As per Wikipedia the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India usually contested between March and May of every year by eight teams representing eight different cities or states in India. The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2007.
The Indian Premier League is not only one of the biggest sporting events but is also considered one of the best advertising platforms.
Little wonder then brands always bet big on the league. While some brands take the advertising route during IPL matches on TV and on the digital medium, others opt for different types of sponsorships.
But with the high cost of sponsorship and advertisements, many wonder what brands gain from such associations.
Due to the COVID widespread, the Indian Premier League took place in Dubai this year. However, this year the matches were played in empty stadiums. Also, this IPL season has seen several turnarounds related to sponsorships. Finally, everything is settled, and the matches started on September 19th.
It was the first world series that happened in 2020. Even the Olympics, scheduled to be played in Tokyo, Japan this year has been postponed, till the year 2021.
IPL is a series filled with excitement and enthusiasm. People who are locked down in their houses finally got some in-house entertainment.
Though, what is there for the advertisers? How stadiums with no audience will affect the overall earnings and viewership of this premier league?
Advertising on TV during IPL will cost a brand around Rs 12-13 lakh for a 10-second slot. On digital or Disney+Hotstar, the official digital streaming partner of IPL, cost per mille for a 30-second mid-roll ad was around Rs 360 for IPL 2019.
CPM refers to the cost an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions. Ad impressions are counted every time an ad is displayed.
While advertising during IPL could amount to lakhs of rupees, sponsorships costs crores of rupees.
Take the example of the most expensive sponsorship - the title sponsor, which this year is Dream11. Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform that paid Rs 222 crore to get its name right next to IPL.
During the last IPL, the brand name next to IPL was Vivo, which paid Rs 440 crore -- around 50 percent higher than what Dream11 is paying for IPL Season 13.
According to research conducted by Duff and Phelp, there is going to be an approximate increase of 13.5% INR in terms of value.
Among the many firsts in Indian Premier League 2020, is a likely new high. Advertising spends on platforms like Facebook and Google's YouTube and other social media platforms for the upcoming Indian Premier League have gone up by at least 20% this year as the tournament went digital.
Spends are also bound to go up because IPL coincides with the festive season this year, which anyway constitutes for a considerable share of any marketer's yearly budget. IPL 2020 kickstarted from September 19.
The cherry on the cake this year is that the tournament, which was played in the UAE, also coincides with the festive season back home. This is likely to lead to an increase in spends which includes a fair considerable share of any marketer’s yearly budget.
Harsh Shah, senior VP and business head, West at Dentsu Webchutney, said, “IPL brings back a sense of normalcy just like how we have gradually phased out of a lockdown. Brands have already put in motion their plans for the rest of the year working around the sensibilities of a consumer who is on the path of recovery. Festive season and the brands’ need to get back on their feet will result in spends being up by at least 20% for this year. They could even go up to about 35%.”
Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network said- “Sport used to be largely male-dominated in viewership but IPL managed to change that. The tournament made its viewership a lot more family inclusive. I can not think of any other Indian TV property which is so universal and cuts across age groups, genders, and geographies.”
However, IPL has always been a great success. In the year of 2019, the Indian premier league was worth 47,500 crores. Value of IPL in 2018 was 41,800 crores. Therefore, if compared in terms of evaluation, it has shown an appreciable increase in the consecutive years.
In 2019, it was reported that the official broadcaster of IPL Star India generated an approximate worth of 2,000 crores which was somewhere equivalent to the amount fetched in the year 2018. However, according to Mohit Joshi, Managing Director at Havas Media Group, Star India is going to see an increase of at least 20%. One of the major reasons for this would be the increase in the in-house viewership leading to an increase in the TRP of the channel.
In the year 2019, Advertising agencies have seen a bad phase. The reasons being the slowdown in the economy, and the introduction of New Tariff order by TRAI. Therefore, the Indian Premier League season 2020 is looking promising.
This year’s IPL will also saw the slow take-over of the game’s sponsorships by Indian start-ups. Fantasy sports platform Dream11 won the title sponsorship rights for the IPL 2020, with a bid of INR 222 Cr. Dream11 won the rights, after the league’s previous sponsor, Chinese phone-maker Vivo pulled out of sponsoring the 2020 edition, amid growing anti-China sentiment in India after border clashes between the two countries in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June.
Other Indian start-ups, such as digital payments decacorn Paytm, which is India’s highest-valued start-up at $16 Bn in June 2020, also became a title sponsor with the BCCI.
The IPL also added EdTech start-up, Unacademy as an official partner for the competition, for a period of three years. The deal is reported to be worth INR 120-130 Cr.
Ahead of the tournament’s start date of September 19, MakeMyTrip had announced plans to expand its services to the UAE, across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, and Umm Al Quwain. This will be led by a marketing campaign for potential customers across India and the UAE.
My11Circle, MyTeam11, Unacademy, Khatabook, and Dunzo are some of the names that debuted in IPL advertising this year.
Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India shared her views and provided a breakdown of expenditure on advertisement in digital media and TV during this IPL season 2020. According to the breakdown provided by her, there will be an overall amount spent on the advertisement will be 3,000 – 3,300 crores (TV – 2,300 – 2,500 cores, Digital – 800 – 1000 crore).
