INDIA CEMENTS LTD. TNPL

The India Cements Ltd TNPL is a Twenty20 cricket league organised by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA). The domestic cricket competition, which was launched in July 2016, is modelled on the Indian Premier League (IPL). Only cricketers registered in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are allowed to take part. The first edition of the tournament was held from August 24, 2016, to September 18, 2016. The second edition was played from July 22, 2017 and August 20, 2017. The matches were played in Chennai, Tirunelveli and Dindigul.

We were tasked with getting the India Cements Ltd TNPL to be the talk of the town not just in the state but the entire country. Promoting the first edition of a cricket league came with its own set of challenges. We had to start from scratch. The turnaround time was quick as content produced in English and Tamil had to be disseminated within a matter of minutes.

Team Footmarque worked like a well-oiled machine during both seasons of the India Cements Ltd. TNPL. We coordinated with the TNCA, each of the eight franchises, almost every player and, of course, the media contingent. We produced content on a daily basis. And we did so in two languages: English and Tamil. We created a WhatsApp group for each district in Tamil Nadu and apprised the media of each and every development. Our processes were well-defined and, as a result, the execution was smooth and seamless. Be it the build-up, the Player Draft or, for that matter, the highly competitive matches, Footmarque was there at every step of the way to create and disseminate content.

The Player Draft is where the teams sit down and decide whom to pick. Every player selected at the Player Draft got his own profile page on the official website of the India Cements Ltd.TNPL. Apart from that, our content team conducted real-time interviews with an official from every franchise. By the end of the way, we ended up producing more than 10,000 words of content and got it translated into Tamil on an immediate basis. Needless to say, the media was updated on an hourly basis.

We invited the print and electronic media, websites, news agencies, freelancers and cable TV operators. More than 500 journalists signed up to cover the tournament. We engaged more than 1,200 journalists across the country. Each journalist was provided with an accreditation card. They had access to the press box, the press conference centre and other common areas. In Tirunelveli and Dindigul, we helped coordinate the media bus timings too. Each journalist was duly added to the respective district group on WhatsApp for effective communication.

Content generation was vital to the success and reach of the event. And Footmarque produced content in both English and Tamil. This was uploaded on to the official website of the India Cements Ltd. TNPL and then disseminated to local and national media houses. The content was published in major newspapers like The Times of India, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Deccan Chronicle, Dinamalar, and in leading sports websites like sportskeeda.com, espncricinfo.com and so on.

We conducted 250 press conferences in each season. We worked as a bridge between the various franchises and the media. Press conferences were conducted on a daily basis: build-up, fan events, before/after each training session, upon the completion of every match. Apart from that, we helped every franchise conduct press conferences throughout the tournament.

Yes, exactly. We did this in the lead-up to the tournament, during the tournament and even a few days after the completion of the action.

Our processes — Media Relations, Media Management, Content Strategy, Content Creation, Translation and Dissemination — helped increase brand awareness for the India Cements Ltd. TNPL by a whopping 200 per cent.