India’s women players cash in on World Cup glory
The brand value of India’s top women cricketers has gone through the roof following their fairytale World Cup triumph on home soil with top sports marketing experts calling it a “watershed moment" for the sport.
After a hat-trick of defeats nearly derailed their campaign, India stunned the seven-time champion Australia in the semi-finals and outplayed South Africa in the November 2 final to claim their maiden 50-overs World Cup title.
Since that midnight victory in front of a delirious capacity crowd in Navi Mumbai, the phone has not stopped ringing for 36-year-old captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her teammates.
Within hours of the final South African wicket falling, Kaur was beaming from the front pages of newspapers after being unveiled as brand ambassador for a real estate developer.
When batter Harleen Deol playfully asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his skin care routine as he hosted the team, a cosmetic brand swooped in to catch the afterglow.
The brand’s new campaign has Deol, 27, asking everyone their skin care routine before revealing her own choice, and there were no prizes for guessing which one she selected.
Even before the final, a detergent brand turned the photo of 25-year-old batter Jemimah Rodrigues’s mud-splattered shirt into a viral campaign, even if the garment ended up framed, not cleaned.
“It’s a watershed moment for women’s cricket and also women’s sports because now all these girls have become household names," Tuhin Mishra, Managing Director and co-founder of Baseline Ventures, said.
India’s victorious World Cup squad had four players represented by Baseline, including 29-year-old vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and stumper-batter Richa Ghosh, 22.
“We are getting a lot of queries. A lot of offers are coming and in different categories," said Mishra, who is also handling renegotiation requests.
“We’re looking at least at a 20-25% increase, excepting Smriti in whose case it will be even higher. Smriti is an outlier, she’s among the top-most women athletes in the world." Mandhana’s social media footprint – 14 million and climbing – gives brands a ready-made megaphone, while the bright personalities of Rodrigues and Deol amplify their appeal.
BEYOND THE FMCG BOUNDARY
Karan Yadav, Chief Commercial Officer at JSW Sports, confirmed the jump in endorsement values for some of the players they manage, including Rodrigues and India opener Shafali Verma.
The women cricketers, he said, are moving beyond India’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands and entering categories once reserved for the men – mobile phones, two-wheelers, cars and banking.
“After the World Cup, the increase has been at least two to three times, and it started even before India won the World Cup," Yadav said. “It started from the semi-final itself. We closed long-term partnerships after (the) semi-final with Jemi and Shafali. The win just reinforced it."
India’s giant-killing act in the semi against Australia, made possible by a sensational hundred from Rodrigues, may have changed women’s cricket in India forever, he said.
“The semi-final (was) a watershed moment. I think everyone thought it’s going to be Australia in the final," he said.
While male batter Virat Kohli, 37, still lords it over India’s endorsement landscape even in the twilight of his career, Yadav said the World Cup win would give more women a bigger slice of the commercial pie.
“Right now, I see across the board the number of deals would be double for not just the 11 who played the final but all 15 players," he said.
Baseline’s Mishra said brands should commit long-term to individual players to maximise returns.
“If you invest in someone like Smriti, who’s going to play for the next 10-plus years, or in Richa, who’s going to play for the next 15 years, you become part of the journey and part of the success."
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