 which is going to be talking about playing to win the sports television game. And now it is time for me to welcome our MNN panelists. First up, Mr. Amit Hejri, Head Marketing Automotive lubricant, Skull Oil India. Ms. Komal Mehra, Head Sports Initiatives and Associations Usha International. Mr. Ateeth Mehta, Marketing Head by Juice. Ms. Shreya Sachdev, Head of Marketing Puma India. And this session chair is going to be Ruhel Amin, a senior editor, who's going to be joining us live as well. So firstly, I'd really like to thank all our MNN panelists for joining us. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thanks, Bhavna. I am here. I'm in a bad network, sorry. So my video would be off and our moderator, Bani Gupta had a last minute emergency and she couldn't join us. But thank you everyone for joining us here on the panel. I would start, our discussion is happening at a time which we know we are surrounded by very tough times, but this is a panel that we had set up before this. So let me start with my first question. I will come to you, Mr. Mehhta, with my very first question is, tell me in your view, what makes postgenre the most effective platforms for marketeers? If we look around, especially last year as well, we saw the IPL was happening virtually and even before that. So what makes it the platform for marketeers? Hi, Rohil. What makes post the most effective genre? So see, you have to look it in relative terms. Today, if you look at any other content, a genre, there are like 30 plus news channels who are showing news. There are like Daima dozen GEC channels who are showing fiction plus nonfiction. So whenever sports is telecast, it's an exclusive airing and there is no other option. So a particular broadcaster buys out the rights. That particular broadcaster puts in good amount of packaging behind it and then telecast that particular sport. So if I'm watching sport, I have no other option, but it's an exclusive single window opportunity. Unlike everything else that if I don't want to watch channel GCA, I have the option of watching channel GCP. It's not in sports and that's the reason it makes it effective apart from the regular stuff which we keep on reading and which we keep on using, which is it is the full family, it is entertainment, especially when it's cricket and all those things are there. But the single largest factor according to me is the exclusivity in terms of the opportunity available to telecast a live stream. Right. Ms. Sachdev, if I have to ask you the same question, how much do you agree with what this Mehta said? Absolutely, I think we've seen this through the years. I think sport is that one category which just seems to grow exponentially in terms of viewership. And I think to echo a couple of things that Ateed said, I think one, in terms of consumer sentiment, it's entertainment, but there's also a very strong emotional connect with sports fans, people who view cricket as a religion. And I think this is something that we've seen in India over the years, the viewership and the fanship is just growing. So it's a bit of entertainment. There's a lot of emotion. I think sports is also something that people look at in times of especially times now, right? When the chips are down, I think it's something that people derive a lot of hope from. So I think from a consumer sentiment perspective, of course, it's extremely relevant. I think the audience profile is extremely diverse as well. You have all age groups. I think we're increasingly seeing that the viewership of women is going up. So I think in terms of audience profile as well, I think it covers a huge spectrum of people. And of course, in terms of platforms, you have your traditional television, now you have OTT platforms. I think even in terms of the platforms that people would view sport on, I think we've just seen the number of those platforms increase. So I think sports as a genre is probably the most relevant genre that we have today, especially in India and especially at a time like this. Right. Ms. Mehra, a slightly different perspective for you. You know, from a consumer standpoint, rather than a marketer's standpoint, how do they see sports in your view these days? I mean, is it as relevant as we perceive it to be, you know, on TV, on ground? What is the difference in your view? Hello, everyone. And I wish everyone to stay safe, to begin with actually sports, not just it's about marketing and it's about playing or watching. It's actually, there's a lot of message in it, which is what we do at Intra. We really want to communicate people about staying active and healthy. And I think the sense of playing sports is more significant in these times when we realize how important it is to have good immunity. Coming back to, you know, penetrating through cricket, yes, because it is again among the most watched. So it's a platform that we at our organization try to communicate people to stay active and healthy. And like I said, in today's time, it becomes more relevant to play even at home and just stay safe. So that's what we see more relevance of sports than just limiting it to marketing or brand. Right. Mr. Kejji, what are your thoughts on this? You know, what in your view makes sports, you know, the effective platform for marketers? What are the big things that you see marketers, you know, kind of look at it? So I think there are three things here. One, I think, Ateeth touched upon just to give you some numbers on that, you know, when satellite television started, we had what about maybe 18, 20 GEC channels. Today they are 65 and there's OTT, right? So the general entertainment content has gotten divided over a lot of avenues to watch. Whereas sports is still sports, right? Cricket