According to the calculations by Rebecca Noronha, Senior Manager – Media, Gozoop and Rikki Agrawal, Co-founder, Chief Business & Operating Officer at Blink Digital the advertisement expenditure is going to rise on an approximate 30-40% during this IPL season.
Sujay Kar– Group Director and Lead – Commerce, VMLY&R SEA, and India are placing his bets on digital media platforms. According to him, “Digital is expected to see the highest growth as the top Media platform, as Mobile content consumption for Sports and Entertainment is on a rise”.
The Duff and Phelps report has listed IPL among the world top ten sports leagues. Numerous brands are trying to associate themselves with the Indian Premier League, either they want to be on the Jersey of the players by providing sponsorship or sponsor a team.
According to the reports shared by BARC India, In the year 2019, Star India viewership reached 462 million, during the IPL season. There was an approximate 12% increase in the viewership since the year 2018. The Star India aired the Indian Premier League, in eight different languages and 24 channels were on display.
Hotstar recorded a record-breaking reach of 300 million views. The highest one-day viewership record on the platform was 18.6 million, on the final day ( Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians).
According to Bhasin, the medium of viewing will not matter, and both digital and TV will get an equal response. He also stated: “For those 40 days, it is hard for any other programming to compete with at the same time slot as the IPL because of its impact. It has almost become a part of our culture.”
Bhasin further says, “ground activities and OOH are equally important at times like this. Depending upon the product and the category, using various media and giving a consistent message across them is going to be fruitful for brands”.
According to Mr Joshi, there is always more viewership and reach related to the television. Therefore, it is best for massive brands. However, the brands with a particular niche, digital/OTT platforms like Hotstar are the best.
Noronho explains “Surprisingly, this year, new emerging ad channels like Sharechat (the Indic language-based social network) have released a Cricket-special brand integration. Advertisers who have their audience present in Tier II and Tier III cities would consider leveraging this medium.”
IPL has always been a trendsetter for the market, generating new ideas for advertisement and providing creative content for the content creators.
This year “Star Sports has launched a regional sports channel to give regional flavour to local audiences, innovation in terms of match scheduling strategy – big matches on weekends. Super Sunday matches will be telecasted on movie channels and other regional channels to reach a mass audience” an observation by Joshi.
Some of the interesting ways of advertising your products could be mini-games, Social feeds, distribution of coupons, Watch and win can provide a successful engagement ratio with the audience.
There is no denying that the title sponsorship deal is expensive but it also gives the brand maximum exposure. Every time IPL is mentioned, the brand name is mentioned. It is never just IPL; it is either Vivo IPL or Dream11 IPL.
“Title sponsorship means that the name of sponsor is prefixed to ‘IPL’ wherever it is used ... in the logo, on the trophy, in all PR mentions, broadcast references, player jerseys, in-stadia,” said Sandeep Goyal, chief mentor, Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB).
This way, the brand gets high visibility and possibly high recall value as well.
Take Vivo’s example. According to a survey conducted by YouGov, a data-collecting site, Vivo had the highest recall value in the first five weeks of IPL last year. The survey was conducted among 1,000 respondents in India, between March 26 and April 26 last year.
Another study, IPL Brand Effectiveness, by Kantar and media agency network Group M, points out that Vivo was among the top three most-noticed brands during IPL 2018.
Plus, Vivo also made sure that it had maximum visibility. Last year, the company introduced multiple touch points for audiences like ‘Vivo VIP Box’.
The company also launched a new phone model, a strategy which Vivo has been following since the beginning of its association with IPL. In 2019, Vivo had launched Vivo V15 Pro during IPL, and in 2016, between April and May, Vivo had launched two new models -- Vivo V3 and V3 Max.
A report, IPL Brands Insights Book 2019, by Velocity MR, market research and insights provider, noted that IPL is a good platform for product launches.
Despite all the exposure a title sponsor gets, there is no guarantee that the brand will get the highest visibility.
In fact, the Kantar-Group M study pointed out that despite a high recall value, Vivo lost out to Paytm and Jio during IPL 2018 as the two brands were present on multiple platforms.
Jio had signed sponsorship deals with all the eight franchises in 2018.
Goyal pointed out that “the title sponsorship is a deal on naming of the tournament between BCCI and the sponsor. So, except for default/incidental visibility on the broadcast, the title sponsor has no real entitlements. For broadcast or digital presence, the sponsor has to make a separate deal for on-air presence.”
Even when it comes to the title sponsor’s mention on player jerseys, the name can be seen on the sleeves.
According to the Velocity MR study, the most fruitful position for brands on the jersey is the front-center position, which has a 53 percent recall value.
Yet, Vivo’s title sponsorship gamble paid off, say, experts, who attribute the company’s increased market share in the smartphone segment in India to Vivo’s association with IPL.
Vivo posted its best performance in India in Q1 2019 and shipped more than 4.5 million units, according to Singapore-headquartered market research firm Canalys.
Vivo's sales for the fiscal ending March 2019 went up by 54 percent, according to the company's filings.
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