ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Sri Lanka: The loss of a massive marketing opportunity

Overview

The whole world knew way before that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is hosted officially in Sri Lanka, the venue for eleven matches set to be played in various locations. Despite this, there were no efforts on any pre-buzzing marketing opportunities that will really drive the Wonder of Asia forward.

For example, if we take a look at the Olympics Game in London 2012, there is so much of pre-buzz globally with officials, organisations, members, partners, sectors, and the economy as a whole bringing in a whole range of marketing opportunities to London.

Cricket is the national game of Sri Lanka – I mean it’s huge for us – Why didn’t we come up with this sometime back? You may argue that for the fact we recently ended the war, and that the country is just now experiencing the post-war peace in the air – If that’s the case, let me bring some facts for you.

Case of argument

Prior to the newly reformed parliament, there were two ministers involved in Sri Lankan Tourism – we are looking at two numbers here, then couldn’t we have planned out this massive event? The Sri Lankan government has employed several PR companies (reportedly in Britain) of which the names are not being disclosed neither the amounts paid for these PR companies – we all know that it’s hundreds of million bucks just to improve the post-war image of the country.  If this is the case, where is the image building for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011? Why wasn’t there a budget for this event?

This massive event as we all know could’ve brought so much of opportunities into Sri Lanka, and we could’ve experienced a massive number of tourist numbers not only during February and March which are the two months of the Cricket fever – but even way before than this!

Glancing at the latest statistics from the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority we all are aware that there were 700,000 tourists recording a 46.2 percent increase in January 2011 alone. Then there are the industry officials claiming, in January, that the tourism industry will gear up in February with estimated tourist arrivals of 150,000. Ladies and gentlemen, this number is only for the 2011 Cricket World Cup alone with revenue gain of Rs. 200 million.

I am awaiting so much for the statistics for February as it’s yet unavailable on the SLTDA website.  I am eager to see how much arrivals there were in actual, and how much was the real revenue in this case – as to whether it is really Rs. 200 million or much less? We shall await and see.

As a marketer and strategist, I am bringing forward a range of some strategic marketing opportunities that the Sri Lankan Tourism and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 lost.

Events and forums

I see a lot of entertainment events, mostly to do with dance and music, initiated by private entertainers. Keeping these events aside, the most vital is a conference, a summit, a workshop or seminar that is focusing on this massive event opening up a range of marketing and branding opportunities to the members involved as well as the economy as a whole – an ongoing 3-4 days’ workshop or a one day event for worst that bring together senior key executives and other influencing members from various type of sectors such as the hospitality, educational, information technology, entertainment, professional bodies, etc?

Taking at a look at the professional bodies of marketing, whether the national or the international one, why were there no event or a forum on the Cricket World Cup 2011 educating and entertaining massive opportunities and strategies to work this out? Not only these professional bodies; what about Universities and colleges focusing on tourism and hospitality? Where are the Sports associations and clubs in this? Where was the Leo Club that does many activities? Where was everyone and why didn’t this kindle a thought that this will be massive and mutually beneficial?

In my previous article on ‘Sri Lankan Tourism and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: Where is the digital and social strategy?’, I stated why carryother events and forums when you can focus so much on the Cricket that is favouring as well as fevering these days? Why not carry out forums and seminars taking cricketers and asking them to talk about how they marketed themselves to fans? How digital and social media is changing their lifestyle?

Merchandising and branding

Though the world is moving to digital, there is so much of fun and excitement in the traditional merchandising and branding techniques when it comes to events, especially a massive one like the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 – So where was this? There were no initiatives taken by Sri Lankan Tourism, even the organisations involved in printing, advertising and outdoor for example. I recently heard that there were printed umbrellas – but come on, to be honest, who would want this?

I am talking about the t-shirts that should’ve been printed with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Sri Lanka logo? How about printing those in caps and mugs? How about the hand bands which the youth and young adults wear as a style and symbol? I didn’t see any of this – it’s really depressing as to why there were none of this that would increase the presence and branding throughout Sri Lanka?

Think about the vehicle branding – from public transportation buses to the tuk tuks? I mean, beyond this, why not brand a whole train to represent the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 like a banking institution recently did? Where were the vehicle stickers, etc. that will bring in presence in mobility style?

Digital and social media

In my recent article titled ‘Sri Lankan Tourism and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: Where is the digital and social strategy?’ you must have noticed how much of opportunities were missed out in the digital and social world. Increasingly fans and people spend the most of their time social networking and micro-blogging on the range of available platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and much more that many organisations in Sri Lanka are not even aware of! It’s time to do your homework on this; so much of case studies and examples are available on the web!

