As they say, "reality is a harsh mistress". With only a few more days to go before the curtains come down on the Paris Olympics, India will yet again return with fewer medals than was touted when the country's 100-plus contingent left home shores.
India has so far won three medals — all of them Bronze, and all in shooting. Out of those three, shooter Manu Bhaker has played a role in two, winning a medal each in the 10m air pistol individual and team events.
Bhaker's results offer a perfect segue to the agency that represents the star shooter - iOS Sports & Entertainment. As too the man behind one of India's biggest non-cricket talent management and sports marketing firms, iOS' founder and MD NEERAV TOMAR. With nearly two decades of experience in the sports and entertainment industry, he has established himself as a pioneer in promoting and managing multiple sports in India.
iOS is also the exclusive marketing agency for the Indian Olympic Association (since 2016), facilitating sponsorship deals worth over Rs 50 crore for the ongoing Olympics.
Excerpts from a wide-ranging interaction:
iOS represents 60 plus athletes, so I'll frame this question in two parts. First off, if you say the sponsorship endorsement market around non cricket has grown, what is the size today? Is there a tangible number around it?
If we are looking at non cricket sports, the flag bearer today, as everyone is aware, is Neeraj Chopra (managed by JSW Sports).
I don't know if you observed, during the T20 World Cup final, that there were only two people (among sports celebrities) in the campaigns that were running. There was Virat Kohli and Neeraj Chopra.
Neeraj is easily doing about 50 odd crores per year. He's charging about 1.5-2 crores. He's got about 25 brands now. The rest of non cricket sports stars put together would be doing 50-60 crores or probably more. So it's between 100-125 crores. It's not a big number, but that's about the market size.
You're saying Chopra plus the rest is 125 crores?
Yes, Chopra himself is almost half.
Who are the highest profile Indian athletes you represent?
That would be Mary Kom, followed by Vijender Singh, Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain, Manika Batra, in that order.
I notice all these are Olympic medal winners (barring Batra). So basically what you're saying is those who come back with medals, as has been the case from 2008, will be able to benefit?
No, not only the medalists. If you get six, eight medals, which is a tough scenario, but if you get those numbers, there will be a buzz for overall non-cricket.
There will be a positive rub-off. Because then people can talk about how India is performing at non-cricket sports on a global scale. So then they can have that narrative.
Someone who today definitely helps the narrative and has performed is Manu Bhaker. By the looks of things, she has immediately leap-frogged herself to the top of the heap as far as your athlete roster is concerned. So what is her situation currently in terms of brand potential?
Manu’s Olympic success has attracted numerous brands beyond the sportswear industry. Since her first medal, we've received many inquiries from various categories, and now even more brands are reaching out. India has never had a double medallist before.
Currently, Manu is associated with Performax Activewear, a sports gear and fitness fashion brand. However, we are in the final stages of negotiations with at least half a dozen brands in categories including aerated drinks, electronics, cosmetics, and nutrition.
What of the rest of the athletes in your roster of 60? Is it just sponsorship and endorsement you are looking after or anything else?
No, we look after everything. It comes to the imagery. In the imagery it comes to the PR, the positioning, the visibility,
That also includes the logistics. If they need anything in terms of support from us, they need consulting from us and in terms of their finance, their planning, admin support. We provide all that. We have an admin team, we have an operations team involved with the talent management.
For these 60 sports people, our approach and strategy is basically to have the top 20 to make up the main revenue.
Then we have about 30 for the future prospects, because we have always been part of medals since 2008. India's got 18 medals, we have got, I think 33% market share out of that. They were signed up beforehand, one year, two years, five years before.
Coming to the IOA and the Paris Olympics, what is the brand count of sponsors that have come on board?
We have roped in 14 brands:
● Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Reliance Foundation, Adani and Aditya Birla Capital are the principal sponsors.
● Yes Bank has come on board as the Banking Partner
● Dream Set Go and Herbalife will be the official Travel Partner and Nutrition Partner respectively.
● EBCO, Borosil, AMUL and INOX Leisure are the associate partners.
● JSW Inspire are the official Sportswear Partner
● PUMA is the Sports Footwear Partner
● TASVA is providing the ceremonial kits for the Indian Contingent.
So the total value of the sponsorship that has come in from these brands is 50 crore?
50 crore is just for the licensing fee. Separately, these brands are together doing over 300 crore in marketing activations.
You have been the IOA's commercial partner since 2016. Does your current contract end with the Paris Games?
We've got about 10 -12 months left on that. With the first right over refusal to match any new offer that may come up.