Taking thedirect advertising wars and spoof brawls of the cola majors a step further,Coca Cola is deploying ambush marketing tactics during the Indian PremierLeague’s cricket season-II.

Consider this. Both PepsiCo’s ‘Youngistaan’ brand ambassadors — VirenderSehwag, captain of Delhi Daredevils, and Ishant Sharma, member of KolkataKnight Riders (KKR) — have been formally present at various promotionalactivities for arch-rival Coca-Cola India, simply because Coca-Cola is theassociate sponsor and the official pouring partner for both Delhi Daredevilsand Kolkata Knight Riders.

Sehwag, for instance, attended a special send-off ceremony for Delhi Daredevilsorganised by Coca-Cola India. At the event, Sehwag, along with Coke brandambassador Gautam Gambhir, unveiled a limited edition bottle of Coca-Cola forIPL. “The campaign will run till the end of the IPL season and will involvemerchandising opportunities as well,” said Srinivas Murthy, general manager,marketing, (flavors), Coca-Cola India.

Coca-Cola is also making the most of its sponsorship by associating Shah RukhKhan and team KKR with its clear lime brand, Sprite. A TV campaign for Spritefeaturing three KKR players — Sourav Ganguly, Ajit Agarkar and Murli Karthik —besides Shah Rukh, has also been launched. “The creative utilisation of ShahRukh has been good in terms of the Sprite and KKR association,” said HarishBijoor, brand-domain specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Further, Ishaant Sharma (another Pepsico ‘Youngistaan’ brand ambassador) fromKKR will now be spotted on Sprite’s limited edition bottles and hoardings,along with Saurav Ganguly and Shah Rukh Khan (both, incidentally, are ex-Pepsibrand ambassadors). ‘Sprite Kolkata Knight Riders’ limited edition bottles willhave the insignia of key players of the KKR team, featuring Saurav Ganguly,Ishant Sharma and David Hussey or Saurav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum and MurliKartik.

Has the move benefitted Coca-Cola? “The big disadvantage is that IPL had tomove out of India and a lot more could have been achieved if the event had beenon Indian soil,” said Bijoor, adding: “Further, cola wars have reached acertain degree of fatigue and may not catch as many eyeballs as they once did.”