One night, the Oasis English Press decided to have a chat with the StuCCan of the Department of Sponsorship and Marketing, Aditya Ruia, to gain some insight into how his department works to make Oasis a reality.
When asked to describe their work, Aditya said their job has a very dynamic nature. “Getting sponsors isn’t easy. No one knows what will work, or what tactic will click. We use all the platforms available to us to contact companies. We call, email or message them. Facebook is something that I may open only once in 3-4 days, but LinkedIn is always an open tab for us, as that is a forum we use to contact professionals.” If needed, they sometimes make work trips to Delhi, where they can speak to executives of companies in person and be more articulate in their pitching.
“We start work for Oasis around 5 months in advance, much before any other club or department starts.” says Aditya. Their work gradually speeds up till it hits a crescendo a few days before the fest, after which there is little that they can do to get sponsors.
During the fest, Sponz handles the food stalls we all look forward to. They make sure the food isn’t (extremely) overpriced, and that there aren’t any complaints. When executives of the sponsor companies come to Pilani, they expect deliverables from our end, as they have given us money. “Appeasing them depends completely on your personality. There are situations where you have to keep them happy and say no at the same time”, says Aditya.
Oasis usually has a budget of around 80 lakhs, out which Spons claims to contribute around 30% every year. When asked about how things were going this year, Ruia hesitantly says that he’s been having a hard time – “I have been a part of two fests each year for the last three years, and I know how it was then, and how it is now.” He attributes this sudden difficulty of getting sponsors to the fact that Oasis is clashing with two major college fests – Rendezvous (IIT-Delhi) and Antaraagini (IIT-Kanpur). “It is very difficult to convince companies to sponsor a fest in a remote place such as Pilani, when they can sponsor city-fests instead. But I can say for sure that we have convinced several companies to come here instead of going to Delhi or Kanpur, and that feels like an achievement. But all egos aside, the sponsorship teams of all three fests are in constant touch so that we can make the most of what we have”, said Aditya. When asked how much of sponsorship has been raised this year, he refused to comment, saying that this information is usually not disclosed to the public.
A point that Aditya stressed upon was that they were trying to get the community the best experience at the least cost. “The Hindi Prof Show (Amit Trivedi with Coke Studio) and EDM night (Zaeden with Red Bull tour bus) are going to be huge. Since we’ve got Coke Studio and Red Bull to sponsor us, we got the prices of tickets for these Prof Shows to go down. Also, we’ve got four embassy deals, which means that musicians from four different countries will be coming to Pilani to perform – and these shows will be free. By doing this we’ve managed to get the best experience for the audience at as nominal a rate as possible.”
Ruia and his team have been working as hard as they can to make this year’s edition of Oasis a success. “It’s been hard, but we’re more than up for the challenge”, he says. We wish them all the best for their endeavors, and hope their work makes Oasis 2016 a truly legendary experience.