MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals is targeting a 15-20 per cent revenue growth this year on the back of its sponsorship deal with UltraTech Cement.

The IPL franchise‘s strategy is to first stitch the big deals before spreading out as it will help them get better rates in a slowdown economy.

Says Rajasthan Royals chief executive officer Raghu Iyer, "The Ultratech Cement deal accounts for around 30-35 per cent of our sponsorship revenue.The key is to get the big deals in place. Then the smaller deals will happen."

Rajasthan Royals earlier announced it had roped in UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla group, as its Principal Team Sponsor for the fifth season of the IPL.

According to Ultratech Cement joint executive president Shashank Awasthi, the company’s marketing budget will be similar to that of last year‘s. "70 per cent of the marketing spend goes towards below the line activities. The deal with the Rajasthan Royals has over the years helped build relationships with our dealer network and customers."

Ultratech Cement will launch contests and hold ‘meet and greet‘ meetings with the stars for their dealers and customers. The company also supports cricket at the grassroots level.

Rajasthan Royal‘s associate sponsors are Kingfisher, HDFC Life, Supertech, Arihant Superstructures and Puma.

"The Kingfisher deal accounts for 10-15 per cent of our sponsorship revenue," says Iyer.

The majority owner of Emerging Media Sporting Holdings, the company that owns Rajasthan Royals, is Tresco International Ltd (Suresh Chellaram Family) with a 44.2 per cent stake. The other shareholders are Emerging Media Ltd (Manoj Badale - 32.4%), Blue Water Estate Ltd (Lachlan Murdoch - 11.7%) and Kuki Investments Ltd ( Raj Kundra & Family - 11.7%), according to the disclosures made by the company.

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UltraTech Cement is principal team sponsor of Rajasthan Royals