TV most trusted medium since people prefer to watch cricket on large screen: Panel

The e4m Pitch BrandTalk 2022 brought the industry stalwarts together to discuss measures for brands to stay relevant and novel ways to upskill. The theme of the conference was ‘Aligning brand vision and business growth.'

Panellists discussed the topic ‘Cricket on Television – The ideal platform for building brands’, exploring the unmatched scale of cricket on television in India, and how brands benefitted from associating with cricket on TV and aided long-term brand-building processes.

The panel comprised Hema Malik, chief investment officer, Mediabrands India; Puneeth Bekal, director – marketing, Mastercard; Samir Sethi, vice president and head – brand marketing, Policybazaar.com and Ujjwal Sinha, director – marketing, CARS24.

The session was chaired by Lloyd Mathias, a business strategist and angel investor.

Mathias kicked off the discussion, quizzing the panel about brand objectives while sponsoring cricket and leveraging its association.

To this Bekal said, “We have been associated with cricket for the past four years since we signed on legendary ambassador MS Dhoni. We have been sponsoring cricket both on ground and on air. Out of those 700 million consumers who consume the sport in India, approximately 630 million consume cricket.

"There was a recent survey done by an institute that showed that 83 per cent of people would prefer to watch or consume cricket on a large screen. The reason is that it is fun to watch and experience cricket on a larger screen. There is a lot of distraction while watching live cricket on a mobile screen. This [large screen] is one occasion within the family where you watch the sport together. Hence, the attention you get while you are consuming cricket is much higher and therefore, TV is a preferred medium.

"Today, TV is still considered as the most trusted medium; in fact, TV ads are still the number one choice across brands to build a positive impression. Possibly, the weightage given by the consumer when he or she sees a TV ad is similar to a weightage given to a recommendation by a friend or family. The scale which cricket brings to the table and the higher attention span altogether, I think, is a very great place for any brand to be a part of the cricket ecosystem. We are deeply committed to sports in general and obviously cricket thereon.”

Malik elaborated on the balancing approach while dealing with clients for various sports when she stated: “HD only going HD is a very effective way to look at targeting a certain set of audiences at much lesser cost and going back to our original media planning approach. Minimising spillover used to be one of the key criteria and I think this approach gives us that you can go and focus on a certain set of audiences but of course, that is if you have clients which are talking to premium audiences. HD gives you a solution that also controls your investment on the platform."

She also spoke about leveraging regional feeds, which is another way to get the target markets of the brand's choice. Malik also noted that while the cost of associating with IPL, Bilateral or other series is high, the returns are quite high for brands: "I think the numbers that you get in return justify the investments. The entry cost turns out to be a barrier because if you are not a large budget client, then there is a problem.”

Talking about the rationale behind Policybazaar’s prolonged campaign through the IPL season, Sethi elucidated, “These days the off-season has just ended. There is one series or tournament one after the other. That did affect the audience a little but thankfully we are seeing positive signs of that interest coming back. The last two tournaments, including the ICC T20 and the bilateral before that, rated very well. This also gives us a chance to reach out to a lot of audiences throughout the year. We are not just dependent on the IPL period being the sole cricket tournament happening. It is a great thing for us because we are not a seasonal advertiser. We advertise throughout the year and it is to flatten out the lowering demand curve.

"Two of our per categories are terms insurance and health insurance. Both of these are relatively low-demand categories. A lot of advertising we do is to create new demand. While the efforts are more fruitful during the season but you have to still keep on doing it the rest of the year as well because you need to create that demand as it is a very low penetration category.”

Concluding the session, Sinha spoke about keeping an eye out for celebrity endorsements and what to do if brand ambassadors fall prey to controversy. He conveyed, “When brands become big, they want to play a little bit safe. MS Dhoni, I think, is the safest bet that we can have. They have got some good stuff with them too. You have a cricketer for a brand ambassador. He has got a national appeal. So, I think that also plays in the favour.”