Asian Paints' Amit Syngle hits out at competition: ‘We can only set a trend; others will make the case study'

Asian Paints believes its new partnership with the BCCI positions the brand at the forefront of sports-led marketing, with MD & CEO Amit Syngle asserting that the association sets a benchmark for others in the industry. Calling cricket “a religion in India” and “omnipresent,” Syngle says the multi-year deal as the Official Colour Partner of India Cricket is not just a sponsorship but an alignment of identity, emotion, and national reach.

“It gives us an opportunity to reach every Indian home, and it fits strongly with our whole positioning,” he says, emphasising the natural synergy between cricket’s cultural pull and Asian Paints’ Har Ghar proposition.

Syngle repeatedly anchors the move in the brand’s core philosophy of colour as emotion and storytelling. “Colour is about emotions, colour is about storytelling,” he notes, arguing that cricket’s energy and mass following allow the company to bring this identity alive through innovations like the Colour Cam and Colour Countdown. These activations, he says, deepen fan engagement and expand the brand’s presence beyond traditional placements.

“The engagement will create the measurement,” Syngle explains, describing the cricket platform as “an area of infinite ROI.” For Asian Paints, cricket is not a one-off visibility asset but a season-long content ecosystem that lets the brand “weave” itself into match experiences across formats.

The company is already exploring how this positioning can stretch, with Syngle confirming that Asian Paints remains open to expanding its presence across the IPL and WPL. The partnership with BCCI, he says, “cuts across all properties of cricket far more strongly,” allowing the brand to maximise its leverage.

Syngle also points to a shifting landscape. With legacy brands revisiting cricket sponsorships, he acknowledges that the moment “creates a flutter” and serves as “an eye opener” for many. But he frames Asian Paints’ move as a leadership signal rather than a reaction to this trend.

“As we go forward, we will look at how we maximise our marketing efforts and look at more spends,” he says, reflecting the company’s already-elevated ad investments this year.

In his concluding remark, Syngle underlines how he views the company’s role in the evolving sports-marketing environment. “We can only set a trend,” he says. “People have to make a case study out of it.”