Wary of the impact of controversies surrounding the IPL and cricket fatigue on viewership, broadcaster of the T20 league Max is set to unleash a marketing campaign in a week's time to address these issues, a company official said.
"We will be launching a new marketing campaign for the new season of IPL in a week's time," Max's Marketing and Communication Senior Vice-President Gaurav Seth said.
When asked what would be the theme of the campaign, he said the broadcaster is looking to address issues that are linked with the IPL and criticism around it.
The campaign will be much bigger in terms of the total spends compared to the one last year, Seth added but did not share the financial details.
This year's IPL has been mired in controversy after Sahara withdrew from the ownership of the Pune franchise only to comeback following negotiations with the BCCI.
Only nine teams will play in the tournament, one team less from last year, after the Kochi team was disbanded.
Industry observers also point out that IPL will be up against viewer fatigue and loss of interest in cricket due to team India's poor showing in Australia.
Seth said, however: "We are very bullish about the IPL despite all the talks around it."
Expressing similar sentiments, the digital rights holder of IPL, Times Internet Ltd CEO Rishi Khiani said: "We are expecting around 30-40 per cent increase in our advertising revenues from the league this year."
While he did not share the figures and details, Khiani said the company has already roped in 11 sponsors and is talking to more compared to just six last year.
"We are more bullish about IPL than last year. Last year, we got the rights just two weeks before the start of the tournament but this time we have been working on sponsorships and ad packages for the last three months," he added.
"Last year, we had around 18 million unique visitors on our website, which is now expected to be 25 million," Khiani said.
The tournament, featuring 74 matches, will be played at different venues across India. It begins on April 4 and the final match will be held on May 27.
PTI
 |
                                                                                           |
 |