Brands expenditure on IPL- worth or not

Now that the dust has settled on the third edition of the Indian Premier League — the matches definitely; the controversies might take some more time to die down — it is time to check whether the various marketing and brand-building experiments actually paid off.
Several new formats were tried in IPL3.
For instance, advertisements on the big screen in the stadium were shown also on television in between deliveries. The brands which were seen promoting themselves through this medium were carbon mobile, munch, perk etc. Disruptive brands that interfered with the flow of the game got negative recall. These actually irritated viewers.
A blimp was also sent up at all the stadiums. This helped MRF achieve good brand recall as the comentraters were also made to talk about MRF and link it to the game. Brands that spent large sums of money to advertise during the matches didn’t get the right returns. Brands on T-shirts were lost on viewers — only those worn by the favourite team seemed to register some impact. But in the favourite team also there were so many brands sponsoring each teams that the viewers hardly could remember a couple of major brands. Mumbai Indians had in all 14 brands sponsoring them which formed a clutter. So baring for Videocon and a couple of other brands people hardly remembered any brand.
Outside cricket also the activities which compliment the game vitnessed a lull this season. The cheer girls, who this time wore outfits more suited to conservative Indian sensibilities, failed to make a mark. Though the matches were watched in large numbers and the results were discussed threadbare the following morning, few took part in contests and bought IPL merchandise.
Though IPL3 created a lot of buzz, the engagement was less than desired. The organisers of the tournament as well as brand managers need to rethink the efficacy of such spots. The bbrand managers should be sure of the thing they would want to communicate in the 10 seccond commercial or through the team they are sponsoring or through other branding activities. The money charged by IPL is huge and so more care should be taken regarding the same.