World Cup 2007: Cricket Connects Customers

It's a challenge for the cricketers, fun for the people, but
revenue for the service providers. Yes, Indian telcos and broadcasters have
spruced up their marketing activities in order to grab their share of customer
engagement and additional revenue streams.

Cricket and other sports are close to several companies'
marketing plans when they make their marketing and sales budget. The reasons are
two-fold. First, cricket in India is like a religion! It draws much more
excitement, passion and fan following than any other sport. Cricket builds bonds
between service providers and customers. And, it brings additional revenues and
visibility for the brand. The games, the companies are playing are plenty.
Mobile service providers, broadcasters, broadband companies, content providers
and gaming portals are talking about their action plan for the World Cup. And,
this year, the number of action-packed initiatives with substantial investments
has gone up and there is an increase in excitement as compared to the previous
World Cup matches-thanks to the flow of funds among the exceedingly demanding
middle class and competition among top telcos. On top of this, India's tele-density
has touched around 17% in 2007 from around 4% in 2001.

The Game Plan

The World Cup offers a huge revenue opportunity through a combination of
relevant promotions and backing it up with good service/content quality. The
huge cricket mania in India has definitely turned the sport into a large
industry in the country. Whoever taps its potential reaps the benefits. Of
course, there is a special price to be paid by customers for all these
action-oriented services, and operators are excited about their plans.

Manoj Kohli, president (Mobility), Bharti Airtel, said
"Cricket and other sports are very close to our heart and are one of our
priorities. Association with the World Cup cricket helps us immensely in
interacting with customers. Beyond revenue generation, engagement with customers
through several interactive activities will benefit both customers and our brand
that has been associating with live sports events. Besides the revenue
opportunity, it also gives service and content providers an opportunity to
delight customers by keeping them updated on what will be the most popular and
publicized event during March-April."

Says Arun Mehra, chief marketing officer, Zapak.com, a
full-service software gaming entertainment company and a part of the Reliance
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group "We are delighted to see the overwhelming
response from customers for our single-player and multi-player cricket games on
our gaming portal. We have crossed one million registered users and one million
pages of viewing a day. During World Cup cricket, the number of page viewing
would go up substantially, thanks to our interactive games."

Cellebrum is offering services in the form of contests and subscription pack. Cricket ka Chausar is one of the contests incorporating the mythological epic Mahabharata into cricket

 

 

 

 

During this World Cup, cricket is poised to harvest major
revenues for the mobile VAS market. "We, at Cellebrum, believe in providing
our subscribers the best of mobile experience in line with their sentiments and
excitement around cricket. Keeping this in mind, we have rolled out various
value added services across different platforms such as cricket games and
contests," Saket Agarwal, COO, Cellebrum, said.

Several companies are providing fans with unique, economical and
effective ways of enjoying the stadium experience from the comfort of their
homes. "We expect phenomenal response during the World Cup which will
further propel us to achieve our target of one million subscribers at the end of
our first year of operations," Vikram Mehra, head, Consumer Marketing, Tata
Sky, said.

Sundaraman K, head of sales, Google India said, "Google
aims to constantly improve its user experience by designing products that make
things easier and deliver better results than what was available before. Cricket
is one of the key passions of users in India and this campaign is designed to
bring people across communities together, offering them a unique cricket
experience across different Google platforms."

Hutch: Official
partner for the cricket event, has introduced a range of different cricket
services for its customers. Hutch customers will now have access to all
the cricketing action on their Hutch phones. Both postpaid and prepaid
customers of Hutch can now get ball-by-ball updates, score updates and
special comments from a cricketing guru Arun Lal, video clips of the
matches, cricket commentary and many more exciting services to keep them
updated on the sport through voice and SMS service. Ball-by-ball and score
updates will also be available in Hindi for Hutch customers with Hindi
compatible phones. In addition, there will be news, trivia and facts to
add to the cricket knowledge bank of customers.

Special cricket downloads
from Planet Hutch are wallpapers, logos, games, cricket, caller tunes,
animations, themes, learn from Rahul Dravid-pre-recorded video clips
with cricketing tips and customers can also get regular updates on all
matches by subscribing to cricket alerts.

Airtel: Apart
from the conventional cricket services like packs, trivia/contests,
multimedia images, statistics, information services like score,
ball-by-ball updates which will be available across all platforms, Airtel's
World Cup initiative is to provide customers statistics/facts in the form
of "did you know" format, Wagon Wheel that depicts the areas of
the ground that a batsman has scored runs from. Facts include records,
while personal likes of Indian players will be added as part of a premium
pack prepared keeping in view the special interest that the World Cup will
generate. Krish Srikkanth's company, krishcricket.com will provide
Airtel clips from famous moments of the 1983 World Cup, Games, ringtones,
wallpapers on cricket and an interactive game with a unique format called
"Captain of Captains". Airtel has also tied up with Mobile ESPN
for clips, videos and contests.

Reliance: Is
offering Sachin Nazara Pack in tie-up with Nazara. Subscribing to the
Sachin Nazara Pack gives customers unlimited free access to all cricket
related services such as hear score updates in Sachin's voice, listen to
expert comments, get SMS score update alerts, download Sachin's
wallpapers and videos, voice your opinion and listen to Sachin. Also, the
customer might get a chance to bowl to Sachin by participating in a
contest.

Besides this, cricket
buffs can catch the cricket fever anywhere on Reliance Mobile World by
buying the match pass and get continuous score updates, check the score on
request, SMS alerts at every wicket, SMS alerts at every five over and
watch all match animations at Rs 25 for a day.

