Delhi Daredevils : DARING TO DREAM

GMR owned Delhi Daredevils has come a long way since IPL season one. While
other teams were aggressive about their branding, sponsorship and media
activities right from the first year of the IPL, DD chose to have a slow start
and ultimately banked on the IPL buzz to get the best of allsponsors and
partners. That is what GMRs Delhi Daredevils is cashing on right now. Apart
from straight sponsorship deals, the company has now chosen a hospitality
partner, as well as a healthcare one, amongst others, and has also gone for
merchandising tie-ups. It also explored with sponsors the scope of creating
talent clinics from where local players can be chosen to join the team.

Speaking of sponsorships and partnerships, the Delhi Daredevils team has
entered some very interesting partnerships this year which has bolstered its
technology based media activities. One of the prominent partnerships includes
that of the Idea sponsorship of the Delhi Daredevils team. Idea will launch a
range of value added services for its Delhi customers to bring them closer to
the Delhi Daredevils team members. Idea will also introduce a range of contests
and other customer engagement programs to connect the fans with their favorite
players from Delhi Daredevils. Idea customers will stand a chance to win free
tickets to the most sought after Twenty20 matches of Delhi Daredevils during
Champions League Twenty20, and IPL and will also offer a chance for its
customers to win merchandize and meet the players. After Idea as the telecom
partner, global technology leader Panasonic too has inked an exclusive
sponsorship deal as the Official Electronics Partner with the team. As part of
the partnership, Panasonic would also be setting up large Plasma Panel displays
in the relevant stadiums, throughout the IPL season three league.

Beyond the Field

Another very interesting area that this IPL has forayed into is the
hospitality sector. Delhi Daredevils will open a sports bar at the Capitals
Indira Gandhi International Airport in a move to diversify its revenue base, the
first such venture by an IPL team. The bar will be located at the airports
expansive new Terminal 3, according to B Vanchi, director, GMR Sports, a
subsidiary of GMR Holdings that owns the Delhi franchise and is a majority
stakeholder in airport operator Delhi International Airport, or DIAL. "Our aim
is to launch the bar before the Commonwealth Games in October so that we can
leverage the high traffic the terminal will receive then," says Amrit Mathur,
chief executive of Delhi Daredevils. The new terminal is also slated to be jam
packed with hi-tech airport technology provided by Siemens and Wipro. The sports
bar will also bank on these latest tech features to provide the ultimate
experience to customers.

Reaching Out

Apart from these partnerships, the team has also continued its previous
partnerships to promote its web and mobile presence and connect with fans. The
Delhi Daredevils team has pretty much continued with the same features on its
website as last year. It has an official partnership with Bigadda on the social
networking front, to pull traffic to the teams website. It is also one of the
three teams (apart from Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers) that have tied up
with SMS GupShup, the largest mobile SMS networking community to create a mobile
community called DD, where fans can become members free of cost and actually
interact with the players, coach and the management. SMS GupShup community has
been gaining popularity with more number of members joining the group with every
passing IPL season. Facebook and Twitter have also become popular social
networking sites that have played a key role in the teams web media strategy.
Today the teams Facebook fan base has crossed 4,000 and continues to grow with
every IPL match.

In addition, Delhi Daredevils has also tied up with mig33, an application
that allows mobile users to chat from their mobiles, to launch Cricket FanZone.
Mig33 claims a user base of over 18 mn worldwide, but how popular is it in India
is still unclear. According to Mig33, users will be able to access all the
information that is being distributed in other social networking websites like
ball-by-ball commentary, news updates from the team, etc. SportsMechanics also
has partnered with Delhi Daredevils apart from seven IPL teams to provide mobile
based applications. While SportsMechanics is the official training and sports
analytics partner for the teams, this year it has forayed into technology aimed
at fans. It has come up with features such as Power Play, which is a video score
card that is sent by email and mobile applications such as Free Hits and Cricket
at the Edge, which provide replay features and customized messages. According to
Ramakrishnan, CEO, SportsMechanics, the company is now looking at creating more
fan centric content and services. An example is the new analytical and
simulation tools that are being made available to the users on their mobile. In
addition, the company is also getting in predictive analytic tools even for the
IPL season four auctions that will be held in October this year.

Priya Kekre

priyak@cybermedia.co.in