LG Electronics on Wednesday said it plans to spend close to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) on cricket related activities this year by acquiring title sponsorship rights of some matches and on advertising around these events.
The company has already bagged title sponsorship of the Champions Trophy for five million US dollars. It plans to spend about Rs three crore on the India-Australia series, a senior company official said in New Delhi.
Asked what was the company's gameplan for the upcoming Indo-Pak series, Marketing Head at LGEIL Anil Arora said: "We will spend at least Rs 6 crore (Rs 60 million) on this series, as advertisers on Ten Sports. But we are also planning other events to mark this historic series."
He said the Australia-India series to be played in the country between October and December this year will see LG spending about Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million) on ads, promotions, etc.
"We have also decided to bid for the title sponsorship of the Asia Cup in July and the Hong Kong Cup in June this year. In all, we have earmarked at least Rs 42 crore (Rs 420 million) for cricket related events till now for 2004 but this figure will definitely go up," Arora said.
LG also announced the launch of a new range of fully automatic washing machines between five and seven kg capacity.
Lined up just ahead of the summer season are new launches of at least seven frost-free refrigerators and five air conditioners, Arora said adding the company has already introduced three new refrigerator models in the market recently.
About the dismal growth of washing machines market in the country during the last few years, he said 2003 saw the market grow by 8 per cent even as the colour television market is growing steadily.
On the 14 new washing machine models the company launched on Wednesday, he said the focus will be regional markets and introducing products specifically designed to suit the Indian needs.
He said the fully automatic washing machines market grew by 14 per cent last year while claiming that sales of LG more than doubled during the period under review.