Idea: To
cash in on the World Cup, Idea Cellular has come up with three power packs
with specially designed prices. Rs 199 Complete World Pack includes alerts
for all matches of the World Cup and free live commentary. Rs 99 India
Pack offers alerts for all the matches of the World Cup in which India
plays, the semi finals, final matches and free live commentary. For
customer with Rs 20, the one-day pack will include alerts for the next
match of the World Cup and free live commentary.

Spice: Spice
World Cup Cricket Bonanza includes live cricket update services, which can
be accessed through multiple platforms like IVR, USSD and SMS and charges
for cricket alert packs are Rs 99, Rs 50, and Rs 50 respectively. Spice
subscribers can test their cricketing wits by participating in two new
exciting cricket contests, namely 'Ball vs Bollywood' and 'Who WINS'.
Winners of the 'Ball vs Bollywood' contest will get a chance to win an
all-expense-paid-holiday to Singapore.

What they Offer

Like any other service provider, Zapak.com has also geared up to offer fresh
experiences to customers and has launched a new game called Book Cricket.
Despite a low computer penetration in several parts of the country, Zapak.com is
adding customers in places like Ludhiana, Trichy, Kochi, and Shillong, among
other cities. And this gaming portal is not meant exclusively for kids as the
number of customers the portal is attracting includes all age groups.

Predicta (Predict&Win!) offers participants a chance to predict the winners for various categories and win fabulous prizes. Open to Idea and Reliance subscribers

Content providers do not want to miss the opportunity and they
are cashing in on the opportunities. For instance, Indya.com is the official
website for World Cup cricket. Indya.com's foray into the playing fields of
cricket started last year when it powered the official website for the ICC
Champions Trophy 2006. Moving ahead Indya.com has recently launched the official
website providing an online experience of World Cup to cricket enthusiasts. It
includes live audio and video feed, special columns and commentary by celebrated
warriors of the game, expert analysis of each match and online scorecard with
additional interactive element on the game. Hill Road Media is developing the
content for the website.

Cellebrum is offering services in the form of contests and
subscription pack. Cricket ka Chausar is one of the contests incorporating the
mythological epic Mahabharata into cricket. Contestants are asked cricket
related questions and, if answered correctly, they get a chance to win fabulous
prizes like AC, home theatre, gold necklace and bike. This contest is meant for
Airtel subscribers.

Predicta (Predict&Win!) offers participants a chance to
predict the winners for various categories, eg World Cup winner/daily match
winner/highest wicket taker/man of the tournament etc. If the prediction of the
user matches on-field happenings, they get entry into the lucky draw and a
chance to win fabulous prizes. All Idea and Reliance subscribers can participate
in this contest.

Webaroo, a developer and provider of webpacks, has announced the
launch of its two new cricket related webpacks. The packs, World Cup cricket and
cricket news which are freely available for download to mobiles and PCs, will
provide users the opportunity to get latest information about the tournament.

Chirag Jain, VP, India Operations, Webaroo, says, "Cricket
is a religion in this country and realizing the importance of the game, Webaroo
has launched this exclusive webpack which includes the history around the World
Cup as well as the latest updates on scores and ratings for cricket fans who are
on the move." A webpack is a collection of web pages on a particular topic
and these packs are compiled and cached on the Webaroo server. Users can search
and browse a webpack and get the required information as they would search and
browse online.

Google India has unveiled its cricket World Cup campaign,
offering cricket fans an interactive experience through the Internet. The
campaign will help users write, share, debate about and enjoy the cricket World
Cup through an integrated platform of Google products like Google Desktop,
personalized homepage, Blogger and Orkut through a special landing page. The
platform aims to be a one-stop shop for all information related to the World
Cup, allowing visitors to access regular updates, post individual comments and
analysis of the game.

What's on TV?

Television is still the major medium for cricket fans to view all the
action. Since the current World Cup matches are aired during night hours,
distribution companies have special plans for their customers. A special World
Cup promotional pack from Dish tv comes at Rs 3,990, all-inclusive with six
months subscription. This also includes Dish tv's sports active services free
for the same six months period.

Tata Sky announced a special promotional offer across India for
cricket buffs. Consumers, who purchase Tata Sky by April 15, 2007 will get three
months of free subscription on up to four televisions at their homes. In
addition, 50 subscribers with their families will get a chance to watch the
final with superstar Hrithik Roshan. Apart from this, Tata Sky offers viewers
the option of listening to the commentary in a language of their choice and the
convenience of extracting player statistics and ball trajectory at the press of
a button.

Google India has unveiled its cricket World Cup campaign, offering cricket fans an interactive experience through the Internet. The platform aims to be a one-stop shop for all information related to the World Cup

Connecting at the Cost of Productivity?

Finally, India and other nations are spending valuable time on cricket, the
22-yard game that can make you loose control. Cricket fans are gearing up for 51
games of international cricket that will be played over 39 days. With expanded
live coverage of the games on the Internet, fans will find it easier to watch
more hours than ever before, a cause for concern for employers. Staff
productivity is set to nosedive during the next eight weeks of the cricket World
Cup, according to email and Internet management firm Marshal.

If one in 10 of Australia's 10 mn employed people (according
to the Australian Bureau of Statistics) with an average salary of $27.30 per
hour, spend 30 minutes a day catching up on the World Cup for the 27 working
days, during which the tournament is played, the results will be more than 13.5
mn hours of lost productivity. This will also cost Australian businesses up to
$371 mn in lost productivity. Indian telecom houses are not in a position to
reveal the impact in India, as they are busy preparing their gaming plans for
the World Cup.

When the next World Cup action unfolds in 2011, India will be
proud to talk about a user-base of more than 500 mn, and the games that the
telecom companies play will be on a different turf.

Baburajan K & Sandeep
Budki

baburajank@cybermedia.co.in & sandeepb@cybermedia.co.in