Royal Challengers Bangalore - Vision and Mission

Make cricket a lifestyle sport raising the entertainment bar for the game. WIN IT - the single minded goal for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

IPL Profile: Bangalore Royal Challengers

Owner: Vijay Mallya A beer and airline baron who also owns the Formula 1 team Force India and Kolkatan football sides East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, Mallya bought the Bangalore franchise for a massive $111.6 million. Rated the 42nd richest person in India with a net worth of US$1.2 billion, he receives substantial press coverage that focuses on his lavish parties and his yacht, the Indian Empress.

Coach: Venkatesh Prasad

A former Indian fast bowler of 33 Tests, Prasad has been the national side's bowling coach for the last 12 months. While he oversees net practices and physical aspects, New Zealand legend Martin Crowe has been drafted in as Chief Cricket Officer to deal with strategy as well as marketing and branding. Crowe will also aid the batsmen, but has admitted that Bangalore's tactics will centre around outbowling the opposition.

Captain: Rahul Dravid

Given a big role in the selection and formation of the side, the former India skipper has been working hand-in-hand with Crowe (whom Dravid appointed) to create a thoughtful, regal approach to the campaign.

Squad Rahul Dravid Anil Kumble Jacques Kallis Zaheer Khan Cameron White Wasim Jaffer Dale Steyn Nathan Bracken Shivnarine Chanderpaul Mark Boucher

Misbah-ul-Haq Ross Taylor Abdur Razzak KP Appanna Balachandra Akhil Jagadeesh Arunkumar Bharat Chipli Shreevats Goswami Sunil Joshi Virat Kohli Praveen Kumar Devraj Patil Vinay Kumar

Administration and coaching staff

Front Office:

Owner - UB Group CEO - Brijesh Patel CCO - Martin Crowe Ambassadors -Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Ramya, Upendra

Coaches:

Head Coach- Venkatesh Prasad Assistant Head Coach- Vijay Bharadwaj

Marketing Strategies: Brand Ambassadors: Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Ramya, Upendra Theme Song A theme song called "Thakkath Geete" has been composed in support of the Red & Yellow team, with the help of TV9. Viral Marketing by Royal Challengers, Using Mobile Bluetooth Royal Challengers takes a leaf out of the viral marketeers worldwide. Narasimha Suresh, founder & CEO of TeliBrahma, presented a case study on creating hype & engagement among the people for Royal Challengers, using Bluetooth. The basic idea behind it was to distribute sponsored content among the visitors of an IT Park in

Bengaluru. This helped them to spread awareness and also allowed people to talk about the team. Normal range of Bluetooth is 15 metres. Hence, TeliBrahma decided to conjure up a larger bluetooth zone, called BluZone, at an IT park and 7 different colleges. Everyone within the BluZone had been asked to switch their Bluetooth on so that the firm could distribute IPL related content to every bluetooth enabled mobile, all throughout the events. A networking application had been offered for download, which enabled users to interact and exchange content with each other in the BluZone. Even during the IPL matches in the Chinnaswami Stadium in Bangalore, the whole stadium was converted into a BluZone. When people watch cricket matches on TV, they get a lot of additional information and analysis. But they miss this when they watch a match in a cricket stadium. We wanted to extend the TV experience of a cricket match in a real-time scenario by providing the information and analysis to the audience present in the stadium, said Suresh. This is a great wayof advertising and collecting up the costs incurred, in the process helping the audiences stay in touch with the progress of the match, ball by ball. Various other messages were also sent out to users, inviting them to contests and events sponsored by Britannia & Blackberry.

