Vivo Continues To Withdraw Its Name From Other Brands

After withdrawing its sponsorship from IPL, Vivo has now decided to walk away from the other two more major title sponsorships deals they are — the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and the ‘Bigg Boss’ reality show. 

PKL had made a deal with Vivo for an amount of Rs 60 crore per year. In a similar way, Vivo also went for Rs 30 crore deal with Viacom 18 owned Colors for its popular show Big boss. 

“Vivo has decided to lie low amid all the negative publicity the brand was generating since the India–China clash on the border. The company has decided to pull out of all the major deals, at least for this year, and will focus on selling products via more retail discount and commissions,” said a person directly involved with the deal.
A five-year deal was signed between Vivo and Star India valued at around Rs. 300 crores for the PKL title sponsorship. As per the sources with the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the league, Vivo has informed Star India that it intends to bring an end to the deal. 

A two-year deal was also signed between Vivo and Colors in the year 2019 for an amount of Rs 60 crore. Bigg Boss is all set to start from the month of October along with IPL this year. 

Vivo India, Star India as well as Viacom 18 have refused to talk on this matter and email queries went unanswered till the press meet, which was held on Thursday. 

A sponsorship deal of around Rs 2,190 crore with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has helped Vivo to become one of the largest advertisers in India. Annually, the company spends Rs. 1000 crore on marketing and promotions which includes Rs 440 crore for BCCI and an additional amount of Rs 120-150 crore is spent during the time of  IPL.

The mobile manufacturing company decided to back out from the 13th edition of IPL because of the growing anti-Chinese sentiment in India and also that the IPL was being pushed till September and out of India.

BCCI and Vivo India clarified themselves in one sentence saying that they have decided to bring a pause to their partnership for the 2020 season of IPL.

“Vivo has realized that by not advertising, but offering better discounts, it will sell more phones rather than by advertising, which will attract public ire,” said another person close to the development.

Things are still blurred on whether Vivo will continue being the presenting sponsor of IPL for Star Sports, as per the sources the decision is still on hold.