ADvantage Dhoni

Sachin Tendulkar reigned for nearly two decades as the highest paid Indian sportsperson, a tribute to the marketing genius of his image consultant, the late Mark Mascrenhas. The Master Blaster followed the road map to a T, laid down by Mascrenhas who died some years ago. And it paid Tendulkar rich dividends. For years he beat his colleagues in blue by a yard in the endorsement sweepstakes.

But all this changed as age caught up with Sachin and a ‘typhoon from Jharkhand’ — Mahendra Singh Dhoni — took the ad world by storm.

The regime change was heralded this year. At the Twenty20 tournament, owner of the Chennai franchise India Cements shelled out a whopping Rs 6 crore for the swashbuckling India captain to lead the side. And Dhoni didn’t disappoint. The Chennai team made it to the finals with Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals, showing how far Dhoni has come from his rookie status within a short span of four years.

The BCCI had upgraded him from Grade ‘B’ to Grade ‘A’ only last year. As the old order yielded to the new on the cricket field, the MNCs, too, followed suit. This was evident when Pepsi dumped Tendulkar and roped in Dhoni for endorsing its entire range of FritoLays snack foods.

Dhoni charges as much as Tendulkar for endorsing a brand but the number of advertisers queuing up for Dhoni is much more than for the man who was his idol in school.

According to unofficial estimates by various image management consultants, Dhoni may earn as much as Rs 50 crore in endorsements by the end of the year, while Tendulkar would take home Rs 35 crore.

Dhoni’s rise on the endorsement circuit has been proportionate to his success in the game. According to sources, he used to get just about Rs 40 lakh per endorsement till recently. But his ascendancy to the captain’s ‘throne’ of ODI squad and the victory in the ICC World Twenty20 championship has proved to be a bonanza for him. Dhoni’s victory in T20 championship shortly after the seniors’ ignominious exit from the World Cup meant that the regime change was hastened.

Today Dhoni endorses around 12-15 brands, including Pepsi, Reebok, Exide, TVS Motors, Mysore Sandal Soap, Videocon, Reliance Communications, Reliance Energy, ORIENT PSPO fan, Bharat Petroleum, Titan, GE Money, Siyaram, etc, overtaking his one-time idol Tendulkar in the ad game. — S.K.