In India, viewers are obsessed with the three C’s – cricket, crime, cinema and currently the ICC Cricket Men’s Cricket World Cup is on-going. Clashing with the festive seasons, brands now have more than one reason to spend on advertising and marketing. It is estimated that ad-spends will increase by 5-10% this festive season. “Advertising rates are going higher because this is a peak season and all large brands pump in a lot of money. 5-10% of all advertising spent during festive is projected to happen on the sporting events, and that does inflate the prices – specifically if a brand opts for connected TV advertising. Advertising rates on platforms such as Meta and Google go up by 10-15% during this period,” Amit Dhawan, partner and CEO, Art-E, told BrandWagon Online.
The enthusiasm can be transparently spotted with the various TVCs rolled by brands including major players such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, P&G’s Vicks and other brands including Polycab, Lenovo, Mondelez, among others. Interestingly, different brands seem to be focusing on varied areas. This year from what is observed it is a tough competition between fulfilling the emotional quotient versus selling products. “Our collaboration with the ICC World Cup 2023 signifies an initiative to connect with a fresh audience demographic, leveraging the appeal of a sport deeply ingrained in our nation’s culture,” Nilesh Malani, executive president and chief marketing officer, Polycab India, explained.
With the campaign, the company aims at engaging with consumers in the SEC ABC and male audience. Through research, the company claims to have identified key decision-makers aged between 20-50 years old besides female audiences.
Ads, ads and more ads!
itel, a smartphone company, rolled out its campaign which has been conceptualised and executed by Havas Worldwide India. The campaign called ‘Jode Bharat Ka Har Dil’ captures the emotion of an average lower middle class amidst the clatter of cricket World Cup. The campaign captures the story wherein a father saves money so that his son can enjoy the match in the stadium. However, after knowing that the savings can only buy him one ticket, the son purchases a smartphone so that he can enjoy the match with his family rather than going alone to the stadium.
Another ad ‘Don’t jinx it’ by Mondelez’s Oreo, conceptualised by Leo Burnett, featuring former Indian cricket player and captain MS Dhoni, focuses on many of the Indian rituals practised for winning. In the ad film, the cricketer take on a playful note evocating people to not jinx it, rather build a counter-culture view to get a billion cricket-crazy fans go “shhhh” ahead of the tournament.
Interestingly, dating app Bumble roped in former cricketer Ravi Shastri in their campaign ‘Special Delivery’. In the ad film, it is funny to watch the cricketer doing commentary on dating for youth.
According to an article by Bloomberg, economists at Bank of Baroda believe that the cricket World Cup may boost India’s economy by Rs 220 billion. Darshana Bhalla, founder and CEO, D’Artist Talent Ventures, believes that most of the high decibel sporting events have multiple economic collateral benefits arising out of it, be it through surround content extrapolations or brand investments in sponsorships with the event or with the talent. “This normally grows as a percentage of the annual advertising budgets that grow Y-o-Y and it is accounted for in advance due to the availability of the event calendar,” Bhalla commented.
Speaking of variety!
While most brands prefer to advertise using digital mediums such as YouTube, Hotstar and Meta, this year audio ads seems to have caught the fancy of many. “Audio ads are a great way to re-emphasise the messaging. Music and sports hold a greater place in the heart of Indians, and we feel that an audio format such as our anthem brings together music, cricket and the cheers of our fans will resonate with fans across the country during this cricket season,” Sahil Sethi, category leader- personal healthcare, P&G India, said. P&G is one of the brands currently advertising during the matches.
Moreover, for a few brands such as Platinum Guild International, the World Cup is the perfect platform to roll-out its new collection. “We leveraged this high octane cricket season by unveiling a new campaign featuring Suryakumar Yadav. The highlight of this campaign has been a six part mini series titled ‘A Minute with Men of Platinum X Suryakumar Yadav’. We are also looking at a content collaboration with ESPN CricInfo,” Sujala Martis, director-consumer marketing, India, explained.