Pepsi backs IPL: Is this a thumbs down for football?

In March this year, Pepsi surprised the advertising industry with the launch of a new commercial with Ranbir. "Change the game", said Pepsi, tantalizingly hinting at a decided position shift towards football and away from cricket .

"Traditionally, the global cola majors, Pepsi and Coca Cola, have counted on societal trends and popular culture to connect to consumers. If consumers are besotted with films at the moment, so will the colas. If consumers are consumed by cricket, so will the colas.

Jumping onto a bandwagon, however, is expensive. The magic is to anticipate a trend; to be ahead of what will be popular. What such prescience does is to make the exercise cheaper - you get the stars before they are stars, you get consumers involved in a cultural development that is on an upward curve. Your competitor is still stuck in the current fad; your brand cuts the clutter and enjoys whole-hearted attention.

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[caption id="attachment_531296" align="alignleft" width="380"] The biggest gainer could have been football -but only if advertisers like Pepsi and broadcasters like STAR believe consumers are willing to change the game.[/caption]

Yet, it takes courage to break ranks. What happens if you get it wrong," we had asked at that time.

Yesterday's announcement that Pepsi had won the rights to be sponsor of the IPL for five years was demonstration that Pepsi cannot afford to get the punt wrong. "Soft drink giants Pepsi today became the new title sponsors of the cash-rich Indian Premier League after it won the bid for title rights for five years by paying a whopping Rs 396 crore. Pepsi pipped Aircel, which had offered Rs 316 crores, in the bid for the title sponsorship of the Twenty20 tournament," Firstpost reported yesterday.

That their bid was Rs 80 crore more than the nearest bid also shows how risk-averse Pepsi was - they were willing to take no chances on not winning the bid.

Perhaps they learnt from MultiScreen Media, who got pipped at the post by Star when BCCI sold the rights to all India cricket. "STAR's taken a brave, considered bet. Indeed, Multiscreen Media (MSM), who bid marginally less than STAR did (Rs 3,700 crore vis--vis STAR's Rs 3,851 crore) could be kicking themselves for having missed out by just Rs 150 crores - that's about Rs 1.5 crore per match," Firstpost wrote in April.

The STAR bid and the Pepsi win together underline that, in the views of two critical stakeholders of sport, the broadcasters and the advertisers, cricket is still king for the foreseeable future.

The biggest gainer could have been football -but only if advertisers like Pepsi and broadcasters like STAR believe consumers are willing to change the game.

Clearly, for the moment, Pepsi doesn't believe so.