How can brands leverage IPL without direct association?

Popularity and sheer madness of cricket in India is not new. Add IPL to the mix and you have a festival at your hands - sports, celebrity factor, and lots of entertainment. To put the IPL fervor into perspective, here’s some statistics - Twitter’s official blog suggests that in 2019, IPL set a new record garnering 27 million tweets throughout the season. Individual teams too witnessed endless chatter and so did high points of individual matches.

Add this craze to the current situation - pandemic blues, revival of Live sporting content after a hiatus of nearly 6 months, and the timing as it accompanies the festive season. Opportunity for marketers is ripe. Nevertheless, it isn’t always possible to invest in IPL for direct association or advertising on its official broadcast partners (TV + Digital). This doesn’t imply that brands cannot leverage the cricket wave - one that is dominant on social media in various forms.

Remember Amazon Chonkpur Cheetahs? One of the biggest and most successful IPL campaigns, functioned rather independently but managed to ride the IPL wave big time. For the unacquainted, as a part of the campaign, Amazon India created content around a quirky team who went through a lot of highs and lows as they trained passionately.

https://twitter.com/amazonIN/status/866216008196866048

As IPL enters its final lap, the air is thick with excitement and makes for a good opening to become a part of the conversation. Here are a few tips on how to leverage the IPL or any sporting league’s popularity even when you’re not associated with it in official capacity.

Cricket as Theme

One of the safest ways to bank on the momentum would be to create a cricket theme campaign instead of IPL per se. The idea is to weave in the cricket assets with your product or services and create a piece of communication that engages. For instance, in 2016, Durex India created D20, a campaign that embraced the whole T20 phenomenon and added their usual double entendre and innuendos to the whole concept.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=external&v=760068220760884

The idea is to create a concept or theme that works independently while using the conversational elements of the trending topic.

Capitalising the Match Time

With the arrival of social media, everything has become real time and that can be a great tactic when attempting to ride a topical wave. In this case the topical wave is IPL and your real time update from the match could be around the sixes and fours or wickets. Basically tweet or post about all high points of the match with your brand twist added to it.

Tinder India would make for a great example here. They speak about anything and everything topical, albeit add a Tinder flavor to it.

https://twitter.com/Tinder_India/status/1310274512269713408

'Moment Marketing'

It is essential to think of Ideas from the moments of matches and grabbing the opportunity and bringing in the magic with relevant content. Look out for moments that are likely to go viral or create a buzz. Keep certain templates ready which can be customized basis the moment that is being spoken about. Make sure you don't put a lot of time in approvals. Use WhatsApp and calls to get the creative out as soon as a viral event has taken place. Double Superover in a recent match instantly went viral and many brands were quick to capitalize on the phenomenon.

PS. Leverage these moments only if they're relevant to your brand. Force fit is a strict no no.

Regional Approach

Vernacular is no longer a trend of the feature, it is happening now. The number of users consuming social media and using the internet in their language of choice is now higher than ever and it is only going to increase. IPL is one of the best opportunities to capitalize a regional theme. Take Chennai Super Kings for example. The team enjoys immense regional pride not to mention the Dhoni effect. Let’s say a Chennai based brand were to use the Whistle Podu theme in their communication they stand the chance to become the part of a bigger conversation.

Use Cricket Influencers who are not Bound by Contract

The impact of having celebrities in a campaign is tried and tested and using them in your cricket season communication would be apt. However, make sure to bring on cricketers, commentators or relevant personalities that are not under a contract. This helps you create engaging and relevant content without having to disrupt the ecosystem.

For instance, one of the very recent campaigns by cricket influencers this cricket season is Sunfeast's 'Kyuki Dark Fantasy Lucky hai' where Dhanashree Verma talks about superstitions associated with Cricket. Verma is also associated with cricket while isn’t under any binding contract making her a perfect value add to the brand.

Leveraging cricket fervor is mostly a good idea. Moreso in 2020, when Live sports makes a comeback after a huge hiatus and its close proximity with the festive season. How you leverage it makes all the difference!