IPL team wants blogger
By Shalini Singh

Business tycoon Vijay Mallya is quite like Virgin’s Richard Branson.  Both are hugely successful, masters at handling media and love being in the public spotlight.  Vijay Mallya owns IPL cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) which has cricket greats Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid.  Royal Challengers have hired Bollywood stars like Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif to add some glamour to the cricketing talent. After all, IPL is as much about marketing as it is about cricket.

Royal Challengers Bangalore has announced a competition to hire a blogger for their cricket team.  The blogger will travel with the team and be a ‘content contributor’ to the Royal Challenger website.  Basically, this is code that the blogger will write the kind of stories that will appeal to their fans. And no hard hitting stories about owners, management or Katrina Kaif. After all this is merchandize marketing and not public interest journalism.
 
So, what does it take to become a blogger for this IPL cricket team?  The starting point is that you have to be a fan.  Next are nose for cricketing news and flair for words?  Yes, these are important.  But the selection of the Royal Challenger Bangalore blogger is as complicated as making it to the finals of any reality show. Needless to say that you will have an edge if you look like Anil Kumble or Katrina Kaif.

Check out the Royal Challenger Bangalore rules on their website to select 3 content providers to their website

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About the Challenge

Name of Contest: Royal Challengers “Fanatic Fans’ Challenge

Objective of contest: To identify 3 RCB Fans with exceptional skills in writing, photography and motivational skills. This team of three (3) fans will be given the privilege of travelling along with RCB Team (as official RCB staff) and granted preferred access to all RCB matches, in exchange for fulfilling their duties as “content contributors” to the RCB FAN controlled sections of the Royal Challengers website, during Airtel Champions League.

Details about the challenge can be read here

Categories:

(a) Blogging
(b) Photography
(c) Motivational Skills

Process Campaign will be launched around Sep 7th, inviting Fans to submit online application in any ONE category. Applicants will be given a closing date & time, and also requested to seek votes & testimonials from friends in support of their application.

Start & Close dates: Sep 7th to midnight of Sep 27th 2009

Internal Jury (EC) Process: Applicants will be filtered on certain threshold values of (a) completeness of application and (b number of valid votes and testimonials. The internal jury will comprise of EC Team members (community manager, editor) and USL Team members (at least 2), will work with the filtered list of applicants only, and judge using 25% weightage on votes, 25% on testimonials and 50% on quality of application. The process will take one day and conducted on Sep 28th 2009. There will be internal shortlist of approximately 36 people drawn up. A winners list of (9x3=27 people) will be declared on-site, and names and addresses supplied to an agency (USL to decide), for physical verification and signing of contest T&C. If someone fails to pass the verification process and/or does not accede to T&C, agency will draw from back-up list, and provide final 27 list to EC by Sep 28th 2009.

Auto-Team formation: once the verification process is completed and final 27 published, we will request winners to declare their preference (for team members) online. EC team will auto-assign teams, based on preferential match, and communicate team structure to all 27 participants. No request for changes will be entertained.

Preparation for Final contest: All 9 teams will be coached off-line and introduced to their personal spaces on the RCB site, to start blogging and sharing their skills on-line in preparation for trip to Bangalore. In the process they will showcase their skills, to conduct the proceedings on-site during CL. This phase will last from Sep 28th 2009 to Oct 3rd 2009

Event Timelines: The Event will follow the following timelines:

Process Date
Deadline for submitting online applications September 27, 2009
Registration September 7, 2009 – September 27,2009
Collect Public Votes/References September 7, 2009 – September 27,2009
Shortlist Top 27 Finalists September 28, 2009
On ground auditions Oct 3, 2009
Announce 3 finalists Oct 3, 2009
Travel with the team Oct 8, 2009
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