is still cricket and it still starts sports. Yes, there are language channels, but you know, so that's why the loyalty and the affinity for a sports channel is higher among its TG compared to most other genres, right? So that's point number one. The other thing that I'd like to bring to the table and because I come from an industry whose target audience is male is that if you're looking to target men, right? And yes, of course, now IPL has added a lot of women viewership also to cricket. But if you're looking to target men, I think sports is again the way to go. There is relatively less spillover of media monies. And there are so many industries that target men, right? Whether they're OEMs, vehicle manufacturers or engine oil brands like us or a lot of gadgets or, you know, those kinds. So that's the second point, which is the male TG part of it. Of course, what this also does is increase the CPRP of sports channels with the affinity and the loyalty they are able to command a slight premium as far as CPRP is concerned. And the third thing that I want to bring to the table is brands which promise performance of any kind, right? Sports is a natural fit for them because that's what sport teaches you, right? There's performance, there's passion, there's teamwork, right? Victory, if your brand revolves anywhere around these values, then sports is a natural fit for you. So I think sports genres become even more important for brands with a male TG and with a performance sort of oriented brand promise. Right, very, I think, very valid points here. Mr. Betha, when we talk of sports, do we see it in a very narrow way? Do we, I mean, overall, have we just reduced the definition to maybe a couple of, you know, sporting games? How do we take a holistic view of looking at sports, you know, as far as using it as a tool to reach out to consumers as concerned? See, this needs to be thought through in a slightly different way, Rohan. My viewpoint is that sports, whichever sports you take, it's people watch it, whether physically or on television or on a digital platform, it's out of passion and the love for the game. Now, unfortunately, this is only dominated by cricket in India and because for a sports to be followed, you need to have superstars. We have never seen superstars coming out of any other sport outside cricket. So in a way, it becomes very narrow, but if it needs to become very holistic, where multiple sports are getting the right level of vintage and right level of support from advertisers, it's the question that are we in the right space of creating superstars over the next one decade? And then that following will happen. Well, we had multiple leagues starting. We had the Indian soccer league, Kabaddi league, the badminton league and all of them, but there are one or two guys who are there whom we know. If I ask you, name five players of the Indian hockey team, all of us will struggle because there are no superstars. If I tell you name five badminton players, you can only name two players and two ex-players. Well, if I ask you that name 30 players who play cricket, you will probably come with a list of 100s because those are superstars. So from that aspect, it is still going to be narrow or narrow cast from a sport perspective, which is cricket, but broadcast can happen multiple sports if it's superstars coming in. But from a platform perspective, I think we are covering all angles. There is enough and more stuff happening on television and Star has done a phenomenal job over the last three, four years. There is enough and more happening on the digital platform and there is enough and more information happening on non-acquired rights medium, whether it is a website who's giving scores or there is a lot of other places which gives you analysis, that is play along and now fantasy. So sports with his peripheral activities is now really, really broadcast from what it was before. Ms. Sachsadev, in your view, what are the other important leagues that marketeers look at? I mean, sporting genres that marketeers look at. We saw the reason because there are not enough icons from the rest of the games. But what are the other games apart from cricket where marketeers actively look at? Sure. So I think, you know, I agree with Ateeth that I think cricket, by far, exceeds in terms of viewership. But that being said, I think with the advent of OTT platforms, I think you've seen a bunch of leagues come in, whether it's the Indian Super League, which is on football, or the Pro Kabadi League or the Pro Wrestling League. So I think there is a shift towards viewership in terms of various sports. And I think football in particular is probably the fastest growing sport. Not yet as high viewership as cricket, but growing extremely fast. I think we've seen that as well. We sponsored two teams, you know, the Bombay FC and Bangalore Football Club. And I think, you know, we've seen that viewership and fanship grow year on year. Even, you know, speaking about footballers, I think, you know, people like Sunil Shea, while, you know, they probably are not as well known as cricketers. I think they've pretty much established sports credibility in terms of being referred to as a, you know, a cricketer, sorry, a footballer and a superstar. I think she's right there in terms of globally comparable achievements as well. So I do think that if marketers were to bank on another sport beyond cricket, I think football would be the one to bet on in the coming years. Right. Ms. Mehra, what are the ways in which we can, in your view, are there any solutions to this, you know, looking at sports in this narrow definition? What are your thoughts? I mean, how can this be addressed in your view? So