Content and Mobile flashings provided to the users mobile phones Welcome kit: Welcome kit is delivered to all the users who would turn on the Bluetooth. The kit includes graphically rich content like - curtain raiser for the match that includes pitch report, captain speaks, what experts say and more. The users would also receive greetings for the Royal challengers team. Updates: Mobile updates at the turn of the events during the live match, like Bowler pitch mark, Wagon wheel, Partnership/ scoring patterns and more. Rich videos: Videos delivered include - Wicket packages, Best shots, what we saw in the crowd etc..,

Trivia: Interesting information based on the cricket, IPL and players would be delivered to consumers. Mobile brochure: Delivered to all the users who walk in to the stadium which consists of , Profile of all the players, Fixtures and Highlights of previous matches. Mobile Contests inside the match: Examples include, Player of the team, best dressed spectator and moment of the match. Promotional video Vijay Mallya-owned Bangalore Royal Challengers IPL promotional video includes Bollywood stars Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone with team skipper and icon player Rahul Dravid. (That should be interesting - good boy Rahul Dravid always looks a bit self-conscious and earnest in ad videos.) Kartina Kaif, bollywood actress, is riding a string of light hearted hits in Bollywood, while Deepika Padukone is riding high on the success of Om Shanti Om with SRK. Deepika was recently linked with Yuvraj Singh romantically by the media. Print and Television Advertisement Various advertisements have been used to promote the Royal Challengers Bangalore and to create brand loyalty as well. A TV commercial (with extracts from the music video) went on air on various TV channels during the third test match between India and South Africa in Kanpur. Road Shows and Media Campaigns Road shows are being conducted throughout Karnataka across Mysore, Mandya, Hubli and Bangalore. Other events like meet and greet with players were also held through the country. Royal Challengers Bangalore has tied up with Reebok for sporting gear and Louis Philippe for formal wear. Cheer Leaders After pumping millions into music videos, road shows and media campaigns, the Indian Premier League franchises are now employing American cheerleaders to add to the glitz of the Twenty20 extravaganza. The Vijay Mallya-owned team roped in "Washington Redskins Cheerleaders" to be its official cheerleaders for the first four matches of the tournament. Pompom-wielding cheerleaders from the United States had been seen supporting Bangalore Royal Challengers when boundaries are scored and wickets tumble in their IPL encounters.

 Web Site A web site is also launched to promote the Royal Challengers Bangalore viz. www.royalchallengers.com

Crisis: Under performance has taken RCBs toll. Mallya was earlier suggested by his friends and colleagues that the team chosen by them was not up to the mark for a T 20 game. But Mallya backed the decision of the Captian and CEO. With Charu Sharma as the CEO, Venkatesh Prasad as the coach and Rahul Dravid as the captain, Mallya must have congratulated himself for having in place a winning combination. But this is the world of sports and not business and the best laid plans can come to naught in the face of determined and strong opposition. Halfway through the IPL season, Mallya has found his team sitting at the second last position and the morale of the whole team at rock bottom. This eventually lead to the sacking of CEO. This was a major setback for the team and the crisis started for RCB. Then a blame game started between the owner and team administrator which further lowered the team performance and lead to the negative publicity of the team.

Future strategies: 1) Internal communications should be effective: Synchronization between team owner and team administrators (captain, coach, CEO, etc.) .There should not be any ideological clashes between them. 2) Ticket prices should be affordable and attractive to common people for a 4-5 hours match. The profit should be increased by generating larger volumes than larger profit margins.

3) Multi sponsorship for single elements such as apparels can be used. For example Nike and Pepsi can be co-sponsors for RCB along with UB. This will help them to generate more revenues.

4) Proper utilization of the brand ambassadors. Like RCB needs to make sure that the brand ambassador attends all the matches of the team to boost the morale and attract viewers to the stadium. 5) Dr. Mallya should utilize his beverage users group to increase publicity. He can print stickers of RCBs logo on the beverage packages to attract viewership. 6)Most of the money was spent on acquiring international high bid players and the local budding players were ignored. There should be a proper mix and balance between international players of T20 calibre and also young local players of equal calibre. Presence of international players will attract the sponsors and viewers while the local players would reduce the cost and even they would get a chance to prove their mettle and make a place in Indian squad. 7)And last but by no means the least , the team composition should be well justified as per the T20 format. The game requires young and enthusiastic players. People would want to view and enjoy the matches only if they believe the team is capable of competing with the other teams in T20 format. Even the sponsors are willing to shell out the money for a stronger team. For example the existing team was more a combination of test players which did not suit the T20.