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The consumer has changed; he is unique in his demands.
Added to that is the short attention span which is spelling
disaster for the brands, that invest huge chunks of money
in publicizing their products via various forms of media.
In a media world, where there is a cut-throat competition
among various brands for maximum attention span of the consumers,
the former are increasingly contriving newer ways and means
to approach the targer consumers. Martin Sorrell, CEO of
Wire & Plastic Products Group had ordered WPP to move
away from traditional media of advertising, ensuring that
45-50% of all advertising revenue should henceforth come
in from non-traditional advertising. Sorrell's buzzword
was experiential marketing.
In other words, "looks out for ways in which your
brand can engage with consumers and create a brand experience
with the consumer and that's not something that happens
in an 80-sec ad or a 30-sec TV commercial anymore",
says, Anirban Das Blah, Vice-President, Global Sport India
Pvt. Ltd. The brand managers have come to realize that,
the surest short way to grab the consumer's attention is
by creating experiences for the consumer through entertainment.
Especially, since outside a person's work space and family
space one is not prepared to engage with anyone until and
unless he or she is entertained. Mahesh Ranka, GM of Relay
Worldwide said, "You look at entertainment as a platform
to reach out to customers and sports happens to be the biggest
entertainment platform in the world".
Sports has, over the past couple of years, emerged as complete
entertainment platform competing against other forms, such
as cinema and music. "Sports is the only medium that
is all inclusive, in the sense that you can have a sporting
event and also get coverage on television, print, on radio,
Internet, mobile, etc.; you can create a communication point,
unlike other mediums", says Mahesh Ranka. Moreover,
sports also connect with people at a far more real and emotional
level than a film or music performance can. "It is
the audiences that the brands seek and sports often deliver
to audiences which are difficult or expensive to target
otherwise", says, Prashant Singh, Business Head of
Ogilvy Sport and O&M. Beyond this, sports audiences
have an extraordinary involvement and loyalty to the player
or team that they support and that makes the cost of getting
a message across to the consumer so much cheaper. If you
are a tigerwoods fan, you would not be seen with Adidas,
rather you would only wear Nike, products. A Liverpool fan
would only drink Carlsberg beer and so on".
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