Ruhi, again, I would like to bring to the fact that actually for us, sports started for keeping active and healthy lifestyle. And for that, actually, we work a lot on inclusion projects. I won't limit to just having superstars, which are the rightly said, because it brings in aspirational value. So people, you don't have to seed in players. People come on their own. Having said that providing platforms at the grassroots, which is the initiative where you reach out to people, talk about the benefits of playing and creating such platforms where there is opportunity for athletes, like we are associated with the Blind Relief Association, we are associated with Divyaan League, which is for differently able to even doing grassroots initiated for the sport like ultimate frisbee, which currently is not an American sport, but it has really helped us transform people as far as sportsmanship, spirit of the game is concerned and the quality of life. Yes, viewership and those things are important to bring in that aspiration for them to join themselves. Having said that, I can initiate it at the grassroots. Also bringing marketing as an opportunity to connect directly with the communities and sports to help them grow and develop as healthier and fitter human beings. Right, right. Mr. Ghaji has also said that sports, the loyalty that you witness in sports doesn't exist in many other, you know, kind of, I will call in this case, programming. Do you want to agree with it? Second is how can others sporting, you know, genres become more important? What should they do in your view to get this monopoly of cricket that we see these days? Right, so yes, of course sports and I briefly touched upon that in the last question. Sports has loyal fans, right? And that's not going to go away anytime soon, you know, because I mean, let's face it, cricket has been around for more than 100 years, right? My dad, me and my son, all three sit in front of the TV and watch IPL, right? So that's that kind of loyalty towards sports and cricket is never going to go away. As to your second question of what other sports can do, that's honestly a tough one, because you've seen that and it's very impressive and encouraging that big corporates have also supported leagues like ISL and PKL and Starsports has taken such a huge initiative to promote these games over the last four, maybe more years. But unfortunately, the TV are still language, right? I mean, PKL and ISL have what a TV are about 0.04 at best, whereas an IPL is at five or six. So to build that, it's going to be a tough one, but I think it has to be ground up, right? You have to start from schools and colleges and you're seeing that in bits and pieces in some major metro cities to start with among the school kids, but it has to spread to tier two towns and you have to take the young generation along for you to build on any particular sport. We ourselves, we count among our brand ambassadors, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya and we have a time with Chennai Super Kings as well. But by the way, globally we are also associated with Manchester United and we tried doing some stuff with Manchester United on ground as well as on air here. It's not going to give you the same dessert, unfortunately, right? So globally, of course, it's a great association to have and in India also we leverage it and we do talk to Manchester United fans and we have had good response. We've spoken, our content has been more fan-centric when it comes to Manchester United. So we had something interesting called a chief fan officer who thought fans help to be the perfect fan. So that kind of stuff needs to continue and like I said, you have to build a sport ground level up right from schools and colleges. Right. You know, I mean, I was just reading a lot of people in this context, you know, what has happened nowadays saying that, you know, the sports is continuing and there's pandemic around and there's another section of thought with things that is so important. A lot of people who are recovering, you know, they're finding so less in this. Just come to you, Mr. Mehta. Is there a playbook, you know, to deriving the most out of, you know, spending on sports? Is there a, are there steps that, I mean, we've seen Baiju's association with cricket. What are the ways one can amplify and get the maximum out of it? Any of you? Yeah. So see that all that depends upon that how much, what is the scale of your sponsorship or association? One, B is your understanding of your consumer and the sport and how that can be met. And C, do you have the money after doing the first part to support it? If you're able to have all these things as a stigma, then you can do multiple stuff. If you look at international sports, whether it is the FIFA events or the ICC events, the amount of excitement and engagement will create outside the stadium. Unfortunately, in India, we don't have that level of infrastructure where we can have fan zones created. We do it outside the stadium. Yeah. Well, you can do that if provided, if you believe that this is going to help you. It costs money, it takes effort and time. So it's completely dependent upon that, what you want to do. And if you have the investments, then do it well. There is no point being penny wise, palm foolish, at least as for sports and activating and leveraging sports. Right. Mr. Steve, your thoughts, how to derive the maximum out of, you know, using sports as a platform to reach out to your consumers. So I think the ironic thing about sports as a marketing platform is obviously, given the growing viewership, you have a bunch of brands who are now invested in some sport or the other. Because of that, obviously, there is a barrage of content