With cricket on TV, our business has grown 2x, gained disproportionate reach: Arindam Paul

Can you tell us a bit about the journey of Atomberg as a startup?

Atomberg is primarily into consumer appliances. We operate in two categories - fans and mixer grinders. We started off in the fan market in 2015 and at that time we were an e-commerce-only brand and did this for three-four years. During this time, we understood that there is a good product market fit and so in 2018 we went offline as well. Initially, we started with small markets and gradually went pan India, as we speak today, we are truly an omni-channel brand. In the fan category, we have an annual run rate of close to Rs 700 crore, which also makes us one of the top six players in the market now with a market share of 6-7%. We started with mixer grinders only last year and so it has been less than a year in that category for us, but we are seeing good traction. Just like fans, mixer grinders are being sold only online at the moment, but the reviews and ratings are good, and we have reached a significant scale on e-commerce platforms, and we will soon launch into the offline space as well.

In your journey as a brand, Atomberg has leveraged digital advertising mediums initially and over the last year or so leveraged cricket on TV for impact. What is it that prompted you to try cricket on TV as a media vehicle?

Just like most new brands, we too started with only performance marketing because at that point we didn't have that kind of budget to spend on brand building. It was only in 2021 when we started with our mass media campaigns because by that time, I think we've reached a certain scale we're already doing close to around Rs 10-15 crore a month in terms of top line and we had also built a decent distribution and so we thought it would be the right time for us to start investing in brand building.

I will first talk about what TV does for brands like ours and then go into what cricket does for us which will explain our long-running and successful association with cricket on TV. TV allows you to reach the masses at a cheaper rate. The cost to reach on TV is the cheapest across mediums. Although our products are priced at a premium, we still consider ourselves to be a massive premium brand and not a super-premium brand. We have a fairly wide media target group (TG). And once you have a wide media TG, TV gives you a much lower cost per reach compared to any other medium that exists today. This we have seen during our regional association, and it was true even when we did the national campaign. So, coming to cricket, I think for categories like us, where there is significant involvement of retailers, and distributors as they play a key role in influencing the buyers, it is important for all our channel partners to see that Atomberg is as big a brand as any established brand in the market.

Associating with cricket puts you on a pedestal with all the other brands in the market. Another thing that cricket does is it gives you a very quick spike in reach as the sport is still widely consumed in India. And for brands like ours, where TG is predominantly male NCCS A, B between the age of 22 to 50, cricket will give you a quick spike in reach. We also saw an increase in reach across brand metrics even post the association. TV also allows for a disproportionate share of voice throughout the series. It builds trust among consumers as investing in cricket makes them think that a brand is serious about brand building. Although most of these benefits are unmeasurable, when you speak to enough consumers you realize that these realities still exist among them. People still take cricket on TV as a proxy for trusting the brand and for understanding how big the brand is. All these factors prompted us to try and once we saw results, we continued with it.

What role has the TV association on cricket played for Atomberg through the two bilateral series that you’ve advertised? Can you share some insight into the brand and business impact of the associations so far?

Our association with cricket on TV has been extremely successful, we have seen significant growth across brand metrics in the last year. Although not all of that can be attributed to our association with cricket on TV, it does have a part to play. In the last year when we started associating with cricket on TV our business has grown by 2X, which is almost 100% growth in our top line. The second thing is our distribution has also expanded by 50-60% as it is now becoming easier for us to convince retailers to stock our products. These are the two business impacts we have seen in the past one year. The third thing is our brand track numbers and our brand awareness numbers, those too have gone up by 2X in the last year. The brand searches too have gone up by 2X to 3X in the last one year.

The brand metric, distribution metric and business metric have all seen a significant improvement in the last 12 months. This growth can be attributed to several factors, but our association with cricket on TV has played a major role. The success of the previous two associations has prompted us to continue with the association as we are still a high-growth brand. While the category is growing by 10%, we aspire to grow at 40-50% for the next few years. It is very important for us to keep building on the goodwill that we have created over the last 18-24 months. Brand building requires a lot of continuity, and this uninterrupted association will help us achieve the desired brand and business metric.

What are some of the distinct benefits you’ve observed through your cricket on TV investments on Star Sports compared to other alternatives?

We have seen our brand grow across metrics after the association with cricket on TV. As far as my experience with Star Sports is concerned, it has been a pleasure associating with them as they go out of their way to help and nurture brands. They will provide additional support whenever inventory is available, they will allocate the inventory which made our relationship very strong over the last 12 months.

What are your thoughts on the creative effectiveness of an ad on TV vs Digital during a high-octane experience like Indian cricket? How does it compare with attention, receptiveness, and engagement through other mediums?

We have been doing a 360-degree campaign and so it is not possible to isolate the numbers just for one medium. But all those things that I mentioned in the interview earlier as to why we choose TV over digital still hold true and also bring better reception for the brand. TV is a better medium for ad reception due to the big screen experience, you are unable to skip an ad and the less clutter on the screen. TV allows brands to get their time in the spotlight and get disproportionate attention. Sponsorship on TV gets you a better share of voice and improves your frequency. In fact, advertising on TV helps reach translate into meaningful awareness and that is what you can call as a brand impact. That kind of impact is difficult to get in my opinion on any other medium.

For a durables brand like Atomberg, how important is collective viewing to create shared brand experiences and conversations?

For a durables brand, collective viewing is very important. It becomes very difficult for a household to purchase if the brand awareness is there only in males and not in females and so collective viewing is very important. There is another benefit that you get from cricket, you think of its viewership as male-dominant, but if you look at the numbers the spillover that happens to female viewership is also very high. Cricket on TV allows for the entire family to sit and watch together, making the brand experience better than any other medium so far.

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