Cybeart, the gaming merchandise company from Toronto, has teamed up with the defending champions and five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners, Gujarat Titans (GT) and Mumbai Indians (MI), respectively.
Following this development, Cybeart joined MI and GT as the official chair. Through this partnership, Cybeart aims to tap the humongous Indian market and cater to the millions of fans of the two IPL teams. Cybeart was founded and established in Toronto, Canada in January 2020 and has been providing highly comforting and exclusive next-gen chairs to gamers and non-gamers.
SportsMint Media reached out to Mr Krutik Patel, Founder and CEO, Cybeart, and learned more about this first-of-its-kind collaboration in the Indian domestic cricket competition. Mr Krutik elaborated on Cybeart’s varied target audience, ergonomics, IPL’s global audience, and several more topics.
1. How will Cybeart cater to non-gamer fans of MI and GT?
Even though gamers have accounted for the majority of Cybeart’s consumer base due to the demographics and our young-generation products with Warner Brothers, our products have never been limited to just the gaming community.
From a product standpoint, our ergonomic chairs cater to the huge chunks of the population that sit for a prolonged period of time and provide them with the necessary comfort as well as support to reduce the risk of back pain and discomfort. That is also the reason why most of our consumers in India are working professionals. The unique features of our chairs make them ideal for anyone who works for long hours in the same position to help them maintain a good posture and prevent strain on the muscles. While we already have established our dominance in Esports, our partnership with Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans will help us tap into wider markets and convey the message to audiences across all age groups.
2. Which steps will Cybeart carry out to promote ergonomics through these affiliations with MI and GT?
As a part of our partnership with Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans, our one-of-a-kind chairs will be used by the players in their team rooms. Cybeart will also have its exclusive kiosks at the team’s home stadiums wherein we will promote the product and raise awareness of its features and ergonomics. Moreover, we will also have a digital distribution of images/videos that promotes ergonomics along with player assets.
3. Could you please tell us about the procedures followed by Cybeart to forge associations with two of the most popular IPL teams?
Deals between such prominent organizations always come with complexity but our conversations with their respective teams were very swift. The professionalism between both parties helped finalize our association within a few days while also ensuring a very smooth workflow. Following the agreement, we have taken maximum efforts to adhere to their brand value right from product design to marketing and have created the best-in-class chairs that will not only appeal to their worldwide fanbases but also provide them with high-value comfort.
4. Does Cybeart have any plans of doing social media initiatives or giveaways surrounding MI and GT?
Definitely, we have lined up some exciting contests that will be executed during the upcoming IPL season. The IPL is one of the biggest and most eagerly awaited tournaments of the cricket calendar and we will be engaging with the passionate fanbases of Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans with our inclusive initiatives. We aim to unite the fans together and allow them to showcase their knowledge and skills to win some exclusive rewards.
5. What’s the major difference in an affiliation between esports and cricket?
The biggest difference between esports and cricket is the target audience from our brand’s perspective. Esports in India is still at a nascent stage with the age group of 13 to 17 accounting for most of the gaming community followed by 18 to 24. The major challenge with these age groups is that they may or may not have the purchasing power for a product in our price range. However, with Cricket being followed religiously by people across all age groups and IPL being the world’s second most watched sports league, an association with Cricket teams opens up our reach to the age group of 24 to 55 who are already working and have the bandwidth to purchase our products.
6. Multiple Indian cricketers are fond of esports, so a partnership with one of them could be in the line for Cybeart?
It is a known fact that many known players are bigger gamers than they are cricketers. There are opportunities for many potential associations and we will think about them when the time is right.
7. Could this partnership offer global exposure to Cybeart as IPL’s audience isn’t restricted to India?
Yes, that’s correct. IPL’s audience is global and our partnerships will offer us the opportunity to reach out to cricketing fans all over the world. Cybeart already has a strong presence in Canada, the MENA region, and India and we aim to expand our footprint by leveraging the prominence of India’s premier cricket tournament. Our current partnership with Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans will see us cater to IPL fans in numerous regions to become a household name in the global market.
8. Does Cybeart plan to partner up with more IPL teams?
This year was a pilot project for us as it was one of a kind partnership where a chair brand got associated with cricketing outfits. However, the response has been overwhelming and extremely positive as we have experienced a significant amount of engagement from these partnerships and consumers have already requested licensed chairs from other IPL teams. Speaking about partnering up with more IPL teams, we will be taking a call on it only after analyzing the stats and other figures at the end of this season.