IPL 2023 ads that hit it out of the park

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is undoubtedly the king of “cricketainment” in the country and a big draw for brands due to its mass connection. Advertisers benefit from the millions of eyes that stay glued to the television and OTT screens for close to two months. Like the years prior, brands have leveraged their big marketing budgets to crank out some eye-catching campaigns this year.

As we complete a fortnight of IPL 2023, we take stock of some of the interesting ads this year. They have been listed alphabetically.  

Dream11

Gaming platform Dream11’s 3 Idiots campaign titled #SabKhelenge has been winning all kinds of accolades this season. The multi-starrer ads can be best described as the meeting of India’s two biggest obsessions – Bollywood and cricket. After releasing the initial ad, the brand also launched a series of ads where th3 3 Idiots actors and cricketers are seen engaging in hilarious banters. This one’s definitely for the books.

Fevicol

Adhesive brand Fevicol revisited the age-old acrimony between brothers-in-law in India for its jija-saala ad. The campaign by Ogilvy India titled “No Chindichori” showcases the consequences of skimping on good quality adhesives. The ad, in trademark Fevicol style, is humorous but departs from the usual exaggerated style of the brand where the focus is on the glue’s godlike adhesion.

Frooti

Basking in RRR’s Oscar success, actors Ram Charan and Alia Bhatt are the flavours of the season. Parle Agro’s Frooti ad for IPL leveraged their twin star power to appeal to the audience at a pan-India level. The campaign has been conceptualised by &Walsh, showcasing a quirky debate between the two stars over Frooti. The ads are refreshingly quirky and follow the same colourful aesthetics of &Walsh’s previous Frooti campaigns.

JioCinema

JioCinema has launched a slew of fan-friendly features to make IPL viewing on OTT more enjoyable for the cricket-loving nation. To demonstrate these features, the platform teamed up with Ogilvy for a quirky ad with actors Shweta Tripathi and Abhishek Banerjee and cricketers MS Dhoni and Suryakumar Yadav. The spot, according to  JioCinema, is a satire on the redundancy of appointment viewing. The ad combines the magic of a song-dance routine with a rustic appeal to highlight the new features of the platform for IPL.

JioMart

The age of e-comm may have ushered in convenience but at the cost of the human element of transactions. The underlying thought behind JioMart’s latest campaign is the relationship between shopkeepers and customers that often go beyond business. The each of the four films of the campaign focuses on a different aspect of customer-shopkeeper equation in India.

RuPay

Undoubtedly one of the most memorable ads of the season belongs to RuPay. The payment app brought in cricketer Dinesh Karthik for a hilarious ad that demonstrates the importance of linking RuPay credit card to UPI. The campaign has een conceptualised by DDB Mudra.