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just concluded cricket World Cup. Now, their arch-rivals Coca-Cola and Adidas are all set to steal the show during IPL 4, starting Friday, with new marketing initiatives and star-studded multimedia campaigns. Other sponsor brands like Godrej, PlayUp, Gulf Oil too have elaborate plans to leverage the cricketing event.

Coca-Cola has associated itself with five IPL teams this time — Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders. Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders are older associations. In the last IPL season, Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab were sponsored by Pepsi. Talking about the reasons behind associating with these particular teams, Wasim Basir, director, IMC, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, said, “These markets are extremely important for us. Punjab is our largest market while we are yet to tame the Andhra Pradesh market. Our association with these teams will help us engage better with consumers in these markets.”

The brand is planning a big-ticket TV campaign taking forward its ‘Brrr’ campaign by incorporating key players from these teams like Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan, among others. Apart from TV, the company is giving a major push to its digital initiative and direct contact programme. The brand will create its own ‘Brrr’ squad from among consumers who will generate IPL related content on Coke’s IPL special website Fanstation.com.

The company has increased its marketing spend by about 20-25 per cent over that of last year, and about 25 per cent of the total spend would be made during the tournament. According to industry estimates, the cola major is spending around Rs 50 crore on IPL 4.

Although Adidas was on TV throughout the World Cup, it is planning a much bigger presence and greater brand recall value during IPL 4. “This a big-ticket event for Adidas, as we are the official apparel sponsors for Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians, and have recently signed up with the new IPL team, Sahara Pune Warriors. We will be retailing our jerseys and other merchandise at all Adidas SPCs (sports performance centres) across India,” said a company spokesperson.

Besides retail, the company will focus on social media outreach and ensure more visibility for it TV campaign ‘Bring it on’. The athlete studded campaign will feature Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga and Dwayne Bravo.

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is also betting big on IPL 4 and has tied up with Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians. “We have been associate sponsors for IPL for the last three years and launched the Godrej master brand identity on the IPL platform. This year we have also tied up with Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians for our consumer initiative ‘Godrej Power Play’, a multi-category loyalty programme cutting across all our 90 plus brands,” said GCPL’s executive VP, strategic marketing, Ashutosh Tiwari.

There are brands too exploring strategising how best to leverage their association with IPL. Mobile gaming company PlayUp has tied up with Pune Warriors and Deccan Chargers and is spending Rs 5-7 crore on brand building initiatives during the tournament. “Although our focus will be digital media, we will have presence on TV as well. Our brand ambassador Rohit Sharma will be featured in our brand commercials, but in team specific campaigns we will use different players. The teams we are associating with have some star players like Yuvraj Singh,” said Rajat Kulshrestha, CEO, PlayUp India.

Gulf Oil, which was earlier associated with Kings XI Punjab, has also teamed up with Chennai Super Kings for IPL 4 as official team partner. Said Ravi Chawla, president, lubes business, Gulf Oil India, “It’s a business decision; we wanted to be more visible in south India. Also, the strong performance of the team will give us a better brand recall.”

The company, which has an advertising budget of Rs 25-30 crore, is spending upwards of Rs 10 crore on IPL 4. It plans to launch a multimedia campaign featuring MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina.

(With inputs from Jayashree Maji)