Spearheaded by the heroes of World Cup '83-Mohinder Amarnath, Roger Binny and Madan Lal-LGEIL's Rs 8-crore promotion initiative will involve three contests, which will kick off in the first week of April. The winners of these contests will be flown to Lord's, England, in three groups, each of which will be led by the celebrity cricketers.

``Initially we are taking around 100 consumers to the UK for the India-playing matches, followed by winners for the Super Sixes and the Finals,'' said A Vijay Narayanan, assistant general manager-marketing, at an LGIEL press conference, announcing the launch of six new models ofCTVs.

In all LG will give away 350 prizes in the form of tickets: at one level 200 tickets would be offered to the winning consumers who will get to see World Cup matches live; and at another, 150 tickets will be offered as prizes for the sweepstakes promotions.

Through a heavily advertised print and electronic media campaign, the consumers would be invited to answer three basic questions like: which team did India meet in World Cup 1993? Participants would also have to write a slogan for LG. The winners will have the option to travel with the LG team of their choice and will stay in the UK for three days, where apart from watching cricket they would be taken for sightseeing with the cricket stars.

Mohinder Amarnath's team leaves for Lord's on May 26; Roger Binny's on June 11; and Madan Lal's on June 20. LG will also set up a Champions Gallery for the winners of the contest at Lord's. The campaign for LG Champions Gallery will be flagged off in April.

The campaign for the contests is a mix of one20-second and three 10-second ads, which will appear on DD, Star Plus, ESPN, and Star Sports. In the print media, the 240 cc ad will be followed by a 120 cc insert. Following a lucky draw, results will be announced in the first week of May in India Today.

LG is also extending the World Cup opportunity to top performing dealers. Depending on the market potential, they've been given specific targets-of quantity, value and category-against which they can win tickets and other prizes. ``Given the seasonal pattern, the demand for ACs and refrigerators will go up while the demand for CTVs will rise because of this big event,'' says Narayanan.

In the first quarter of 1999, LG posted sales of Rs 210 crore while for the second quarter it expects a turnover of Rs 350 crore. ``The World Cup promotions could boost our turnover to Rs 900 crore in the year 1999,'' says K R Kim, managing director, LGEIL. The entire exercise is a culmination of a six-month-long effort of a eight-member task force comprising members fromLintas, LG India and LG Korea.

LG has already booked 3,000 spots across channels for the months April, May and June. During this period, it will use a mix of five 20, 30 and 40 seconders. Created by Lintas, its 14 TVCs (nine of which will be new launches in April) will have LG products' positioning linked to the World Cup. ``If the Indian team maintains a winning streak, LG advertising and promotion spending may rise from Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore, out of our annual budget of around Rs 35 crore,'' says Narayanan.

The company also plans to use to the hilt the LG World Cup Song (Dekho manjil tumhari, LG ki duaen) and the `All The Best Campaign' (To bring back the World Cup). Here images of a youthful crowd is shown waving the tricolor-and interestingly the crowd scenes also consist of the employees of LG including managing director Kim.

The crowd is shown brimming with patriotism and the storyboard suggests how a plethora of various peoples in vibrant colours and moods intermingle to infuse anunmistakable fervour. ``We intend to enhance LG's brand awareness by 90 per cent due to this World Cup,'' says Kim. Of course, all that LG now needs to score a century in brand recall, is an India win at the World Cup.