IPL Closing Ceremony Interview with Chanda Singh
IPL Closing Ceremony: Interview with Chanda Singh Notifications New User posted their first comment this is comment text Approve Reject & ban Delete Logout
A former Colonel, Arvinder Singh describes the process of setting up an franchise from scratch, building on his past experience of working in Gujarat and serving in the Indian Army. It was important for them to create not just a ’Gujarat community' fan following for them but a worldwide fan base. Not just [by] doing the specific launches that we would have done in the past few years for other franchisees by launching their logos online [but] we actually launched them on the Metaverse, and that was a crazy thing that we did for the first time for any of the teams at IPL. It just didn’t create a small buzz for them, it got people from all over the world talking about it. We created a dugout for Gujarat Titans’ fans on the Metaverse, where our players interact with the fans on a daily basis whenever they are getting time off-field, which is not possible on a regular [IPL] brand activation campaign. We launched their [IPL] jersey at the Narendra Modi stadium but we just didn’t launch an offline event, we actually made it absolutely viral where a drone came, picked up the jersey, and in an augmented reality format, it actually reached out to everyone’s home. So you’re not just engaging yourself by seeing what’s happening on-screen, you can catch the drone, see the jersey, experience it 360-degree and get a chance to win or get the IPL jersey with your name and number. So by just trying to go beyond the excitement that one can see only with stars performing, it’s something more close and personal, it’s something more experiential, and it’s more ‘live’ for everyone. 2) For the 2017 IPL edition, you successfully executed eight opening ceremonies in a span of 10 days. Can you tell us more about the challenges you faced and the highs you experienced? Every stadium had its own challenges because they are managed by a different curator. Every stadium had its own entries and exit nuances, things that we can do and can’t do on the Field of Play (FoP). Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore - IPL T20 When you are on the Field of Play, and because these ceremonies are happening just before the toss, you had to plan it very differently. So you have to think through the execution plan in a manner that you bring ‘stages’, because without that, the performers will not act. But you cannot destroy the grass. You cannot have so much weight on that it burns the grass. So our entire planning was done from an approach where you bring in things and you take things out. And while the ceremony was only 20 minutes long, we were ‘out’ in seven minutes. You have to plan in a manner that not even a single nail is left on the field of play because if by any chance anyone gets hurt you are blacklisted completely. So you have people running with metal detectors, and you have people removing things at the same time. I would say when you are standing there and seeing it, it all just looks like chaos. But after you’ve executed everything, it just looks very streamlined. So many challenges, but I think what I have learnt from that experience is that you are only as strong as your team. And if your teams are absolutely sorted and you’ve cleared everything for them in a manner that is just plug and play, it works brilliantly. And that’s the learning that we are applying here [for upcoming the IPL 2022 Closing Ceremony] as well. 3) You’ve facilitated the Indian visits of global legends like Andre Agassi and Michael Phelps. Broadly, what are the pointers/concerns to keep in mind while bringing international sporting celebrities to the country? Tennis legend Andre Agassi has visited India on multiple occasions. Primarily [it’s important to keep in mind] the fact that these guys are "sporting" legends and you cannot treat them as film stars. You have to be very specific about their travel, stay and food. That’s the first thing that you have to keep in mind. Also, you can’t block their entire day and tighten the agenda so badly that they don’t have time to breathe, because at the end of the day, they need that relaxing time, right? had to meet the swimming school students, the media, our channel partners, the organizing committee, brands a lot of things that are packed and they can’t stay here for three or four days. So we try and curate the agenda in a manner where you have enough time and more given to the audience that you are coming to meet. But at the same time, you are taking care of yourself because I don’t want the sporting legend to fall sick, either while you are here or when you go back. And these guys are all coming after 19-30 hour flights so it’s anyways very very tiring. So that is something that we need to keep in mind. Otherwise, they are absolutely brilliant. I mean, they know what they have to do. They don’t need to be briefed much. They just need to be taken broadly through what we expect from them, and they’re just so they are just very sporting.