From the creation of individual cricketer pages and the countries that are playing as a whole through to buzzing up with scores, pictures, videos, articles, interesting insights, and so much more than you could ever think of – I bet you must be really thinking more than this – yes, actually there is so much more. In the article, I have clearly highlighted about the need for a Twitter strategy – In one of my early articles titling ‘Does you organisation give out the kurulu handa?’ – I have outlines ways and processes of going beyond giving out tweets – why not apply same for this event?

This is a huge event for Sri Lanka to really show the Wonder of Asia in the digital world but why didn’t officials and members look into this? I would say really a missed out massive opportunity in a world that is driven by digital travellers and fans.

The Facebook miss-out

Facebook is huge to say in Sri Lanka – people are increasingly spending time on it. Though the frequency of logins and time spent on an average on the site is unavailable to the public, yet there are other statistics which we shall look at.

On the massive event organised on 2 March by SLIM at Galadari bringing in the concept of the ‘mod-tradi’ consumer insight, Shaheen Cader from The Nielsen Company Lanka presented statistics that was provided by me on the whole opportunity for brands in Sri Lanka. Facebook has total 645m+ users globally with the Asia region showing an increased penetration level. Think if Facebook was a country for example? It will be the third largest country in the whole world. Sri Lankan users have increased their presence in this social networking site – a 50.81% penetration of total online population that is 902,460 users as of 1 March 2011 with the user base increasing to 35% from last six months.

As we all know most of the cricket fever comes now from the younger segments – Facebook is just the tool for it – 78% of total users are in this age group from Sri Lanka, that is 18 to 34 years old and also interestingly even 9% of total users are from 35 to 54 years old – cause we know even older people love cricket like crazy. This is the ideal social media tool which should’ve been used, and leveraged upon this – not just the pages you find out there that just give scores and nothing interactive and interesting – I am sure there is no Facebook strategy in place – I have outlined how best to use Facebook for brands and organisations in one of my very early writings on ‘What are Sri Lankan brands doing on Facebook?’ – The step by step approach given there should’ve been considered and used for this massive event.

Research and insights

We marketers understand how much research and insights are in creating and shaping strategies that will bring in real bottom value to organisations and the industry as a whole. With this massive event of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Sri Lanka, why did we fail to carry out surveys in the Bandaranaike International Airport?

When I glanced through the recent survey titled  ‘Foreign visitor opinion and expenditure survey’ initiated by the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) where 5,500 tourists and transit passengers were interviewed by a team competent in English, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hindi and Arabic languages, with the aim of obtaining information on tourist visitor profile, travel behaviour patterns, visitor opinions and expenditure patterns of all tourists and transit passengers according to SLTDA. Why weren’t there initiatives taken to carry out surveys, as we experienced increased tourists numbers in the last few months due to the Cricket World Cup 2011? I am not talking about interviewing as from a research perspective; it is much preferable to hand out short and sweet questionnaire typed leaflet for example.

Asking questions such as, you here for cricket? How many matches are you hoping to visit? Where do you stay in Sri Lanka? Which cricketers do you like the most? Which country do you support in cricket? Are you using social networking sites when you stay at a hotel in Sri Lanka – if so, which one do you visit most? Will you recommend Sri Lanka to your friend and family or relatives?

And even collect email addresses and facebook fan pages, etc. to update and throw out the latest happenings and stuffs in Sri Lanka – why did we miss this out? Haven’t we heard about database marketing – oh come on, this is already dead in most countries.

These are just a very few questions that can bring a lot of insights to improve and the possibility to see where the futuristic marketing lies.

Conclusion

From events and forums, merchandising and branding through to digital and social media, the Facebook opportunity, and increasingly the opportunity for research and insights. This article is filled up with valuable ideas and strategies that will definitely work when applied in the manner recommended – I hope it has to kindle a thought on your mind – and I bet you can think of more than this. Marketers need to rise up for this, and make the voice and educate the economy – marketers can really play a major role in developing and shaping Sri Lanka.

(The writer is an evolving marketer and strategist, and is the world’s youngest ACIM, and provides practices and knowledge on industry, marketing, strategy, communications, digital and social media, and strategic reputation. You can reach him on [email protected] for feedback and services. Browse through his articles on www.thanzyl.com.)