Sania Mirza is on a winning spree, and every time she lobs the ball across the net, endorsement companies add another zero to her cheque.
In just one week, the golden girl of Indian sport has found her endorsement fee increasing sharply from Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million), perhaps the highest ever in the history of Indian sport in such a short spell.
From Rs 5.5 lakh (Rs 550,000) at the start of the year to Rs 1 crore at the start of this month, Mirza is serving up money. Corporate breaths hang on her forward and backward swings| Sania Mirza | |
| TOTAL ENDORSEMENTS Rate per endorsement: 5 | |
| Jan '05, before her match with Serena Williams | Rs 5.5 lakh |
| Feb 11, after winning the WTA title | Rs 40-50 lakh |
| March 1, after defeating world number 7 in Dubai | Rs 80 lakh-1 crore |
| Virender Sehwag | |
| TOTAL ENDORSEMENTS Rate per endorsement: 11 | |
2001 | Rs 10-15 lakh |
| Prior to World Cup 2003 | Rs 35-40 lakh |
| When he hit 309 in Pakistan in 2004 | Rs 70 lakh |
| Current rate | Rs 1 crore |
| Irfan Pathan | |
| TOTAL ENDORSEMENTS Rate per endorsement: 8 | |
Feb-04 | Rs 25-30 lakh |
| Current rate | Rs 50-60 lakh |
| HOW MUCH THE OTHERS GET* |
| Sachin Tendulkar |
| Rs 3 - 6/7 crore |
| Shah Rukh Khan |
| Rs 2.5 - 3.5 crore |
| Amitabh Bachchan |
| Rs 2 - 3 crore |
| Aishwarya Rai |
| Rs 1.5 - 2 crore |
| Saif Ali Khan |
| Rs 75 lakh - 1 crore |
| Sourav Ganguly |
| Rs 75 lakh - 1.25 cr |
| Rahul Dravid |
| Rs 60 -70 lakh |
| *Industry estimates of endorsement for one company per year |
In a nation devoted to cricket, her iconic status is very recent and just as vulnerable. Already punters are wondering what will happen when she loses.
Will her fees fall, her celebrity status suffer? Or will she take it in her stride, just as she's managed the better deals from companies over established stars like Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan?
Certainly, it wasn't always this easy, even for this smart-talking tennis player who manages to floor everyone with her sophisticated presence. For over two years, Bangalore-based Globosport tried to hawk Sania Mirza for advertising endorsements, but there were few takers.
Executives of the company owned by tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi made a pitch to over 30 top corporates across the country. Only three, including Tata Tea, obliged -- and then at a throwaway price of Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) a year.
But last week Mirza was the country's hottest sports star after a sensational victory against the world number seven, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in Dubai. The win followed her hyped match with top seeded Serena Williams and her victory in the WTA tournament in Hyderabad.
Says an elated Anirban Das Blah, vice president-marketing and sales, Globosport: "After Sania played with number one seed Serena Williams, we had 22 offers for endorsements. But with her win at the WTA world tennis tournament in Hyderabad, another eight offers were added. Corporates are lining up for her, and her price is shooting up."
Neither Sania nor Globosport are complaining. After her price went up nearly 20 times in the last month, she's begun to give sleepless nights to even the country's most sought-after cricket stars.
Blah says that Mirza has already signed three as-yet-undisclosed deals, and negotiations are on to fill one more slot. "That will be filled if the company we're negotiating with is willing to pay more."
Already, Globosport has decided to limit the number of new endorsements she will undertake in a year to a maximum of four, so prices can be kept high.
Says Blah, "Unlike cricket, where nearly 70 per cent of your earnings come from endorsements, in tennis the rules are different as the prize money is huge. So, we would rather concentrate on getting her into the top 25 of the game."
But in Sania's case, the sales pitch is as innovative as her game: she is the only face in tennis and has no competition, unlike in cricket where there are more than 11 celebrities jostling for TV space.
Says Blah, "Her achievement connect is stronger than any film actress's, and her image cuts across all societies and towns, so she can reach out effectively to both the youth and to women."
Advertisers who have signed up with her agree with Blah's brand positioning. Tata Tea, for instance, wanted to change customer perception of tea as an old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy beverage.
Says Vivek Mathur, vice president-marketing in Tata Tea, "We wanted Tata Tea to be a youthful, outdoor and action-oriented brand that gives you the energy to succeed." Mirza fitted the bill as someone stepping out and striving to succeed, not someone who had already reached the top.
The tea company also wanted to understand whether an upmarket game like tennis was recognised and understood by women in smaller towns.
A dip-stick study in Gorakhpur came back with some interesting revelations -- not only were women familiar with tennis, thanks to television surfing, they also wanted their children to play the game. Tea sales in January, when the ad campaign was running, went up by over 40 per cent over the previous year at Tata Tea.
But Sania is not the only youth sports icon hitting the big time. Corporates are looking for youthful, fresh faces with a long-term future, and are willing to the pay the price for it, even as endorsement rates are spiralling. Among those who have caught their -- and the country's -- fancy is the rock-jawed cricket pace bowler Irfan Pathan, the more so because of his rags-to-riches story.
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