Sachin Tendulkar - Don Brandman!
Two press conferences in a space of 45 minutes is not something one does often. Well, if it is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, anything is possible. The Master Blaster is the new brand man of Indian cricket.
The buzz in the big ad world is that Tendulkar’s brand value, just like his batting form, has been skyrocketing in recent times. With the maestro set to scale new highs in his career — 50 Test and 100 international centuries beckon — and the World Cup round the corner, he could, perhaps, be addressing more and more press conferences in a shorter span of time. There could soon be long queue of corporates outside his house.
Recent reports have suggested that MS Dhoni signed a Rs180-crore deal with a celebrity management company. The India skipper also has more than 20 brands under his belt, but the value per endorsement is believed to be higher in Tendulkar’s case.
“I do believe Sachin has been the benchmark in the arena of player endorsements and has balanced his cricket, personal life and commercial interests exceptionally! Every brand he works with has always said he has delivered the highest level of commitment and professionalism to his associations,” says Harish Krishnamachar of World Sports Group, Tendulkar’s managers.
Currently, Tendulkar has 14 endorsements and the number will only rise in the months to come. Agents will obviously not speak about Tendulkar’s brand value in figures, but one gets to understand it is somewhere between Rs6 and 7 crore per endorsement.
For the record, the brands he endorses are Aviva, Canon, RBS, Toshiba, Audemar Piguet, Boost, ITC, Future Group, Reynolds, Jaypee, Luminous, Ujala, Adidas and Amit Enterprises. Throughout his career, Tendulkar has maintained the range. “It has always been between 12 and 15 brands through his career. The numbers have not changed significantly,” points out Krishnamachar.
Tendulkar has been selective in picking his brands. Currently, his endorsements range from electronics to real estate to banking and insurance. He has not been high on FMCG. “His choice of endorsements is reflective of life,” says Krishnamachar. “We don’t agree to any product before taking Sachin’s consent.”
On Saturday, Tendulkar inked a three-year contract with Pune-based Amit Enterprises Housing Ltd but the promoters revealed their desire to make it a lifelong association. The prolific batsman, however, never forgets that he is a cricketer first. The rest, like Sunil Gavaskar has often said, has come because of cricket.
At the press conferences, it was Tendulkar the cricketer than Tendulkar the brand ambassador who could be seen. He flatly denied that his decision not to play in the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and Australia at home was a pre-determined one. He also said he knows how to adjust to various formats of the game. “My kit always contained coloured pads,” Tendulkar said, at the first media conference.
On one occasion, he ticked off a scribe who told him that he gets nervous in the 90s. “First you tell me what’s your name.” Tendulkar then ‘advised’ him to “take a closer look at my international career. I have 95 international records. I play according to my style, not yours”.