and advertising targeted towards these sports consumers. And because of that, I think it's important to be 100% clear that when you communicate with the sports fan, what you say and how you say it is extremely important. And if you're not doing something that's very different or disruptive, you're not going to stand out compared to, you know, the barrage of content that they basically face every day, right? Because everybody is pretty much advertising to the sports fan today. So I think while you plan, you know, how to advertise to them, I think it's extremely important to focus on what you want to say and how you want to say it. I think with the advent of, digital and OTT platforms, I think the one interesting thing that has happened is that we've pretty much broken the fourth wall, right? So the consumer is no longer now a mute spectator. They actually get to participate in the action, right? And if everybody who's been watching the IPL would actually go to Hotstar, you can see consumers actually participate in the excitement, right? You can post selfies of yourself with the team that you're supporting. You can participate in polls. You can write comments. So it's really about how engaging and interactive you can make the experience for the sports fan. I think what's also important to remember is now that, you know, sports stars and cricketers and footballers are a lot more accessible thanks to social media. I think one way that you can really capture the attention of the sports fan is through more authentic conversations and more authentic content, rather than very, you know, branded content or something that, you know, that doesn't really achieve the purpose of associating or making a sports fan feel more connected with the sports or the athlete that they support. So I think it's extremely important to keep these two things in mind. And if you're able to solve for these two, you're really understanding the sports fan and how they behave and what they look for in the sport that they're following. So I think if you can keep these two in mind, that's where you will probably really make a difference and differentiate yourself from, you know, everybody else who's out there who's trying to get, you know, the mind space of a sports fan. And I think I remember reading the stats somewhere that I think the online sports fan right now probably has an attention span of eight seconds, which is lesser than a goldfish, right? A goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds. So it's a task, you know, task for marketers to ensure that even within those eight seconds, they do something that's so different and disruptive that you actually permeate the subconscious of the sports fans. I think that's, according to me, the way to go. And that's what we do with the kind of content and the kind of, you know, engagements that we put out as Fuma. So right. I think it's a challenge to capture and get that attention from consumers in this multi-screen world where they just hop from one platform to another. Coming to you, Ms. Mehra, when you associate with any sporting event, what are the things that you look at, you know, that kind of convinces you that, look, this is what I'm getting out of it? So, Lurel, for as far as sports is concerned, there are big plethora we are connected with. There are grassroots initiatives, like I mentioned, to IPL where we are associated with Mumbai Indians. The IPI is actually, like I said, the transformation. For us, I'll take you from Shreya, the destructive part is to actually help people transform, become active and healthy. So we try and associate where we can encourage or provide platforms and provide us the wrong word, but we can be part of their journey where they love sports, but they don't have option or, you know, we just love to be part and sponsor such associations where there is that need, but there is that desire to play. That's one thing we definitely look at, but when I look at something like Mumbai Indians, we help all our heroes at the Divyang League or Blind Relief where we spoke about them and their stories. We had one of a beautiful kid, Uncle Hama, he's an Arjuna warden. But I guess nobody spoke about him and he got an Arjuna warden when Virat Kohli got. So it gave us an opportunity to bring him out there with the help of Mumbai Indians since the penetration of cricket is really, really nice. We went out and we created a story out there talking about how we play, how we won a gold medal in America for India. So these are the beautiful stories which help us. So yes, we look at something like this and definitely Consumer Association through our contest, we do it on digital platforms to connect with or talk to the players, get an opportunity, play some, you know, fun games and that's another way to connect. But more so importantly, I would say to create platforms and inclusive opportunities for people who want to play. Right. Mr. Gajee, you have heard all your co-panelists speak about it. Tell me your brand story. How do you try to get the maximum out of association and make sure that impact is what you have envisioned. So you know, there are there are two ways to, I mean, look at leveraging a sports association, right? There's a traditional way which will tell you that if, or rather, a sponsorship. There's a traditional way which tells you if you're spending X amount of money on a sponsorship you need to spend 4X or 5X to make sure that you're leveraging that association right. Then you will, let's say if we tie up with the Jenny Super Kings or Mumbai Indians for that matter you then create content around it and spend money on promoting it such that your brand is seen in that context and then you give whatever message