Chennai Super Kings: The Roar Gets Louder

Chennai Super Kings: The Roar Gets LouderEVENT FORMATPRELIMINARY ROUND1. Analyze the given case carefully and come up with a summarized presentation based on thedeliverables mentioned.2. The submission should be in the form of a PowerPoint presentation not exceeding 10 slidesincluding the cover slide and Appendix if any.3. Submission Link: https://goo.gl/forms/Uy14M4mrZxrMgtSJ2FINAL ROUNDBased on the submissions, the top 5 teams will be shortlisted and invited to IIM Kozhikode (during 3rd- 5th November) to present their solution to a panel of judges. Exact dates of the final round will becommunicated to the shortlisted teams at a later point in time.PRIZE MONEYFIRST PRIZE: INR 70,000SECOND PRIZE: INR 40,000CASEChennai Super Kings in 2018: Growing and Leveraging Brand EquityChennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), the old warhorses are back into the fray for the nextseason of IPL after serving the ban for 2 years. Chennai Super Kings have been the most consistent teamin IPL history reaching the qualifiers on all 8 occasions (2008-15) it participated in and winning the crownon 2 occasions (2010, 2011).With the ban being lifted in July 2017, CSK is looking forward to rekindling the old spirit of ruthlessdominance and entertaining cricket in the 11th avatar of IPL. Mr. George John, Chennai Super KingsDirector, in an interview with The New Indian Express, attributed the consistency and success to the coregroup players and support staff who were retained by the management and formed the bedrock of theteam. He further made his intentions clear about getting back as many players as possible and going allout in signing M S Dhoni in the player auctions scheduled in February, 2018.

The consistency, flamboyant cricket and the on-field charisma of the players have transcended bordersand attracted cricket fans across the country. The on-field cricketing excellence was well complementedby off-field campaigns and events to engage the fans and build a brand that stood for quality, fitness andstyle.In that light, CSK wishes to draw from its glorious history of innovative fan engagement to rejuvenate thebrand going forward.Fan Engagement Initiatives over the YearsChennai Super Kings was the first and only IPL team to crowdsource its name. It conducted apromotional naming contest before the start of the season in 2008. The name Chennai Super Kings waszeroed in from a whooping number of 25000 entries. CSK has tried to engage with its fan base in uniqueways to ensure that the brand remains top of mind throughout the year. The team launched its own fanloyal program in the form of Kings Club on November 2008. The Kings Club is CSK’s official clubmembership program for adults and children. The members enjoyed discount on tickets, autographedmemorabilia, access to premium tickets and parking space, and even a chance to attend the officialteam party.CSK launched its CSK Junior team hunt for kids between 8-12 years of age on February 2009. The ‘WhistlePodu’ Campaign was launched on April 2009, to give an in stadia experience for its fans. Whistle poduremains the most widely popular team anthem for any IPL team till date, generating the maximum no.of fan made videos. A comic series named Chennai Super Komics was launched by CSK for schoolchildren. Post season 4 exclusive CSK store was set up at the Chennai Airport, and with Café Coffee Daythey set up ‘CSK zones' in major cities. They also started Junior Super Kings, an inter-school crickettournament for high school students to give them an opportunity to play cricket at the highest level.The winners of the inaugural year were not only given an opportunity to be mentored by the coachingteam of CSK, they also played an international match with a visiting Under 19 team from New Zealand.In view of its popular response, the Jr. Super Kings continues to this date (2016), to include not justschools in Chennai, but has been taken to the districts as well with 152 teams competing with eachother across 4 phases.CSK has also made conscious efforts to be engaged in all sports popular in Tamil Nadu includingsponsoring the Chennai Marathon, as well as an international Chess Championship in the city. In 2013,The Super Kings launched the Super Cup, a multi-sport corporate tournament that saw hugeparticipation from Chennai corporates. Through these efforts CSK was able to gain fan base crossingdemographic and geographical boundaries.Online EngagementContests like “Spot the super king” on Facebook have garnered huge interest among the fans in 2012.CSK’s official website www.chennaisuperkings.com had motley of offerings for fans. From team newsto exclusive memberships and merchandise like T shirts and cricketing gear, it was a veritable treasuretrove for fans. CSK’s official Facebook page with 11,807,067 likes (as on Oct 6th, 2017) is very active all

through the year- posting pictures of players on and off season, celebrating festivals etc. A Super BlogContest was started to actively involve fans and invite them to write blogs on CSK.Post Ban EngagementsThere were no paid campaigns or promotional activities during the period of the ban. On the 1st August2015, some fans got together to host a public protest requesting that the ban on the Super Kings belifted. The on-ground protest and signature campaign resulted in the collection of over 13,000signatures which was then handed over to BCCI by the fans themselves. This was entirely a fan organisedand managed initiative, this was only shared on the Super Kings social media page to help spreadawareness within a wider community of fans.On 5th April 2017, as the 10th edition of IPL commenced, #CSKTheKingOfIPL started trending nationwideorganically. Through the IPL season CSK in various forms saw over 1.5Mn mentions across Facebook,Twitter and Instagram. And on 22nd May at the close of IPL 2017, #ManyHappyReturnsOfCSK startedtrending organically once again.On 14th July, the day the ban was lifted #CSKReturns started trending across social media along with#WhistlePodu. This became viral largely due to the fact that many of the past players including MSDhoni, Hayden and others welcomed the team back on their own social media channels. All of theseconversations trended organically without any media investments by the team.Leveraging CSK Brand EquityThe fan community is very important for any sports franchise. They pour into the stadium in hugenumbers for matches and thereby are one of the most important revenue streams for any franchisee.Since the in-stadia presence is largely limited by the capacity of the stadium and since the gates revenuebecomes a function of the stadium capacity, brands turn to other ways of leveraging the fan community.Larger the fan base, better will be the reach. Hence, they form the bedrock for sponsorships andassociations with other brands. Brands pitch their potential reach as the major selling point to theirsponsors.Given the rather limited nature of gate receipts, brands are increasingly focusing on the latter way ofleveraging the fan community. With the advent of the internet, viewership has reached unprecedentedlevels. The word e-audience refers to the proportion of viewership other than in-stadia presencethrough mediums like the television, internet and radio, franchisees focus on leveraging e-audience.The television and Internet also has a huge psychological influence in persuading a fan to buy the club’smerchandise which opens up additional streams of revenue as well.Traditional Revenue Streams for IPL Teams1. Brand Sponsorships: The IPL franchises generate a chunk of revenue through sponsorships. Topbrands tie-up with the franchises in a quest to provide a much-needed visibility to their brandwith the public by endorsing the names and logos of their brand on team kits and jerseys. The

2.3.4.5.6.7.amount varies significantly as the size or the visibility increases and decreases. Right from the titlesponsors to the ethnic wear partners, teams sign a wide array of deals to keep the cash flowing.It opens up avenues f

in IPL history reaching the qualifiers on all 8 occasions (2008-15) it participated in and winning the crown on 2 occasions (2010, 2011). With the ban being lifted in July 2017, CSK is looking forward to rekindling the old spirit of ruthless dominance and entertaining cricket in the 11th avatar of IPL. Mr. George John, Chennai Super Kings