. And hence if you have to build this brand called RCB we need to resonate and talk to young India. The philosophy of young India should should come alive through RCB. Not aligned to regional what do you call establishments in terms of we are not here to talking to talking to regional ethos here we are talking to young India. So but how did we do that? Let's see that we done done deep into culture to understand what are the conversation happening and what what can be leverage. From there we understood there were two broad narratives. One is making it narrative and one it one is I'll come to that in terms of what the second narrative going to be. Making it narrative is nothing but classical youth youth discourse nothing but transcend your past push your own boundaries you have realized this but your potential is this go do it push yourself leave your mark it's nothing but overcoming narrative it is all making it big in the world the benchmark come from outside the world that's when for example India pushed and got miss India miss universe it's all pushing boundaries do become do this do this you'll get that so that is the narrative all about and but now what is happening youth is youth Indian youth is moving beyond that the new narrative is called a figuring out narrative what is figuring out narrative figuring out narratives where life has no template there absolutely no template in life earlier they were set template now there is absolute no template they're craving for movement without direction what are they looking for they're looking for living in an expanding universe what does it mean they want to visit more places more experiences they want to dream more that is where it is and hence what is happening there is no roadmap for life there is only a road trip awaits you what does that mean there is no signpost to guard the youth in India there is no Google or there is no formula they need to experience life and move on but along with this comes a lot of anxiety when there is no roadmap and there's no there's no to tell you do this do that you'll reach there you have to find your own way there's a lot of anxieties comes along with that what are those this culture privileges risk taking and finding your own way but absence of this roadmap and template also results in both liberation and paralyzing because there's no safety net for you the onus is on you so hence there's fascination on one side and and and the fear of unknown on other side and what did we do we at rcb looked at this cultural opportunity and defined the role of rcb in the in the in a life that is liberating us from the fear of consequences as we break the template and venture into the unknown this is what rcb's role in life is and what is the philosophy what is the belief system the belief system is breaking out of template when there is no evident no precedent go ahead when you believe in a philosophy be unafraid to walk alone and the belief is when you are unafraid to walk alone over a period of time the world will rearrange around your belief system that is critical and today's youth is doing that in india and that is how we created our brand philosophy and manifestation of that is is this playboat this is the manifestation of that now what what we have what we have discussed now here is what i have narrated now is how we how we understood the cultural narrative and and anchored our thought but the critical is execution one is how do you bring this entire philosophy alive critical for that is our team the construction of our team if you look at our construct of our team there were three core members chris gale mirad koli and ab dvilias and these guys know only one way of playing cricket that is playing ball if you look at any stats highest score which is rcb highest number of sixes rcb any big big what he called number is is with rcb so one of the stuff is like like like we spoke about having a right product this is the right product for manifesting the philosophy of play bold what do you do next next was we did a really really bold step which is which is emotionally connect with our fans further what do we do let's hear this i'm not here to speak about the team but about the team behind the team which is all our fans and today we're doing something very special for all our fans so i'm going to show you what it is it's a tribute to the support that the fans have given us over so many years and the relentless support regardless of our performances so this is a jersey specially designed for the fans and tell you what it is you can see it's an rcb jersey but it's got got number 12 at the back which means all the fans are officially our 12th man all of you together so and we're also retiring this this jersey number for rcb it will always stay with fans so you are officially from today our 12th man who will be supporting us regardless and it's probably the most important member outside the 11th so this is a tribute to all of you and thank you for your continuous support over so many years and we'll continue to entertain you and hopefully go an extra step ahead this year so we we pushed boundaries in terms of we retired jersey number 12 that is where the emotional connect comes in when when we say there are 11 players on the field and the 12th player is not a player himself but it is a fan that's a big statement to make that is where the connect comes in what did we do next being a debut on mr nag's show i'm a huge nag fan let's talk about your relationship with me yes love me or hate me love me or hate me not hate it is a hate you what do we do in terms of this we started rcb insider i mean i think for six years back the reason is all the fans they get enough cricketing content on drive pull shot that this but what they want what they're looking for real and relatable content which is authentic which is behind the scene and where where the players talk openly and we can also talk openly in terms of and rcb insider is all about that if you look at rcb insider series after series we are hitting million hits per one per episode each episode is maybe i think of three minutes i know whether we have you have you have viewed this rcb inside three minutes each one of this a million hits each without spending a single penny the next big initiative what we did was launch our own mobile platform what we felt was currently our fan base was split facebook has some insta has a few twitter has other bunch of guys so what we felt was we had to create one unified platform from where our fans could directly connect the players they could they could start buying tickets they could start buying merchandise everything they could do here they could create communities there chat them and themselves and this was launched last year when last couple of months back in two and a half months time we got around a million user base on this big big ticket and then we have big plans to further this initiative in terms of making it really big the other big initiative is this i know we have you have noticed this a couple of fans came back and told us we we are very very big fans of rcb but we can't come into the stadium because we have pets and we can't leave our pets at home we said challenge accepted we created a pet lounge and we called it dog out not dug out dog out and this was a big hit in terms of really really big hit thank you and now the ask is much bigger now they want the pet parents want one stand to be converted into the pet stand we don't know whether it will be possible but we will try other one big initiative is this rcb diva six years back we started this property called rcb diva we want to talk about women women behind the cricketers nobody knows them they also have identity they also have done something in life for example abd bilia's wife runs a successful business in in in south africa nobody knows about this in terms of so we created this property called rcb diva where we brought this cricketers wives girlfriends all these guys are friends and started to talk about them and and and and and what they're doing and stuff like that last but not the least this other big initiative rcb rcb's agenda into green bangluru green india rcb chinesawami stadium is the first stadium in in banglore or sorry in india to be carbon positive we give back electricity apart from that what we have done is the jerseys the the players are wearing these are from the trash which we have collected from our stadium we collected the trash recycled it and made it as a jersey so what i'm trying to say with a few of these initiatives are in terms of one is understanding the cultural what is what is underneath uh india what does india want other one is in terms of understanding that and bring that to life so what rcb's fan following is not just because of two three initiatives it is because of the concerted effort and also linking back to culture that is critical so i want to leave with with five learnings here three piece and two hours we have changed the three piece and this is what we follow at rcb and we follow a dirgeo one is purpose always bring the brand alive with purpose what is the philosophy what is the philosophy what is the belief system if there's no purpose which is rooted in culture that brand won't succeed you should have a brand which is rooted in culture second one personalization in this day and age that is very critical for example the app launch what we have done it is clear signs of personalization we are giving them what they want second one is in terms of the retired retiring 12th man jersey that is also a sort of personalizing we are giving to the group saying that this is yours that is critical for us third one is partnership we can't do all this stuff on our own that that age is over where one agency does everything for you that that that is over there is there is enough resources out there where we're ready to partner please go partner that the the fourth one is reach India's massive India's massive we need to reach consumers and build consumers so if you look at there's one initiative what we what we do what is called as royal challenge bowl league it's a cricket gully cricket league box cricket league which we do we we go to some 60 towns and and and and and have this box cricket tournament happening so slowly we are embedding our brand in interlands of India and the last one is renovate please we we don't get bored by seeing our communication communication but consumers get bored so keeping the purpose alive your manifestation should keep changing every three years and four years so these are the take from rcb from my side thank you god bless