ICC World Cup 2023: Why more brands have chosen Team Digital this year

The ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, being hosted by India, has pulled in a lot of brands, both legacy and new ones, on TV and digital. While television has long been the top choice for most advertisers, in an interesting turn of events, this year, digital seems to have become the new favourite.

The digital streaming of World Cup on Disney+ Hotstar has a total of 19 sponsors. It is co-powered by Mahindra & Mahindra and Dream11. Booking.com, Surf Excel (HUL), Peter England, Thums Up, Kingfisher Premium Packaged Drinking Water, Diageo India, MRF Tyres, LendingKart, BPCL, Herbalife, Haier Appliances, Pernod Ricard India, AMFI, Google Pay, PhonePe, Amazon and Parle Biscuits are among the digital streaming associate sponsors. Out of these 19 sponsors, 11 are exclusively on digital. These include legacy brands such as MRF Tyres and Parle Biscuits. Amazon and Haier are two other big brands that have decided to go only-digital. PhonePe, HUL and BPCL are among the brands that are both on TV and digital.  TV, on the other hand, has a total of 15 sponsors this time.

According to experts, there are several reasons why there are more advertisers on digital this ICC Cricket World Cup. Two of the main reasons, according to them, is the free streaming option on mobile phones and a lower entry point on the digital platform compared to TV. Some experts say digital buying is substantially more efficient than TV, though there are some who feel it depends on what the brand’s expectations are.

Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head, Parle Products said, "The rates aren't worth looking at on TV. In our experience with the World Cup, digital works better because we can be confident that we are only paying for the number of people who are watching it,” Shah added.

He further explained that the World Cup is very uncertain. If the performance of India is not good, advertisers don't get a fair return on their investment on TV. “Between TV and digital, digital is more efficient. We are only paying for the viewership that we are getting, unlike TV, where advertisers are paying a huge amount and hope for the best. Also, nothing stops people watching it on digital. In fact, of late, the trend of watching matches on mobile is only picking up because people would not like to be tied down to TV,” mentioned Shah. 

Unlike Parle, Coca-Cola, one of the major sponsors of the tournament, decided to go on both TV and digital.

Arnab Roy, Vice President, Marketing CocaCola India and South-West Asia, stated that for the brand, both mediums are equally important because while digital allows consumers to watch the match wherever they want, even while travelling, some audiences prefer to watch the match on a larger screen with their families. "Both of them have very unique and important roles in the consumer connection plan and I think that's the reason why we wanted to ensure that we're there on both platforms."

There are certain brands that spend majorly in digital. One of them is Booking.com. Last year, the company spent somewhere around $6 billion globally on marketing and the majority of it was digital advertising because that's where traditionally the advertiser is the strongest.

“Traditionally, we have invested pretty heavily on the digital marketing side since we started off as an online brand. Digital is the channel where we receive a lot of our direct business from,” said Santosh Kumar, Country Manager for Indian Subcontinent & Indonesia at Booking.com earlier in an interview with e4m. 

“While we are very relevant to our partners all across the country, we also want to be relevant to consumers. Therefore, we are also investing a lot on social media,” shared Kumar.

Keeping ICC Cricket World Cup free on mobile is not the only reason why advertisers are attracted towards digital. In comparison to TV, the cost is much less on digital, told a senior media planner on the condition of anonymity.

He went on to say, "In the last two years, digital viewership has only grown, and thus its share of advertising has grown as well, because that's where your audience is. All of these possibilities are significantly better on digital compared to TV now that the stream is also free and consumers do not even need to subscribe to Disney+Hotstar. Also, as more people watch content on digital, why will they pay for TV, especially at such a high price?"

According to Vishal Chinchankar, CEO of Madison Digital and Madison Media Alpha, there are two approaches to how brands choose routes. One is television which gives you spill, whereas digital is sharp targeted. Now, some marketers still believe in sharp targeting, and others in spill.

He said in some cases where advertisers usually opt for television advertising but have decided to advertise only on digital this time, it is because of the entry point on the platform. “Television has a larger ticket size versus digital which can be still achieved with a smaller investment. Therefore, the point of investment is another reason why brands go for digital.”

He also believes that connected TV is making a big impact, and also getting big numbers. “For me, connected TV works extremely well. If a brand wants to target a certain market, or a certain type of audience, I would still love to go with digital or mobile,” Chinchankar said.

He shared that some of his agency’s brands have invested in digital more than television. “In terms of the number of advertisers, do we have more on digital? The answer is yes. And it's because of the objective of what that advertiser really wants.

Also, another factor why we are seeing more brands on digital is because this time it's free on mobile. “There's absolutely no doubt about it, because that's a double treat. Earlier, it was exposed only to the paid 60 million and but now the numbers are definitely looking good as it reaches out the larger audience base.

In the 2019 edition of ICC Cricket World Cup, Dream 11, Uber Eats, Amazon Pay and Coca Cola were the co-presenting sponsors for digital. The associate sponsors were Royal Challenge, Acko, CEAT, and ICICI Lombard. It was a good mix of both new and legacy companies.