Cricinfo Case Study

1. Cricinfo Case Study

2. What we intend to cover? • The Sales Process • The Client brief • The Strategy • The product • The Creative process • A look at the campaign creatives • The Support • Campaign Performance • SWOT Analysis • Our Learning's..

3. Brand: Adidas • Product category: Sports shoes & gear • Industry: Sports & Fashion • Campaign Period: 1st February – 31st July 2005 • Target country: India

4. The Sales Process • The Initial Pitch… • Various sponsorship pitches were made to the client regularly • However, the client was reluctant to consider the same. They were not keen on branding & did not believe in Internet as a sales medium either • Client belief “Adidas is a already a big brand & Cricinfo couldn’t much more for it”

5. The Sales Process • The Impediments faced… • No media budget for promotional or brand activities (offline & online) • Preset Notions • Barter deals were the order of the day. • According to them “Cricket beyond TV did not fetch desired eyeballs & TV was too expensive”. • Online Media not considered effective and has no influence on decision making • Hence no monies were assigned for digital media. • Severe adversity against Internet as a Medium • Client Expectations: • Innovative ad tools which is very common in the internet media and is currently being offered by the Indian portals for e.g: Expandable banners, transitions etc (These are not applicable on Cricinfo due to the fact that we work on Iframes)

6. The Sales Process • What clinched the deal ?… • Break Through • Synergized our pitch with the Launch of the new “Sachin Master blaster shoes”. • A clear cut direction to them… “If the campaign does not work within 2 months they can pull it out”.

7. Client Brief • Reinforcing their association with cricket. • Synergy with the Adidas Brand Ambassador “ Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar”. • Campaign to focus on the launch of their new cricket shoes- Sachin Master-blaster Shoes.. • Target Audience – Sports & cricket lovers..Actively into sports : 18 + Male. • Introducing a high end sport shoes to our audiences– Intelligent Shoes

8. The Strategy • Capitalising on the key strengths of our site in order to build a highly valued & rich content oriented product that would be of interest to our audiences and which could also be well associated with the brand • A 360 degree communication plan to promote the brand on the site

9. Cricinfo Strengths • Live scores • Statistics Cricinfo Approach • 360 Degree coverage of the property • Creative Ad-tools • E-Mailers • Contest • Unique Property for Adidas • Sachin Zone • Text Tab link • Periodic Deal Monitoring • Creative click rate • Zone visitors • Regular zone updating

10. The Product • Sachin Zone: • A complete zone on Sachin Tendulkar with a huge archive of statistics & records • To provider greater excitement and build more interactivity, we included a whole lot of exclusive downloads (photographs, Screensavers, e-cards and contests) • Impossible is Nothing zone: • In keeping with the brand communication, an “impossible is nothing” zone featuring other popular sport icons was also created. • Sachin Trivia Contest: • An exciting trivia contest on Sachin Tendulkar was created. This helped us in further building on the association of between Sachin and adidas • Creative Ad Tools: • Brand and promo creatives to effectively promote all the above across our website

11. Creative process • Key focus: • Innovative design in keeping with the core brand values • Cool and fresh design • Good synchronisation between site layout and branding • Impediments : • Absence of a defined creative brief from client • Absence of any support on brand creatives • Constant alterations and revisions in creatives as per the client’s requirements

12. Creative process • The process: • Creating a new zone with complete branding • Creating a look and feel that is a good fit between the requirements of the brand and that of our site design • Creative ad tools for promoting the brand, the zones, and the contests • New and exciting e-mailers from time to time • Constant Improvements: • Constantly innovating on the site design …introduction of a complete flash version of the zone to make the same even more exciting and hip • Regularly updating content and creative designs to keep them fresh and exciting

13. The Sachin Zone Generated 4648 clicks

14. The “impossible is nothing” zone

15. The Sachin trivia contest Generated 20040 clicks

16. The Mailers 500 responses in 15 days

17. The Mailers

18. The Creative ad-tools

19. The Contest promo

21. Launch of the Intelligent Shoe

22. Impossible is Nothing

23. The Support of the team • Implementing the campaign after the deal was signed in co-ordination with Production, Sales team and Agency/Client • Handling issues with creatives in co-ordination with Creative agency/Falk • Efficient Management of the whole activity • Effective inventory planning with peak bursts during match days • Regular monitoring of campaign and tweaking things to better performance • Keeping track of the campaigns on a day to day basis • Sending reports at the end of all India series’ and Key Non-India series’ • Compiling reports at the end of the campaign

24. Campaign performance A whopping 1.16 Lacs clicks delivered in 5 months Sale of 100 adidas shoes @ Rs 10,000 each (absence of any other media activity during this period) Adidas Sachin Microsite (4648 clicks) Sachin Gallery (3350 clicks) Sachin Zone Tab - Sachin Player Microsite (31560 clicks) Adidas.com (2131 clicks) Contest (20040 clicks) Period: Feb 1 – Jul 31

25. SWOT Analysis Strengths • Close to 2 million users from India were exposed to the adidas campaign • Perfect fit between site traffic and brand TG. • High visibility and frequency • Higher brand recall due to relevant product associations through the customized offerings relating to Sachin (Sachin microsite, Sachin contest, Sachin e-mailer, brand IIN microsite etc )who is also the brand ambassador for adidas Weaknesses • Lack of big incentives in the form of high value prizes. • A robust offline media platform supporting the online activity would have helped in building a 360 degree brand message. • . Opportunities Threats • High voltage International Cricket Calendar in 2006. • Opportunity to associate with Big Non-India series and Indian Domestic Cricket and gain a strong foothold in the cricket arena. • Long term association with the sport will enable the brand to ride on cricket by using online as well as offline opportunities. • Added exposure frequency along with traditional media and reinforcing brand alignment in other mass media • The interactivity aspect of the media can also be leveraged to use it as a direct marketing platform and to create specific interest groups. • Opportunity to dominate the Online Cricket platform in India to the exclusion of key competitors in this domain. • Opportunity to dominate the Internet platform to reach the right audience in the most cost effective manner. • Other competing / non-competing brands and categories waiting to grab the opportunity to ride on cricket season and build long term associations. • Over dependence on one player in the cricket team could possibly lead to specific problems. For e.g Sachin’s underperformance, his subsequent injuries and period of inactivity could have possibly created some disappointment amongst his fans and hence a drop in interest levels

26. Learning’s: The Positives • Why it worked? • Brand fit • Timing of the whole campaign coinciding with their new product launch and that of a great cricket season • Good creatives which helped us maintain the brand imagery and thereby assisted in better brand recall • Offline support ( with a good offline media plan) • What we learnt? • Importance of creating innovative products and their effectiveness in building positive brand value and brand awareness • Focusing on strengths of a medium helps in building better strategies • Fresh and creative approach helps in building exciting products for brands which can be later reproduced for other brands in the same categories or with same goals Future deals been worked out..Adidas set as an example