MAM
Sony earmarks Rs 120 mn for marketing KBC4
MUMBAI: This year, 11 October shall not just be a day to celebrate the birthday of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan but will also witness the legend himself taking charge as host of the fourth edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Betting big on this new flagship property, Sony is pumping in Rs 120 million to market the game-based reality show as it eyes to earn revenues worth Rs 1 billion from the property.
The channel has already roped in seven sponsors and is looking at adding one more. Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Cadbury and Idea had been roped in as presenting sponsors of KBC 4.
Meanwhile, the rest of the five sponsors have come on board as associate partners and are namely Axis Bank, LG, Tata Motors, Sony Bravia and Videocon. “Almost 80-90 per cent of our ad inventory is already locked and we are now close to sealing a deal with the eighth sponsor,” informs Multi Screen Media president network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta.
As far as the marketing of the show is concerned, the activity has been divided into four phases and remains high across the Hindi speaking markets (HSM).
While the first phase has been about establishing Sony‘s association with KBC and Amitabh Bachchan, the second deals with the “India Plays KBC” thought. This phase was aggressively promoted across print and witnessed approximately 5 million people registering for the show.
Says SET marketing head Danish Khan, “Playing on the insight ‘pursuit of knowledge is rewarding‘, the third phase took up 3000 spots across 39 TV channels and 7000 spots on cable across India. Also, we partnered with the film Dabangg wherein wherever the movie was played, two promos of KBC were tagged into it.”
And now, as KBC enters the launch phase, Sony has designed a 15-day countdown campaign for the show that will be carried out extensively across TV, print and out-of-home.
“We have booked 10,000 spots across 39 channels, of which 3500 spots are on Sony network. The other channels include the news, kids, youth, Bollywood, regional, movie and music genre channels,” Khan says.
The channel has also booked 20,000 spots across 35 cities on radio while the OOH campaign will see a 15 city plan (HSM and metros). Overall, there will be over 500 hoardings put up nationwide of which 100 plus hoardings will be placed in Mumbai.
“The launch day, that is 11 October, will also see a big print campaign in approximately 35 top newspapers including English, Hindi and regional,” says Khan.
Meanwhile, in order to ensure strong consumer connect, Sony will use digital to create muscular presence. “However, it‘s TV, print and out-of-home in the ratio of 20:25:25 that form the major chunk of our marketing mix. The rest will be digital and BTL. Also, BTL activities will show up only after the launch,” Khan explains.
Brands
CEAT signs Yashasvi Jaiswal as brand ambassador in multi-year deal
The tyre giant is backing one of Indian cricket’s brightest young stars, deepening a sporting association that goes to the heart of its brand strategy
MUMBAI: CEAT Limited has signed a multi-year partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal, one of Indian cricket’s most electrifying young batters, effective 1st April 2026. The deal adds fresh muscle to the Mumbai-based tyre maker’s long-running bet on cricket as its primary marketing canvas.
Jaiswal’s rapid rise in international cricket made him a coveted name in the sponsorship market. His composure under pressure, consistency across formats and an almost unnerving adaptability at the crease are precisely the qualities CEAT wants consumers to associate with its tyres. The brand has historically aligned itself with cricketers who embody control and dependability, and Jaiswal fits that template with little coaxing.
Anant Goenka, vice-chairman of RPG Group, framed the signing in the language of shared values. “Cricket has always been an integral part of CEAT’s brand journey, and we are delighted to welcome Yashasvi Jaiswal to the CEAT family,” he said. “He is one of the most exciting young talents in Indian cricket today, and the qualities he brings to the game — control, dependability and adaptability — align strongly with the values we stand for as a brand. We believe Yashasvi has the potential to lead across tournaments and formats in the years ahead.”
Jaiswal, for his part, was equally enthusiastic. “I am excited to begin this association with CEAT, a brand that has such a strong legacy in cricket and has been associated with several respected names in the game over the years,” he said. “It is always special to partner with a brand that shares your passion for cricket.”
CEAT, founded in Italy in 1924 and now the flagship company of the US$5.2 billion RPG Group, produces more than 41 million tyres a year and sells across 110 countries. It is the first tyre brand to receive both the Deming Grand Prize from the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers and the World Economic Forum’s Lighthouse Designation for its use of fourth industrial revolution technologies — credentials that suggest a company comfortable playing the long game.
And that, perhaps, is why Jaiswal makes such sense. He is 23, already a Test opener for India, and almost certainly just getting started. For CEAT, signing him now is less a sponsorship and more an investment — in a career, and in a cricket-obsessed market, that has plenty of overs left to play.