IPL Closing Ceremony to feature broadcast Augmented Reality Chanda Singh CEO XP&D
Ms. Chanda Singh, CEO of XP&D, an Experiential & Digital Platform The upcoming IPL Closing Ceremony on May 29 is set to be headlined with performances from A R Rahman and Ranveer Singh, in addition to a video tribute to Indian cricket coinciding with the ongoing celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Playing her part in transforming cricket into a ‘sportainment’ spectacle is Ms. Chanda Singh, CEO of XP&D, a venture that ‘believes in changing the landscape of experiential marketing through technology and digital experiences.’ Ahead of the IPL , Ms Singh exclusively spoke to on the exciting possibilities around conceptualizing and activating entertainment campaigns surrounding live sports events. She also touched upon the scope for re-imagining sporting heroes as motivational icons, as well as the various considerations to be kept in mind while curating Indian visits from global sporting icons. Read on for the full interview. Writer's note: The transcript has been lightly edited for better readability.On Activating Live Sports Experiences in India
1 When it comes to sports beyond core on-field action what are the various types of event-based activations such as IPL opening closing ceremonies IPL auctions etc that are possible
Beyond just [IPL] opening ceremonies, [IPL] closing ceremonies and [IPL] auctions, there’s a lot of on-ground activation that’s possible – with entertainment [and] without entertainment as well. You just need to have that one thing in common for all of these sports, which is fans. As long as you have fans available for these sports, you can do an umpteen number of things with them. It could be online or offline, doesn’t necessarily need to have an offline large scale opening or closing ceremony. It could just be [about] creating a community of fans and doing day-to-day engagements with them, keeping them completely active in the sport that they are in. It could be creating these small engagements with people where they themselves get to see them[selves] on screen. These are the kind of activations that we have been working on in the last few years. As long as ‘I’ can be heard and seen on screen, I’m totally glued to the entire match or the screening.On Gujarat Titans Innovative Logo & Jersey Launch in IPL
Very recently, for , making their debut in this year’s IPL, it was very important for them to move away from the legacy of what the other [IPL] teams have created over the last 15 years. A former Colonel, Arvinder Singh describes the process of setting up an franchise from scratch, building on his past experience of working in Gujarat and serving in the Indian Army.A former Colonel, Arvinder Singh describes the process of setting up an franchise from scratch, building on his past experience of working in Gujarat and serving in the Indian Army. It was important for them to create not just a ’Gujarat community' fan following for them but a worldwide fan base. Not just [by] doing the specific launches that we would have done in the past few years for other franchisees by launching their logos online [but] we actually launched them on the Metaverse, and that was a crazy thing that we did for the first time for any of the teams at IPL. It just didn’t create a small buzz for them, it got people from all over the world talking about it. We created a dugout for Gujarat Titans’ fans on the Metaverse, where our players interact with the fans on a daily basis whenever they are getting time off-field, which is not possible on a regular [IPL] brand activation campaign. We launched their [IPL] jersey at the Narendra Modi stadium but we just didn’t launch an offline event, we actually made it absolutely viral where a drone came, picked up the jersey, and in an augmented reality format, it actually reached out to everyone’s home. So you’re not just engaging yourself by seeing what’s happening on-screen, you can catch the drone, see the jersey, experience it 360-degree and get a chance to win or get the IPL jersey with your name and number. So by just trying to go beyond the excitement that one can see only with stars performing, it’s something more close and personal, it’s something more experiential, and it’s more ‘live’ for everyone. 2) For the 2017 IPL edition, you successfully executed eight opening ceremonies in a span of 10 days. Can you tell us more about the challenges you faced and the highs you experienced? Every stadium had its own challenges because they are managed by a different curator. Every stadium had its own entries and exit nuances, things that we can do and can’t do on the Field of Play (FoP). Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore - IPL T20 When you are on the Field of Play, and because these ceremonies are happening just before the toss, you had to plan it very differently. So you have to think through the execution plan in a manner that you bring ‘stages’, because without that, the performers will not act. But you cannot destroy the grass. You cannot have so much weight on that it burns the grass. So our entire planning was done from an approach where you bring in things and you take things out. And while the ceremony was only 20 minutes long, we were ‘out’ in seven minutes. You have to plan in a manner that not even a single nail is left on the field of play because if by any chance anyone gets hurt you are blacklisted completely. So you have people running with metal detectors, and you have people removing things at the same time. I would say when you are standing there and seeing it, it all just looks like chaos. But after you’ve executed everything, it just looks very streamlined. So many challenges, but I think what I have learnt from that experience is that you are only as strong as your team. And if your teams are absolutely sorted and you’ve cleared everything for them in a manner that is just plug and play, it works brilliantly. And that’s the learning that we are applying here [for upcoming the IPL 2022 Closing Ceremony] as well. 3) You’ve facilitated the Indian visits of global legends like Andre Agassi and Michael Phelps. Broadly, what are the pointers/concerns to keep in mind while bringing international sporting celebrities to the country? Tennis legend Andre Agassi has visited India on multiple occasions. Primarily [it’s important to keep in mind] the fact that these guys are "sporting" legends and you cannot treat them as film stars. You have to be very specific about their travel, stay and food. That’s the first thing that you have to keep in mind. Also, you can’t block their entire day and tighten the agenda so badly that they don’t have time to breathe, because at the end of the day, they need that relaxing time, right? had to meet the swimming school students, the media, our channel partners, the organizing committee, brands a lot of things that are packed and they can’t stay here for three or four days. So we try and curate the agenda in a manner where you have enough time and more given to the audience that you are coming to meet. But at the same time, you are taking care of yourself because I don’t want the sporting legend to fall sick, either while you are here or when you go back. And these guys are all coming after 19-30 hour flights so it’s anyways very very tiring. So that is something that we need to keep in mind. Otherwise, they are absolutely brilliant. I mean, they know what they have to do. They don’t need to be briefed much. They just need to be taken broadly through what we expect from them, and they’re just so they are just very sporting.