FIFA World Cup | Brand gains of Byju’s will be closely tracked

Industry observers would be watching out for how effective the World Cup sponsorship proves in helping Byju’s carve out a strong presence for itself in global branding lists.

Marketing experts at Indian enterprises are likely to closely track any possible gain in the overall brand strength of Byju’s, pursuant to its official sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup 2022 which started on November 20 in Qatar, to determine the commercial viability of being associated with future editions of football’s biggest tournament.

While addressing leaders of the G20 at Bali on November 15, FIFA President Gianni Infantino asserted that 5 billion people or “more than half the world’s population” would be watching the Qatar World Cup on TV in addition to the three million fans that would “fill the stadiums”.

What industry observers would particularly be watching out for is how effective the World Cup sponsorship proves in helping Byju’s carve out a strong presence for itself in global branding lists, and the benefits that the deal provides the company in terms of entry and scale-up in newer geographies overseas, and in being able to raise funds at more attractive valuations from a fresh lot of investors.

They would also be keeping a close eye on whether the World Cup tie-up has any significant impact in bolstering the international recognition of Byju’s promoters. Any major brand arrangements with top global companies that Byju’s can land courtesy the World Cup association, too, would be something that would be looked at with interest.

On its part, it is more than likely that FIFA itself would undertake a similar assessment of the gains accruing to Byju’s given its own interest in building a strong case that an involvement with the World Cup could have multiple benefits for companies — both brand-wise and business-related. A positive outcome would help football’s global body to convince more new-age companies in future to associate with the World Cup as sponsors and, also, aid FIFA in its efforts to meet the larger goal of raising the “global football GDP” from the current level of around $300 billion.

From an Indian perspective, a manifest improvement in the global visibility of Byju’s may potentially lead to more Indian companies shedding their reticence about becoming official sponsors of global sporting events in times to come. This, in turn, could result in some enterprises seriously considering sponsorship of the 2026 edition in North America.

More Indian companies being open to the idea of being involved with the FIFA World Cup could also have the added benefit of giving the country’s football authorities the confidence to put forward India’s name for hosting the tournament post-2030. Host status would automatically allow India to play in the World Cup. Currently, India occupies the 106th spot in FIFA’s national team rankings.

Prior to Byju’s, only one Indian firm — the erstwhile IT company Satyam — had ever been an official sponsor of a FIFA World Cup. Satyam sponsored the 2010 edition of the tournament held in South Africa. Although the deal with FIFA for the 2010 event was signed by Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju when he was still in charge of the company, the arrangement was continued by the Mahindra Group after it took over Satyam in 2009.

Sumali Moitra is a current affairs commentator. Twitter: @sumalimoitra. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.