THE MUDDLED MOTIVE
Like any 21 year old male "engineer", I have been an avid sports follower. From Cricket (goes without saying in our country, not that I am complaining) to Football (EPL, LA LIGA,SERIE A) to Field Hockey(WC, Sultan Azlan Shah, Champions League) to Lawn tennis (The Grand Slams) to Squash.... and the list is endless. Sporting events are an encouragement not only for the players involved and the youngsters ready to follow suite, they are also a source of great financial boom to the firms presenting them.
In this light, the London Olympics 2012 has brought forth an interesting point to chew upon. Like any Indian I was supporting our athletes and praying to the pantheons for their success. When Vijender Singh lost his bout in the quarter final, I felt bad for him. I felt exacerbated when some of the athletes could not even make it to the finals or a "respectable" round exit. With these thoughts in my mind and a lot of grief in my heart I looked upon the island nation Jamaica's success. The Jamaicans had 3 gold medals to their name. I was wondering how such a small nation had conquered the track events at the biggest sporting stage in the world. With such preoccupation I came across an advertisement, the "Hero wali baat, India.. Jeet humare saath, India" campaign by HERO MOTO CORPS. What enthralled me was the conviction with which the singer was demanding a gold medal from the athletes. It suddenly caught my attention. Even I wanted India to win gold medals and not one or two but as many as possible, but why is it that we expect positive results without giving a thought to the abysmal training facilities that are provided to the athletes over the years?
Hero has been a supporter of the "non mainstream or sidelined sports" (if I may put it so,with due respect to them) for quite some time now. The efforts are certainly appreciable and it gives hope that there is somebody willing to extend support for "these" sports. But, by launching an ad campaign and sponsoring the event the purpose is not being solved.
It would have been laudable had Hero provided good training facilities to the athletes over a period of few years, trained them for the Olympics, recorded the training sessions to show the difference their effort had made (for their ad campaigns) and topped it up with a powerful motivational song just before the games.
Airtel has recently launched the "Are you ready to be a rising star" campaign. The timing could not have been better, with the Olympics in progress and the EPL round the corner. What's captivating about this campaign is that the winner of the competition would be sent to the Man U soccer school to become a professional. Again the effort is commendable but a stronger initiative would have been training 30+ or so young players, providing them world class facilities and building a national team for the future. Airtel or for that matter Hero could have and still can easily afford the cost involved to do the same.
These companies could have and still can take such an initiative and reap the financial benefits in the longer run. As a marketing enthusiast I know the kind of BRAND LOYALTY such an initiative's success would bring along. This loyalty could be en cashed by these firms or others wanting to take similar initiatives. After all any firm is in business to make profits and why not!
I would like to quote the theory given by the great intellect, Dr. C.K. Prahlad, "Fortune lies at the bottom of the pyramid." The analogy being that had there been a sports pyramid in India, most of the Olympic sports would have featured at the bottom of that pyramid. It's time someone comes forth and changes this.
No prices for guessing the sport at the top!