you want to give. There is that this another interesting way of looking at it and honestly even I was sort of a bit surprised to read this from one of the marketing experts on Twitter where he talked about the fact that it depends on how high involvement or low involvement your category is, right? If your category is low involvement then all the consumer needs to do is to remember your brand when it's going out to purchase, right? Let me give you an example engine oil fairly low involvement category when you go to a car garage and you hand over your car and the mechanic suggests to you that sir can I use Gulf Oil instead of a typical castrol right? Castrol is a brand that everybody knows so can I use Gulf Oil? Now if you've seen Gulf Oil if you've heard Gulf Oil in the right perspective and in the right context then you're not going to oppose him also because the mechanic is the expert so in such cases all you need to do as a brand is to create awareness in a certain context now we being on the chest of Chennai Super Kings does that for us right? and then you put your money and energy into other things into educating the mechanics for example on how the product is better so that he can sell in turn to the customer right? So it depends on which category you're talking about if it's a high involvement category of course you need to create all that messaging and the brand promise you need to communicate to the consumers if not then I think purely awareness can be your objective spontaneous can be your objective and just a logo on the chest for you. Right Mr Mehta to you this often touched question about attention deficit you know that is there of course and it's every year how do you come to terms with it every time it's a challenge and do you look at the metrics of the campaign that you rolled out the previous year do you have a team in place a research team I mean how do you listen to the consumers and tweak it to make it more engaging So there are two aspects to that Rohil one is the overall ROI measurement unfortunately all these deals are round the year you can't cancel there are penalties so one will take instinctive gut field research based on all the tools and ammunition one needs to have to take a decision must the decision taking you live with it there is nothing you can do I can't cancel the Baiju's jersey sponsorship on the cricket team there is something which is a penalty and all those things so yeah if you have taken it then you live with it but as far as the day to day interaction and engagement with the fan is concerned that's a very significant role in establishing the brand at a level which will drive the core proposition which the brand wants to drive for us it is all about keep learning keep winning so yeah whenever there are winning moments we talk about it there is a lot of content which is there which is shareable there is a lot of content which comes from the authority that one has become a sponsor so there is enough in most scope to drive this there are negative pieces there are positive pieces and that's always going to happen nobody is going to give you all 100 100 and nobody is going to give you 0 on 100 there will be a 90 percent people talking positive and 10 people talking negative so it's all about then managing the expectation ensuring that the positivity or the positive connotation is then carried forward it is shareable create some small snackable content on the spot real-time basis because the shelf life is three hours four hours or one day because an event has happened something has happened in a sports ground and one needs to activate so yeah there is enough and more support infrastructure tech and people to drive that thing but more importantly it is all about responding on time and if one has made a mistake at least on this part and you should be also have the courage to apologize rather than fighting without because you have made a mistake and somebody's arguing to keep on arguing doesn't make sense if you made a mistake apologize move on but if you have a good content it's very very important that you amplify it and try to spread it right right miss such that you know there is behavioral shift that happens is a cyclic behavioral shift that consumers undergo you know that's what you know some marketing has point out to so how do you one keep track of that and second make it more engaging and you know make sure that they watch your campaigns you know they are there so I think in terms of you know shifts I think the rate at which consumer behavior changes now is much faster than it used to be and I think it's important to keep a track of changes at literally a weekly level right and this is something that we've seen in the pandemic happen in a very very strong way you know literally behavior on the platform shifts what platforms you choose to you know be present on what type of content you choose to engage with completely ship spaces the situation right and that's more relevant now I would say than ever given that we're in the middle of a pandemic the kind of content that consumers want to see now and the messaging that they want to see from brands is very different than what it would have been were we not in the middle of a situation as we are now right so I think the first is to always keep you know an eye on the consumer pulse understand what the consumer really wants to hear from you in the moment and respond accordingly that's when you really gain consumer trust that's when you really gain consumer attention rather than just going ahead with you know the content that you planned originally so I think being extremely agile shifting to how you know the consumers reacting responding in the moment is extremely critical and