This IPL, sms your coaching tips to SRK Scoring a goal
Ties up with his team’s principle sponsor Nokia to receive feedback
The third season of IPL is just round the corner and Shah Rukh Khan plans to raise the excitement even further with a new campaign centres around its principle sponsor Nokia. Fans of Kolkata Knight Riders can send an SMS to 9664555555 with their coaching tips out of which the best ones will be implemented by the team’s new coach Dave Whatmore.
Expectedly, the campaign is a witty retort that is aimed at keeping KKR’s drubbing in the previous editions of IPL in mind. “India is a cricket crazy country and KKR fans have always had something or the other to tell us. This seemed like a perfect platform for sharing those concerns with us,” Khan said at the launch of the campaign called Main Bhi Coach.
Consumers can send advice and tips to the KRR team on strategy, line-up, tactics, style and almost anything that they believe will prove to be important to help KKR lift the IPL trophy this year. The consumer campaign is essentially an interactive channel that Khan hopes will find enough eyeballs by dangling the carrot of influencing team decisions and being a part of the action on the pitch. Besides, the winning entries will also get tangible exciting prizes with the biggest gift being the opportunity to spend time with Khan in the team dugout. “I’ve received angry messages and profanities after our meager performance in the last couple of seasons so I am hoping people will respond with useful suggestions with this service. I keep all the messages I get though,” Khan said jestfully, even reading out a few hilarious SMSes.
Nokia India Vice President and Managing Director D. Shivakumar seemed confident that the campaign would get lakhs of SMSes and said that the infrastructure for the campaign was already in place. “Shah Rukh Khan has aligned cricket with entertainment wonderfully. Almost 30 per cent of the crowd in Eden Gardens comprises of women and children and they generally come to watch Shah Rukh.
Users, who send sensible and frequent updates can add up a sizeable number of points to win prizes too. “A minimum 100 points gets the user a KKR
T-shirt while the maximum 400 points allows the winner to be at the toss during a KKR game,” Shivakumar said.
Castrol India’s brand ambassador John Abraham readies to take 50 winners to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup in June
It has been called the oldest sport in the history of mankind. The World Cup, held every four years, is the single biggest sporting event held, even surpassing the Olympics. In India, ruffian street fighters training under hardened coaches across the Konkan beach stretch and North East India go into auto-ecstasy mode. The FIFA World Cup is truly a spectacle to behold.
This year, 50 lucky winners will be able to travel to South Africa, the venue of the football world cup, with self-confessed football lover John Abraham as part of a promotional event organised by Castrol India, which Abraham endorses. The parent company, Castrol, is an official FIFA World Cup sponsor and besides the 2010 Cup, the company will also sponsor the UEFA Euro 2012 and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
Customers who buy any Castrol product between now and April 15 stand a chance to travel with Abraham and watch a live match in the rainbow country. Giriraj Bagri, Vice President - Marketing, Castrol India said, “We want to convert India from a cricket crazy to a football crazy country. John Abraham is the perfect vehicle to spearhead this change.” Bagri also showcased the new commercial featuring Abraham that will hit screens in a few days. “We’ll run a 360 degree campaign with preference to television till the middle of April when the contest closes,” he said.
As the actor, who shared the stage with Indian football’s most well-known face Baichung Bhutia said, “We need at least 11 Baichung Bhutias to reach the World Cup. I think there’s at least 15 years to go before we get there.” When asked if his association with Castrol and Bhutia had helped him understand the vagaries of Indian football, Abraham vaguely replied that the motor oil company had big plans for the future. Bagri himself confided to Screen that the company was looking to promote the sport first and then think about pumping money into it. “Our commitment to the game is long-term,” he assured.
Abraham also discussed his favourites for the tournament even as Bhutia murmured that he was yet to see a FIFA World Cup match live. “It’s all about peaking at the right time I believe. I would love to see Spain win though. They have always choked on the big stage so I’d like to see them win this time,” he said, while Bhutia stuck safe by picking Brazil as his favourite team to win the tournament. The actor dodged questions on Christiano Ronaldo, once linked with his girlfriend Bipasha Basu admirably. “Ronaldo is a super mascot for Castrol and I not only want to meet him but also get him to come to India. The interest in football will definitely rise if he comes here,” he said.
Abraham confessed to being intrigued while watching a France vs. Italy match in Berlin during the last World Cup and watching a Gujarati fellow from Kenya cheering for Italy. “When I asked him the reason, he said he liked the way the Italians looked,” Abraham said, laughing at the recollection. The actor, who has played a reel-life footballer in the listless Goal, has been a school and college level player, and even represented Bombay District Footbal Association before joining an MBA course. “I don’t regret doing that,” he said, and with good reason. “Schools should recognise sports and football. The administration should change and they should look at the under 12 to under 14 age group to unearth new talent,” he said, outlining the flaws in the “system”.
If only sports administrators took as much interest in Abraham as swooning girls do.
