S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila may have failed a cricket worshiping nation, but have they undone the big bucks of marketers riding on IPL?
There is no doubt that the Indian Premier League is about the money first and the cricket later. But has the money brought into it by splurging brands been undone by the perils of big money?
Rajesh a resident of New Delhi spends his evenings with his family watching matches. But now after hearing about the Spot Fixing scam, he says there is really no point watching it. Similarly Preeti another young tech savvy individual thinks watching IPL is a waste of time.
While the entertainment might have faded for few, but did IPL really loose its sheen due to spot fixing. I had my doubts this season looking at the high number of last minute finishes this season. These last minute finishes did although did pump in dopamine into the Indian social networking audience.
Here is a look.
The focus has shifted from IPL - The Game, to IPL - The Fixed Game. While brands had spent on IPL- The Cricketing Game, which is being aired on Set Max, the spot fixing scam has made people switch to watch the proceedings of IPL - The Fixed Game, which is airing on News Channels.
After all the attention span of people is limited. The controversy leads people to switch from the Game (where brands are) to News Channels (where controversies are). A direct impact has been the decline in conversations around IPL and an increase in conversations around controversy and Sreesanth.
Considering the big budgets, many brands and the resultant clutter, topped by controversy, I have my doubts over IPL still being a useful platform to splurge their annual marketing budgets.