WPL: 'When it comes to women cricketers, we look at what they can bring on the table'
While watching any sporting event, especially cricket, it’s not just the action on-field, that captives the viewer; it’s also the advertisements. Over the last decade or two, many brands - legacy brands as well as new-age brands, have put their money on sporting properties to reach the masses and grab the consumers’ attention - a key challenge for brands is to standout in the clutter. On the other hand, there are brands, which have been associated with cricket for decades and have successfully build their brand salience on the back of cricketing properties.
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One such brand is CEAT Tyres whose partnerships with cricket and other sports spans decades. For eg, CEAT has been an official partner for certain segment at the IPL, such as Strategic Timeout’, with an estimated investment of Rs 240 crore over years. Even if one were to look at cricketing gears, CEAT manufactures and sells cricket bats, kits and protective gear, and has bat sponsorship with cricketers such as Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, Harmanpreet Kaur and Shafali Verma.
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The brand also celebrates the achievements of cricketing legends with the CEAT Cricket Rating (CCR) Awards, which recently its 26th edition. Lakshmi Narayanan B., Chief Marketing Officer, CEAT says, “CEAT’s association with cricket starts way back in 1995, when the CEAT Cricket Rating (CCR) Awards were institutionalized and ever since, the investment in the sport has only gone up. He adds, “One of the things that the brand leveraged powerfully is the salience, not just in the country, but with cricket fans globally. Fans of the game recognize CEAT as a powerful brand in the tyre space. The top-of-the-mind recall and being powerfully associated with the performance on the cricket ground is something that we cherish.” To overcome the clutter during cricket matches, the brand has leveraged the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards and the Strategic Timeout during the IPL Even when one looked at CEAT’s recent IPL campaign, ‘Crafted for the Curious’, the brand leveraged technology, data and innovations. The campaign showcased exotic and breathtaking landscapes followed by a QR code. On scanning the QR code, the viewer could see the location of the campaign. Lakshmi Narayanan B. says, “The campaign was built around scanning a QR code, and you see the location on that particular QR and then you have an access to what is the hidden piece on that particular QR code so you know you see the wonderful location you see a wonderful manoeuvre happening but at the end of the day you want to do it yourself and where exactly does that location fall whether it's accessible to you. On scanning, all the data is provided of the location, Lamayuru in Ladakh. We will soon be unveiling one more place… If you have to truly deliver what the brand stands for, you need do it as a product but also as a brand.” In addition to cricketers Rohit Sharma, Shubham Gill, and Shreyas Iyer, CEAT has also got women cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma and Shefali Verma on board as brand ambassadors. On the association with women cricketers he says, “When it comes to women cricketers, we look at what they can bring on the table. We need their representation as sport (cricket) is growing. The Indian women’s cricket team has been performing well and even the last two seasons of the WPL has also done well. We are also partners with WPL with ‘Strategic Timeout’. We would want a good audience being built there and our consumers to also cherish the sport.” Beyond cricket, CEAT recently announced its partnership with Bayer Leverkusen – the current club champion in the German football league, Bundesliga. Lakshmi Narayanan B., “With Germany being our R&D center, we definitely want to leverage that particular market. We've spread across our investments into football as well. But largely, the sport investment beyond cricket is in the space of a long-term association for a geography or for a particular market.” The first quarter of the current financial year saw IPL and the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. This means that a substantial amount of CEAT’s marketing budget was put in that quarter. Looking ahead, CEAT will continue to sustain its marketing investments across its campaigns, including the ‘Crafted for the Curious’, campaign. He says, “There is a certain willingness to explore and travel more among our customers. The Crafted for the Curious campaign is centered around that. As we travel the journey along with consumers, the sustainability of the campaign and how this campaign evolves in the near future is something that we continue to invest on.” A significant shift in CEAT has been towards the premium model and premiumization. Lakshmi Narayanan B says, “We've been confident on the rural demand and the growth in two-wheeler segment. We have also benefited by the shift towards electric vehicle in scooters, giving us growth as more consumers are adopting EVs. The passenger car is largely driven by the higher vehicles, especially the SUVs and CSUVs, and this shows clear growth opportunities. We see growth opportunities in India and globally, and would like to keep investing on that.”