For several decades, brands have used various celebrities and athletes to endorse their products to help attract and engage with an audience. However, in more recent times, it has been seen that the athletes are developing into 'brands' themselves. From Virat Kohli, to Roger Federer, Serena Williams and even Ellyse Perry, these athletes have distinguished themselves from their peers, building their own unique 'brand' that has its own following.Of course, athletes rarely do this 'brand building' on their own - they always have help...Established only six years ago, Baseline Ventures has fast become one of the top sports management firms in India. From Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu to young cricketing sensations like Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana, Baseline has one of the most star-studded rosters. Women’s CricZone caught up with the Tuhin Mishra, MD and co-founder of Baseline Ventures, to discuss the building of a brand, secrets to his success, and a new video series featuring Rodrigues and Mandhana. Excerpts: How are you doing in this lockdown?Like everyone, we are also following the instructions given by the government, trying to keep ourselves active as much as possible. Obviously we are trying to do some interesting work as well. Things shouldn’t stop or come to a standstill. Tell us more about Baseline Ventures. How did it start?Baseline started in 2014. I co-founded this company with four of my friends and colleagues - Vipin, Vishal, Ramakrishnan and Raman - who have been in this field of sports and media for a very long time. The company works on four verticals. Firstly, sponsorship, where we deal with various leagues and events happening all over the world. Secondly, we have athlete representation, wherein we manage some of the top athletes across various disciplines. Third, is what we call licensing, and finally, the fourth one is events. ALSO READ: Smriti Mandhana enjoying her time at homeWhat are the challenges of managing athletes across sports?I would say every challenge creates an opportunity for the firm you work for. For us, while we were managing a lot of sportspeople, it was obviously a challenge for us because we felt that there is always a story to be told. Most importantly, if you believe in your athlete and go and say the right story there is always a deal to be done for them. We are looking at various kinds of sports and the important thing is that we all have to believe that India is a multi-sport nation. https://twitter.com/tuhinmishra75/status/1218833795534741514?s=20
How do you see this competition of female versus male in terms of brand perspective in the coming years? It doesn’t really have to depend on a man or a woman. I would say PV Sindhu’s case study is a classic example of that. Sindhu demands or rather commands the kind of a price point which a lot of male cricketers also don’t get whether it’s her racquet deal or apparel deal. 2019 has been a great year for you with the kind of signings that you have made.I would say a great roster, probably the best in the country considering the variety of sports stars that we have. And each one is special. It’s like your kids. Everyone has their accomplishments and if we play a small part in helping them in getting sponsorships, managing their PR or managing their digital, we feel that we have added certain value to their overall personality. ALSO READ: Shafali Verma's rapid development in a batting starWhat’s the secret of acquiring young cricketers like Shafali Verma or a then 21-year-old Smriti Mandhana?We signed Smriti when she has just come from the 2017 World Cup when she was just 21. We have signed Shafali and Prithvi Shaw at a time when he wasn’t selected for the U-19 World Cup. So we do believe in 'catching them young' as they say, and also taking some calculated risks because we feel that they will work in the long run. Some work and some don’t. Thankfully - and touch wood - I would say 95 per cent have worked for us. Who came up with the idea for the new show 'Double Trouble'?The idea came to us when we were talking to Smriti Mandhana during this lockdown. Smriti and Jemimah (Rodrigues), they have a great bond both on and off the field and are fun-loving and why don’t we capture them on camera. Both these girls will be hosting the show while there would a celebrity guest too – from any sporting field. And these girls would ask the celebrity guest about the insights of his/her life and game. This is something totally new. https://twitter.com/baselineventure/status/1250791622964580354?s=20
Give us a little more insight into the show...There are 12 episodes in Season 1. We are in the process of shooting all the episodes. So we will be launching in the coming week and have planned two episodes per week. It will on the Baseline Ventures YouTube channel. Given the circumstances we all are in, our firm has tried the best possible way to package it. I hope it will be a good one and people should enjoy watching both these girls talking to each other and pulling each other’s legs, going after each other and in the end talking to the guest as well at a level where audiences have not seen them open up. Fingers crossed!Tell us about something about the traits of Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana which the world doesn’t know. To start with Smriti, she is someone who is very level-headed in spite of being very young. She is 23 now and if you talk to her, the way she conducts herself and manages her work ethics, it is exemplary. She is a role model for a lot of young sportspeople and one can learn many things from her and she has been performing consistently. I think that’s a great trademark for a sportsperson. She is very very witty and humorous. About Jemimah... She is like a pocket dynamite. I would say she is also very witty and crazy. You look at her social media posts, she is really into it. She is an amazing hockey player as well, very athletic, probably one of the fittest girls around in the Indian team. She is someone who comes with great family background. With inputs from S Sudarshanan.
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