They say the 3Cs – Cinema, Cricket and Crime are what have captured the hearts and minds of Indian consumers. Needless to say, cricket is a word synonymous with excitement, despair, horror, elation and frustration for Indians. With the Indian Premier League and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup set to be held between March and July respectively, it is expected that Indian audiences will have once again something to cheer for. As a result, brands too have begun to chalk out plans to cash in on the two large marquee events. Experts believe ad revenue and ad sales, especially in the IPL, are set to grow due to it being televised on two different platforms; JioCinema and Star Network. However, sports advertising overall would struggle. “The ODI World Cup last year was huge since it was hosted in India and it coincided with the festive season. The T20 World Cup, on the other hand, is going to be hosted in the US so the timings might not be suitable for Indian cricket enthusiasts, and it is being hosted during July which is monsoon season in India,” Indranil Blah, an independent sports consultant, told BrandWagon Online.
As per a TAM report, ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 witnessed an increase in the number of categories advertising to 105 in 2023 from 75 in 2019. Additionally, there was an increase in the number of brands advertising to 225 in 2023 from 170 in 2019. Moreover, the tally of advertisers, categories and brands rose by 18%, 22% and nine percent respectively during the last 37 matches as compared to the first 37 matches.
IPL vs the World Cup
With the calendar set to be enticing for cricket enthusiasts in 2024, the IPL and the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup are expected to attract their share of advertising revenue. However, experts believe the IPL might bring in more revenue since it would be free to watch on Viacom18’s JioCinema. “TATA IPL ’23 on JioCinema had more than 8x advertisers than that on linear TV, which in turn brought in two-thirds of ad revenue from IPL to digital. This trend is going to continue and in time to come, ad revenue on linear will only come down further even as IPL’s reach on JioCinema is expected to grow from 450 million last year to 650 million this year with CTV playing a significant role in propelling this growth,” Hursh Shrivastava, head of strategy, partnerships and acquisitions, Viacom18 Sports, said.
There were approximately more than 15 new categories advertised during IPL 16 as compared to IPL 15. Also, there were 37 categories which featured in IPL 15 but did not feature in IPL 16, as per a TAM report. Moreover, the top five brands contributed a 30% share of ad volumes in IPL 16 as compared to 21% in its previous season.
Industry experts opine that while the World Cup is the pinnacle of the sport from a viewer’s perspective, the IPL is a tournament that advertisers look forward to. The focus of advertisers is on India matches in the World Cup which are significantly less as compared to the number of matches in the IPL wherein the advertisers focus on each of the 76 matches. “Our endeavour for the upcoming IPL season will only be to make it bigger. During a World Cup, only India matches and marquee contests bring relevance for brands and advertisers, which at best could be seven to eight matches unlike in IPL where hyper-active franchises and their heroes bring audience to engage with for advertisers more engagement. The league’s high viewership and popularity across diverse demographics also make it attractive for targeted marketing, which is where digital comes into play,” Shrivatsava highlighted.
Such is the hype of IPL that Star Sports has increased its ad rates for season 17. The combined rate for standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) channels has increased to Rs 16.4 lakh from Rs 16 lakh for a 10-second spot while standard definition rates have grown to Rs 12.8 lakh from Rs 12 lakh for a 10-second spot. According to media reports, the expected IPL live stream cost per one thousand impressions (CPM) for JioCinema inventory would be approximately Rs 175, while targeted inventory may range between Rs 225 to Rs 265. Moreover, the spot rate for advertising on Connected TV is expected to be Rs 6.5 lakh per 10 seconds. The spot rates of the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup have not been disclosed yet.
2024 and possibilities
Various studies revealed that over the last two years, new-age brands have refrained from advertising due to their shift in focus towards profitability and stabilising unit economics which has seen legacy or traditional brands coming and dominating the advertisement slots. “The digital cycle is changing and creating new products. Traditional brands will keep on innovating new products. While the startups have dropped off, they have pushed the traditional brands to keep spending and innovating their business. I think startups are still going to be cautious owing to the state of the global economy,” Shiv Burman, founder, Burman Sports LLP, said.
Experts believe that the fintech category will add value as the sector will grow. The report by TAM suggested that four out of the top five brands consisted of large companies contributing to 19% ad volume share in IPL 16 as compared to eight percent in IPL 15.
The funding winter continues to persist making it harder for the new-age brands to advertise. However, there might be new avenues to generate revenue for the cricket tournaments. “One has to remember that 2024 is an election year. There would be spending from the political parties on advertising during IPL 2024. The election fervour would be coinciding with the IPL and the World Cup,” Hemant Dua, promoter, Inspiranti Sports, highlighted.
Moreover, experts think that while the ICC T20 World Cup would have a different format, the onus would still be on the India and marque games whereas advertising on the minor teams would be a spillover. Interestingly, experts claimed that a chunk of the advertising money would be used in the later half of the tournament depending on how India performs at the World Cup and the team that is selected for the World Cup.
The advertising possibilities could have been more had the agreement between Star and Zee held up. “The World Cup rights are with Star. The association between Zee and Star collapsing has mounted the pressure on Star. Had the TV rights resided with Zee, it would have brought in different advertisers because Zee’s bandwidth and reach are different. There is much more pressure on Star to recover the money they paid for the ICC rights,” Dua added.
According to Burman, there will be a significant change in the world of cricket as ICC and BCCI are looking for sponsors and new partners. “The IPL rights that Tata bought for Rs 500 crore while BCCI has put out a tender for other partnerships that would also add up to another Rs 500 crore. The structure of the ICC has changed significantly from last year, they are also seeking partnerships. It would be $10-12 million for a global player to become a partner or an associate partner. Both these platforms are looking for a new right cycle to start,” Burman added.