NEW DELHI: Political parties, especially the Congress and its youth icon Rahul Gandhi, are pushing to get a piece of the biggest television show round the corner—the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Congress, which has roped in the country’s biggest media-buying house Group M-owned Mindshare to buy air-time to advertise as a run-up to the elections, is very keen to sign a big advertising deal with IPL broadcaster Sony Entertainment’s SET Max channel.
According to a ruling by the IPL committee inked some time back, political parties can’t advertise on IPL, but an official closely involved with the developments told ET: “Since there is a lot of pressure from political parties to lift the ruling, the IPL committee is relooking at this clause.”
Since now IPL seems well in place despite the home ministry’s original concerns on security, the pressure on the IPL committee to alter its rule is gaining ground.
It is learnt that the Congress wants to spend about Rs 20-25 crore for advertising on SET Max during the IPL alone, which could either be in the form of a bulk ad deal or through spot buys. The party’s total communication spend is about Rs 150-180 crore and it has assigned two agencies—JWT and Crayons—for its communication.
Two officials close to the developments told ET: “The Congress wants to advertise heavily on IPL featuring Rahul Gandhi and other Youth Congress members. They want to project their party as a brand, and since IPL’s TRPs broke records last year, the party believes it’s an ideal platform to reach out to the electorate. They are just waiting to get a clear picture from the IPL management to finalise plans.” IPL CEO Sundar Raman could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.
Sony Entertainment could earn Rs 50-60 crore from election-based advertising by all political parties put together. A Sony official, who did not want to be identified, said: “We are obviously keen to block advertising deals with interested political parties—it would provide incremental revenues at a time when regular advertisers are negotiating hard to extract the most cost-effective ad deals.”
The Congress, which has roped in the country’s biggest media-buying house Group M-owned Mindshare to buy air-time to advertise as a run-up to the elections, is very keen to sign a big advertising deal with IPL broadcaster Sony Entertainment’s SET Max channel.
According to a ruling by the IPL committee inked some time back, political parties can’t advertise on IPL, but an official closely involved with the developments told ET: “Since there is a lot of pressure from political parties to lift the ruling, the IPL committee is relooking at this clause.”
Since now IPL seems well in place despite the home ministry’s original concerns on security, the pressure on the IPL committee to alter its rule is gaining ground.
It is learnt that the Congress wants to spend about Rs 20-25 crore for advertising on SET Max during the IPL alone, which could either be in the form of a bulk ad deal or through spot buys. The party’s total communication spend is about Rs 150-180 crore and it has assigned two agencies—JWT and Crayons—for its communication.
Two officials close to the developments told ET: “The Congress wants to advertise heavily on IPL featuring Rahul Gandhi and other Youth Congress members. They want to project their party as a brand, and since IPL’s TRPs broke records last year, the party believes it’s an ideal platform to reach out to the electorate. They are just waiting to get a clear picture from the IPL management to finalise plans.” IPL CEO Sundar Raman could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.
Sony Entertainment could earn Rs 50-60 crore from election-based advertising by all political parties put together. A Sony official, who did not want to be identified, said: “We are obviously keen to block advertising deals with interested political parties—it would provide incremental revenues at a time when regular advertisers are negotiating hard to extract the most cost-effective ad deals.”
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