Fake IPL Player and Buzz Marketting

The latest buzz in the IPL II is not about the cricket but the Fake IPL Player who is writing a blog and claims himself to be a member of the KKR.

The Fake IPL Player claims that he is a member of the team of KKR. He describes himself as a “perennial no hoper” and he goes on to say “there's one thing I do very well. Serve drinks. And that's what I am expecting do in South Africa” and promises (throughout the IPL, I will be bringing to you the "aankhon dekha haal", right from inside the dressing room, meeting room and players' bedrooms.)

He goes on say in a later post how the team management is searching for him and he is posting the post when his “rommie” is sleeping and via SMS from his brother back in India because laptops have been banned in the hotel.

I believe the Fake IPL Player is not a cricketer because no cricketer would ever risk his entire career in cricket for writing a stuff from which he would not benefit in anyway. The language flow, the use of punctuation, the use of satiricalnesses goes on to show that the writer is writing the blog with lots of time in his hand and not writing in a hurry as he claims to be. Finally, no cricketer or support staff would be a poet and our Fake IPL Player has even composed a poem in his blog titled “BubLee aur Babli.” The writer, to my mind, is no doubt a professional satirist.

But the question is this Fake IPL Player also gives some facts about the team that looks to be correct and also the weather conditions of South Africa before the day of the match. This does prove that this guy is in South Africa and doing all the writing from there. The KKR team site writer that Fake IPL Player is a "poison pen of the dirtiest variety."

Buzz marketing or undercover marketing is an unconventional strategy that is used to attract end users (consumers). It is where the consumers do not realize they are marketed to. The goal of any undercover campaign is to generate a buzz about a product. The largest appeal of undercover marketing is that it offers free word of mouth publicity that can reach huge number of consumers for free.

Now, look at the recent controversies around KKR which has made the team to be in limelight for quite a long time now.
1. Removal of Kolkata from the jersey and putting only Knight Riders. This act was an instant controversy and the team got free air time on TV, and newspaper.
2. Once this controversy died, there was the multiple captain controversy. This one was a bigger hit and again all TV channels (news and sports) gave coverage to the event and there were so many discussions about the same. This issue again gave the team unlimited coverage for free. Once the matches started there were no multiple captains, although the captain was changed.
3. Fake IPL player is the mother of all controversies that has been created around the team KKR. We have newspapers devoting an entire page to this controversy and television again giving free air time discussing the issue. I am not sure, now that Fake IPL Player has created the hype, if we are not going to get any more of the “aankhon dekha haal” from him.

From all this controversies KKR, the team, has gained huge interest among the teams playing the IPL. I won’t be surprised if with all these controversies KKR matches are getting more TRP ratings than other matches. As the team comes on the minds of the audience so does the sponsors supporting the team.

I wonder if the team management feels Fake IPL Player is a "poison pen of the dirtiest variety" why they did not approach Google and got the blog deleted. Google has in the past deleted many a fake Orkut IDs, when complained by the offended party. In my mind there is not even an iota of doubt about who is behind the “Fake IPL Player” and who is benefiting from him the most.