Sponsoring cricket is about getting right opportunity at right price: Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar

Mastercard, the title sponsor for all international matches held at home, is still evaluating the renewal of its sponsorship deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). “Our sponsorship deal with the BCCI is coming to an end in March 2023. We are assessing whether to renew the deal or look at other opportunities,” Mastercard chief marketing officer Raja Rajamannar told ET.

Mastercard, Rajamannar said, decides its marketing investments based on the size of the opportunity, the price of the opportunity, and the timing. “Cricket has been an area of focus for us. It’s a question of the right opportunity for the right price,” he said.

In September, MasterCard replaced Paytm to become the title sponsor. The company is believed to be paying Rs3.8 crore per match, the same as Paytm.

Rajamannar said the BCCI sponsorship has worked well for Mastercard so far.

A key area for the brand has been women’s cricket, which has seen a sudden spurt in popularity.

“We will continue to be in cricket and there are multiple options that we can always pursue,” he stated.

Despite having a B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) business model, Rajamannar believes that connecting with consumers through marketing is imperative for all brands irrespective of the business model. “B2B, B2C, and B2B2C are actually business models and not marketing models. From a marketing perspective, we have been propounding human-to-human marketing,” Rajamannar said.
Mastercard, which has worked with cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and MS Dhoni, is perceived as a trusted brand among Indians, the executive said. Dhoni is still the brand ambassador for the company.

Speaking about the marketing trends, he said that consumer attention is heavily fragmented due to a high ad-to-content ratio. As a consequence of this, the use of ad blockers will only grow as consumers don’t want to be constantly bombarded with ads. He also expects consumers to move into ad-free spaces to avoid advertising clutter.

Rajamannar stated that India is one of the key priority markets for Mastercard. He added that the country is going to play an even more critical role on the world stage. “It’s a market which is a supercritical market for us not just in terms of market size and consumer potential, but also from creativity and technology perspective,” he said.