How the IPL is now India's 'Tyohaar'

To assume the eight season of the IPL to be a just a sporting spectacle would be akin to missing the wood for the trees. Sure, there will be the cricket matches that are played, but if you step away from the games and drop the squint, you will behold the IPL as pure marketing magic. Remember, Marketing in the end is pandering to consumers’ needs, wants, and desires! The IPL on its part has gone beyond just gaming to conjuring up a spectacle that bites deep into the basest of human wants and desires.

So if the IPL is not just cricketing action to the frenzied viewership that follows it, what is it about? To figure that out, it’s important to understand what the IPL does to millions of its followers. Again, it’s a shift in perspective that is required so the IPL is not seen merely as a sporting show, but as one that peddles pure entertainment, and that’s slowly but surely creeping and ensconcing itself firmly into the India’s socio-cultural scene. It’s no wonder then brands trucking on the IPL bandwagon including its title sponsor Pepsi are heralding the arrival of the 8^th season with a ’Kyunki Aa Raha Hai India Ka Tyohaar!’. So now the IPL is being officially positioned as ‘India’s tyohaar’, or ‘India’s festival’! Note, that’s part of the marketing magic I was talking about! The numbers too bear testimony to the growing habitual popularity of the IPL. Last season, IPL’s reach in India touched 560 million, and this season as a result, the brand is expected to mop up revenues to the tune of Rs. 950 crores.

So what is the IPL conjuring up that is making it a part and parcel of India’s socio-cultural lore? Here are four things the IPL is doing that is getting Indians engaged, lock, stock and barrel -

1. Enabling Conversations – Everything the IPL does, before, during, and after the event is done loud and in the public eye. So the auction that includes Bollywood celebrities, the team selection, and arrival of foreign players, the press conferences, and even the spats are all intentionally displayed in the public square via superb media management. As a result at a base level the IPL starts and keeps a conversation going amongst its die-hard followers for the time it’s around. Stuck to cubicles in their everyday lives the otherwise bored followership now tunes in to participate in IPL enabled conversations of their own making!

2. Creating Communities – The IPL does a smart job as a creator of ‘artificial communities’. Based on team and player loyalties, cohorts are formed across the country. These cohorts consist of fans both in the stadiums and on the outside swearing by their respective teams. The affiliations so formed are light hearted and nothing like the patriotic fervour driven banding together that’s seen when it’s the national team that’s playing. In the case of IPL communities, the tone and tenor of the affiliations have more to do with fun, and are mostly playful in nature. This is best witnessed in the within-cohort and across-cohort conversations.

3. Brandishing Identities – The IPL gives its fans the perfect opportunity to construct and brandish identities via affiliations to the teams in the ring. The teams too have capitalised on this desire for image-display by engaging with their fans. So a Kolkata Knight Riders tweet –

Prove you're a #KKRazy fan! Send in your pictures with the above hashtag, and tell us why you're a KKR fan! Start now!

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 6, 2015

To which Manish Agarwal, a KKR fan replies,

@KKRiders Yes I am #KKRazy fan because KKR is my team - the team of City of Joy pic.twitter.com/QWAYZ3UqDl

— Manish Agarwal (@007manish007) April 6, 2015

4. Peddling Revelry – To its followers in India, IPL is unrestrained merry making. Amidst the cricket played in stadiums, there are the cheerleaders and the fireworks, there are movie stars in the stands, and then there’s an atmosphere of unbridled merriment. IPL comes across less like a sacred sporting event, and more like a boisterous jamboree. Such a carnival like atmosphere that’s peddled inside the stadium is pure marketing aimed at giving IPL followers a chance to de-stress and enjoy a game that’s nowhere near its puritan best. It’s no wonder then the IPL has raised the hackles of those who follow the sport with a puritanical zeal. The latter complain and call the IPL a non-cricketing event. Truth is, they are right! What they obviously missed is that such a breakaway from what is pure cricket is by design!

Here’s a note of caution. What the IPL must worry about for the future is what all brands must spend time pondering on. That of consumer and viewer fatigue. Over time, every marketing solution loses relevance because a better one pops out of the woodwork pandering to consumer wants and desires with a superior proposition. For now, the IPL seems an unchallenged indulgence to its followers. That’s because the people behind this spectacle have constructed a pure entertainment product that’s captured and kept the imagination of its followers.
For now guess what, there’s much all of us can learn from such an abandonment of puritanism!

(Ray Titus is Professor of Marketing & Strategy at the Alliance School of Business, Bangalore. He is also the author of the book, 'Yuva India: Consumption & Lifestyle Choices a Young India'. )