Innocean launches sports marketing vertical

Innocean Worldwide India has launched its sports marketing practice in India, and appointed Tarun Chaudhry to head the sports marketing and engagement practice. Chaudhry's last assignment was with Dentsu India as director, sports marketing. 

\On the new vertical, Vivek Srivastava, jt. managing director, Innocean Worldwide India, said, “Innocean will bring to India its global insights and learnings for the benefit of all their clients especially pertinent to leveraging sporting events and creating brand engagement platforms out of them. The function will be headed by specialists who will create an optimum leverage for such investments by our clients. ”

Commenting on his plans and role, Chaudhry, group director sports ,marketing and events, Innocean Worldwide India, added, “I see a tremendous potential for leveraging the existing global tie-ups in various mainstream sports and emerging fields. We will be creating new sports properties that work for Hyundai as well as other clients of Innocean. It’s a hyper active phase for us with Cricket World Cup related activities panning out nationally. A lot of initiatives conceptualised by our teams at the communication  and activation levels are hitting the road every day.”

The announcement comes on the back of their anchor client Hyundai Motor signing up with International Cricket Council (ICC) as their Official Car Partner till 2015. The agency has unveiled multiple consumer engagement initiatives surrounding the World Cup for the brand. Primary among them is the Hyundai Cricket anthem, penned by Saurabh Dasgupta, executive creative director, Innocean Worlwide India. The anthem has been sung by Shaan to a score set by Clinton. 
On the new anthem, Dasgupta, said, “The challenge was to capture the passion of Indians in a real and jingoistic way and make it into a memorable song that has a sublime connect with the brand as well.” 

Along with the anthem, the agency has conceptualised Cricket Fan Parks in the major cities where live screenings, quizzes and games were held, and a unique consumer engagement tour across Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai covering all the dealerships  – The Hyundai First Ball Tour – was also undertaken. At the venue, consumers got to see the official Kookaburra balls that will be handed over to the umpires before the start of play in the inaugural match on February 19, 2011 in Dhaka. 

Chaudhry has 12 years of experience and is a post graduate degree in Sports Administration and Technology from International Academy of Sports Science & Technology Lausanne, Switzerland.