you know you have to be willing to sort of step back and change what you're communicating in the moment so I think that's one I think the second is of course you have to put out content that really resonates with the consumer right so something that I mentioned earlier as well I think authentic conversation seeing aside to the people that they idealize that they would have not seen before being made to feel like you are a part of the conversation you are an important member of the ecosystem I think that's extremely critical as well because you know like I said with the advent of social media consumers are no longer just mute spectators right they are pretty much participants in this ecosystem as well and giving them that opportunity to participate then becomes another way to sort of you know engage with them in a much stronger way and ensure that you've got their undivided attention that being said I think I will just sign this off with you know in the current situation that we're in I think the best thing that brands can do is to realize when not to advertise right I think there's a point where you need to sort of step back and say hey at this point this is not relevant so no matter how cool my content is or how exciting my campaign is this is not the right moment right and I think timing especially in a situation like this becomes super, super critical as well. Right very valid points raised and I have 5 minutes left in fact 4 minutes I want to come quickly to Ms Mehra and Mr Gejhi tell me what taking from it from where Ms Saste left it you know to make it more contextual for example we had our original content planned and something happened you know and now when we look at it maybe it appears very different how are brands now coming to terms with it first I mean this question to you Ms Mehra I mean the context has changed a little bit not a little bit a lot actually actually I think it's when it comes to being a marketer we are humans first we are also there at the receiving end and I think the perception the change we all are part of it being compassionate coming from what we also personally experience is something that one has to take into consideration while doing anything Shreya right we mentioned we should be sensitive as far as the content is concerned but you know the shift definitely is something which we all are part of so we know the shift happens because we all are at the receiving end for something or the other and I think that understanding that compassion when that is involved empathy for the consumer is there the content is I think easily manageable and the platform and where to advertise and when and one more thing I want to mention here is actually talking about sports or being supporting sports during pandemic time it is not such a bad thing because there is a bigger pandemic which may spread which is fear and which one should be more worried about and rather than spreading fear we should come together work together and fight it with more not with you but with more strength and I think that plays an important role and I think sports bring that lightness to life so that is pretty much my perfect and final words from you Mr. Gayjee how do marketers become agile of course they have to be but how do they tweak when for example what 10 days back it was a different messaging a different situation and suddenly you are in a different environment how can marketers quickly tweak address this and is there a way to address such a crisis when your original messaging is already in place I think the most important thing for marketer is to listen it sounds surprising because marketers are used to talking and communicating one way to their consumers but I think listening is probably more important because you need to continuously understand the pulse of the consumer now let's take the example over the last one year last April May June there was the first wave of Covid IPL was scheduled then it was cancelled all the brands cancelled their advertising saying this is not the right time and that was the right thing to do come November December things had started to get a little better the first wave had started sort of dying down almost and IPL actually then people had doubts about whether even then IPL should be conducted or not but it came as actually a glimmer of hope if you see the TBR's 2020 IPL actually performed better than 2019 IPL and by quite a few points so actually people appreciated that because it was what we also don't talk about in such situations is the mental health parameter yes there is Covid but also when you're cooped up at home all day long working unseemly hours ungodly hours you need an outlet of relief and sometimes sports can actually be that outlet sports can be that outlet even humour can be that outlet for that matter now again the situation has changed with the second wave so Shreya rightly mentioned that you should also know when not to advertise when not to talk about your brand and you just need to be sensitive about these things as a marketer even if your content is ready and if it doesn't suit the current context then you need to know that you have to pull it out and maybe work on something else that is a little more sympathetic empathetic towards the consumer at the same time not seeming a force fit with regards to the brand and the brand promise that you have I think once you listen to the consumer really are aware of what's happening on ground then these decisions become easier for you as a marketer absolutely and I'm completely out of time and thank you so much for joining us even in this difficult time that we are in and stay safe and stay strong thank you over to you Babna thank you so much for moderating us thank you