MPL’s IPL spot misses the mark, say creative heads

Fantasy sports gaming firm MPL last week rolled out a brand film featuring Virat Kohli to capitalise on the reach of the IPL.  

Unlike last season, when the brand took a quirky route, this year the brand took a direct route to deliver the message of ‘safe play’. In the latest campaign, Kohli is seen

talking about the dangers of fraud and cheating and how MPL works in a safe environment.

Ad industry observers have not been much impressed with the way the ad has been conceived. Subodh Chaubey, Creative Director, Infectious Advertising says, “In the age of AI, where deep fakes are the rage, the idea of a fraud Virat Kohli certainly gets attention. While the ad does establish that MPL is safe, it still fails to end on a convincing argument, unless, of course, you take the real Virat Kohli's word for it.”

For Nitika Parmar, Group Creative Director, VMLY&R, the ad fails to deliver the message well. “Security of the gaming apps is indeed a matter of great concern. And many are coming forward to maximize the level of security barriers in their applications. MPL’s player-first approach illustrates its commitment towards offering a safe and secure gaming experience. The visual device of an alert sign and the glitch are popular symbols, we all recognise. Overall, it’s comforting to know that this gaming platform is safe but it doesn’t tell me how do they achieve that.”

Sharing the missing element of the ad, Vedanshi Saraogi, Copy Supervisor, FCB Ulka, said, “The ad has a nice visual device to show fraud in the form of a glitch. However, the entire angle of being scared to be on one of these apps is getting missed in the storyline. It is communicated in the dialogues, making it a very direct communication.”