Cricket World Cup: Regional brands ready to play the game?

The much-awaited ICC Cricket World has returned to India after 12 years and cricket fans in the country are brimming with excitement. Brands too are ready with their game plan to make the most of this massive opportunity over the next more than 40 days. While big tournaments like the Cricket World Cup have traditionally attracted more of national brands with deep pockets, this time, regional brands too are showing considerable interest in the game. Factors such as the recent success of the Indian Premiere League, the Cricket World Cup coinciding with the festive season and the availability of several low-cost digital advertising avenues could have emboldened local brands from different regions to invest their ad monies here, feel experts.

“While regional brands may not necessarily sponsor teams, they are strategically investing in OTT, TV and digital advertising during matches and highlights, capitalizing on moment marketing trends,” says Amit Dhawan, Partner & CEO, Art-E.

According to Dhawan, this dynamic shift underscores the adaptability of regional brands in leveraging diverse advertising opportunities within the sports industry.

“Also, the Cricket World Cup's location in India this year has boosted brand participation. The shorter duration of the World Cup may lead to higher ad spends by these brands, aiming to capture the cricket-crazy Indian audience. The Indian Premier League (IPL) too consistently witnesses enthusiasm from regional brands, thanks to its format and the opportunity to align with regional teams,” he explains further.

Aparna Tadikonda, EVP – South, Interactive Avenues, believes that regional players are evaluating the costs and the competitive landscape for investing in World Cup.

“Like national brands, regional brands are also evaluating this unique opportunity, weighing the pros and cons. The approach will depend on audience availability, investments, and the expected return on investment. From a platform perspective, both the Cricket World Cup and other major events outside of it offer advertising opportunities for brands. Disney+ Hotstar, for instance, is expected to reach a base of 450 million users with approximately 50 million concurrent viewers during the World Cup.”

According to market research company Elara Capital, one can expect Cricket World Cup to generate Rs 20-22bn in ad revenue on TV/digital platforms combined.

While several regional brands have come forward with their investments for, experts believe there are some others who are still hesitant.

Says Sarfaraz Ansari, Senior Vice President – Integrated Media, DDB MudraMax, “Regional brands have never been the force on any mega cricketing events primarily because of three reasons – Currently only Tamil, Telugu & Kannada feed available. Majority of these regional population is still habitual of watching English feed and the transition to local language has not happened to the extent.”

“Also, regional players are very price-sensitive and selective. Cricket in language feed comes at a high premium, in the range of 15X-20X. This is a huge barrier in their onboarding for any national mega event. The reason for high pricing for local feed is the limited availability of inventory. Only inventory which gets unsold for few advertising categories like gaming in this regional market is made available for local players.”

Viren Razdan, Managing Director, Brand-nomics, too believes that high costs are a hindrance for regional players investing in WC marketing.

“ICC has very clear guidelines for usage of the World Cup mark for their exclusive sponsor partners, and very often that stops a lot of competing brands to play in that arena. However, the tournament does provide very good number of eyeballs and local brands use that at a regional level for sales promotion and other possible associations. The costs are not only prohibitive for regional players, but would make sense only if the regional barnds has a ready-to-roll-out national target,” he explains.

e4m reached out to Disney Star for their comments on the story, but is yet to give a reply.