Please don't refer to IPL as Pepsi IPL

There will be no entity more appalled by the news of the arrests of Sreesanth and others than the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League, Pepsi. The worry will be exacerbated by the fact that Pepsi’s commitment to the IPL is not just for this year - it’s for the next four years as well.

[caption id=“attachment_794107” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pepsi’s commitment to the IPL is for the next four years. BCCI Image[/caption]

A title sponsor’s dream is that, when they pay for such a right, the property that they have chosen to sponsor is referred to in media and in public conversations in a smooth, easy, comfortable association. It would have been Pepsi’s dream that, whenever there is a newspaper headline which refers to the IPL, it says “Pepsi IPL”; that whenever the tournament logo is used, it is the integrated logo and not the IPL logo alone.

Pepsi’s task, this year, was big, given the investments that DLF had made when they were the title sponsors of the IPL. “DLF IPL” rolled off the tongue easily as fans discussed the tournament or a match. Once it becomes second nature to think of the tournament as the DLF IPL, it is not easy to undo it and get consumers to think of the IPL with Pepsi in place of DLF. Pepsi made investments to achieve just that, and many, including Firstpost, refer to the IPL often as the Pepsi IPL (definitely when the logo is used).

What Pepsi achieved was no small task. Take the case of the Filmfare Awards which, for years, had been sponsored by Lux. Consumers and TV audiences had the ‘Lux Filmfare Awards’ imprinted near indelibly in their minds, so even after Lux pulled out of the relationship and Manikchand stepped in, the event was largely still referred to as the Lux Filmfare awards.

That put’s Pepsi in a painful spot. Having done the hard work in erasing the memory of DLF admirably, they now find themselves in a position where, every single second, they will be hoping that news anchors and newspaper editors refer to the tournament only as ‘IPL’ whenever they refer to the spot-fixing mess.

This is what the BCCI needs to worry about. In a few days, we will know if the spot-fixing saga has negatively affected TV audiences. It is even possible that the attention would actually increase the audience size.

But that would not make those at Pepsi sleep any easier. Till such time as Pepsi’s top brass want the IPL to be referred to as the Pepsi IPL, the IPL brand hurtles down a slippery slope. And, for the moment, there is no sign of the rot being stemmed.

That would be an interesting irony: increased audiences with a deteriorating brand value.