With the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) next edition just under three weeks away, broadcaster JioStar is betting big on three main offerings to draw more advertisers to the cricketing carnival. Ishan Chatterjee, chief business officer, sports revenue, SMB and creator, JioStar, expects the combination of improved reach, new advertising innovations and a partnership with Nielsen for digital advertising measurement to draw more advertisers to the cricketing extravaganza.
JioStar is targeting a reach of 1 billion viewers this season across TV and digital. Last year, IPL reached 525 million viewers on TV and on digital, 425 million on handheld devices. The merger of Viacom18 and Star India means that the newly formed media behemoth JioStar is expected to outdo the reach that IPL saw last season.
“The reach and scale that the IPL has achieved in the past has made it a marquee event on the marketing calendar for most brands. With summer setting in early, brands from categories like beverages, fans, ACs and electrical appliances, as well as categories such as paints, mobile phone handsets, BFSI and fantasy gaming are showing great interest,” says Chatterjee.
JioStar is reportedly targeting Rs 5,000 crore in ad revenues from the IPL.
As per media reports, certain FMCG firms such as HUL have raised concerns about JioStar’s ad scheduling on OTT, something that JioStar is attempting to address through its recently announced partnership with media audience measurement firm, Nielsen.
“We are establishing a dedicated data pipeline to Nielsen where we are passing on our first-party data to them, which goes into a clean room and then they apply their expertise to report directly to advertisers on their campaign metrics. The reporting is done by Nielsen and not by us. Some advertiser categories, especially FMCG, require third-party data validation in order to really be confident about spending money on any property,” explains Chatterjee.
This is the first time that advertisers can have their campaign metrics validated by a third-party expert on a live sports event, he adds. JioStar is also sharpening its targeting capabilities with various advertising innovations too. “We’re seeing a deep interest from advertisers in premiumisation. So, we’re launching targeting capabilities on digital that have CTV plus iOS and Android devices above Rs 50,000. Moreover, in the media plan, if you overlay HD, you get a cohort of premium audiences that many advertisers are targeting,” Chatterjee points out.
JioStar is also in talks with several women-centric brands, considering that the IPL drew in over 240 million women viewers on TV alone last season. Sharper location targeting is another innovation being proposed especially to brands that are more local in nature such as SMBs and real estate developers. JioStar has begun outreach initiatives with SMB advertisers across 10 cities in the country and is working to make the overall value proposition into something that is bite-sized with simpler assets, lower media outlays and simpler channel targeting.
One of the major apprehensions among both, advertisers and viewers was the digital streaming on JioHotstar. After the platform announced a range of subscription packages, the perception was that the free streaming IPL party that JioCinema offered fans last year had ended.
Chatterjee clarifies that the plan on OTT is to allow users a ‘significant amount of free watch-time’ and sample not just IPL but also other content available on the platform. JioHotstar is still to determine the amount of free watch-time it will offer users before they will need to purchase a subscription.
Experts believe that could cause a notable drop in OTT viewership, but Chatterjee asserts that he is not worried. “Last weekend, we streamed the India-Pakistan Champions Trophy game, which had the highest viewership on digital for any India-Pakistan match,” he says.
Reports indicate that viewership for the match was over 600 million.
Chatterjee adds, “If advertisers are coming to IPL because of its reach or ability to target a particular cohort, we have managed to deliver that during the India-Pakistan game already. I am confident that the same dynamic will flow into the IPL and that we will be able to 100% meet the commitment made to our advertisers.”