Sponsorship: Venky’s 20/20 vision

They say hindsight is 20/20 vision. Everyone is wondering how come the now remarkable T&T Cricket team went to India for the Champions League  20/20 sans a sponsor.  A T&T sponsor that is.  Well sponsorship of teams in tournaments like this probably starts at several hundred thousand US dollars.  So you need a sponsor with big bucks or one with big faith or both.

The Venky’s  Marketing Manager’s Vision

What did Venky’s see that our Tourist Board or TSTT didn’t?  Well Venky’s operates in a very large market with 1.2 billion people compared to our 1.3 million.  So they probably have more scale than our guys.  And it’s owner-operated so they have a flatter organisation. The decision to sponsor these minnows from the Caribbean probably went something like this.  “Chief we can get into the Champions League at a steal because the steel band boys don’t have a sponsor”, said the Marketing Manager.  The Chief probably said something like “Are they any good or will they bring down our name?”  And the MM probably replied “Well I have a DVD of them playing and they beat some big English teams recently and also all the other islands in the Caribbean.  And this is the same place that Brian Lara comes from so they can’t be all that bad?”  Then the chief probably said “Ok, and let’s make sure and get them to do some appearances for us while they are here.”

© Global Cricket Ventures-BCCI

Well to cut a long story short, that Venky’s MM is probably counting his bonus already.  What Venky’s saw was a story. The David and Goliath story- that’s always a compelling one.  Their passion for cricket gave them hope and this Calypso Cricket team was going to get them into the game.   And I imagine the price was right given that it was not a team with Brett Lee and the like.  What was the worse thing that could have happened?  They lose their first 2 games and Venky’s figured with the TV exposure of their name plus any press that they would have gotten a fair ROI.

Local Companies’ Sponsorship Limitations

Our Tourist Board and TSTT did not have the same situation.  For one, we are passionate about cricket, however no where close to being as fanatical as the Indians.  So we could not see this coming because our decision was based more on logic than passion.  The other biggie is scale.  It takes a lot of our dollars to get involved and the ROI becomes a tough hurdle.

What we need is government policy that overrides ROI and sponsorship automatically kicks in once we‘re talking TV audience in the bazillions regardless of the sporting or entertainment event.  This can be done with the involvement of local private enterprise; with government leading the way and topping up the latter’s contribution if they don’t want to go it alone.

That Venky’s Marketing Manager is a hero now.  Talk about 20/20 vision!

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