New Delhi: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved is reportedly considering to put in a bid for the title sponsorship for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Earlier last week, the BCCI announced in a statement they are suspending ties with Chinese smartphone company Vivo for this year’s IPL.
“We are considering the IPL title sponsorship for this year, since we want to give the Patanjali brand a global marketing platform,” Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijarawala was quoted as saying to Economic Times. He added that Patanjali is considering making a proposal to the BCCI.
Market watchers believe that the brand lacks the star power of a multinational company. “Patanjali as a title sponsor for IPL will do more for Patanjali than for IPL. While the caste hierarchy among brands could play out, Patanjali owning the title sponsorship would be contextual from a nationalist perspective, since there is an enormous anti-China sentiment prevailing in the country,” the publication brand strategist Harish Bijoor said.
The media buying company trusts IPL to remain a high-visibility property and is likely to mark the return of big numbers in advertising despite being played out of the country and possibly to empty stadiums.
However, Patanjali has to face high competition for getting IPL title sponsorship as brands like Reliance Jio, Amazon, the Tata group, Dream11, Adani group and education start-up Byjus have reportedly been bidding for the IPL sponsorship.
Earlier in June, Patanjali was entangled in controversy after Ramdev declared its newly-launched Coronil kits can cure coronavirus patients, which led to Ayush Ministry directing Patanjali to sell the product only as an immunity booster but not as a cure for COVID-19.
