Game on: Brands and agencies pad up for IPL season at Star Sports Business Leaders Meet

In an attention-starved economy driven by huge number of ads across devices and mediums, television becomes a critical platform for brands to be able to occupy consumer mind space, and for a significantly longer duration. As per a study by ThinkTV, TV ads have a 3X higher lingering effect on the minds of viewers compared to any other media. Within television, cricket has long been leading the pack in terms of scale and attention. Cricket commands 61% higher ad attention from viewers than any other TV genres, as per a study by T-Vision. IPL is one tentpole opportunity that has proven time and again its ability to launch brands, build category leadership and reach new users each season. With the 2024 season approaching, Star Sports and exchange4media recently hosted a myriad of SMB brands and Media Agencies in New Delhi.

The event gave brands deep insight into the price flexibility of advertising on Star Sports, the cost efficiency of investments and the distinct impact IPL on TV has on business KPIs of advertisers. Brands have enjoyed huge impact on business KPIs through IPL on TV at minimal investment outlays. Just a single match of IPL has the power to reach 100 million viewers, as per BARC. The cost efficiency IPL on TV offers is an industry benchmark, with advertisers enjoying stellar CPMs of 45 at the scale that it provides. Additionally, TV enjoys 10X higher screen time than the smaller screen due to the lean-back consumption of live sports.

A panel discussion featuring industry expects from brands, agencies and media analysts enlightened the audience on the various capacities in which brands can leverage IPL on TV and the ability of TV to generate distinct business impact compared to all other mediums.

Vikas Saxena, Co-founder, SYNC, discussed all things TV – be it around debunking myths around ‘TV advertising is an expensive property’ or around ‘TV ads aren’t measurable’.
“TV in modern times is a very measurable medium. Unlike 2-3 decades ago, now there are smartphones in people’s hands, which makes TV measurable very quickly, because people start searching for you. This further becomes essentially more important for the up-and-coming brands, because with this search share going up, there is a boost to the future market share of the brand. In terms of cost, the KPI rise per rupee cost is the cheapest when it comes to cricket,” explained Saxena.

B Sridhar, VP – Mainline Business, Media Planning at Innocean spoke about how pure exposure on TV during cricket events allows brands to reach a prospective buyer, an influencer and a user all at the same time, who are ready to be in the market today, tomorrow or in the very near future. According to Sridhar, this builds a mental inventory of the brand into the future and one needs to look at it holistically, rather than performance-led campaigns.

Joydeep Basuroy, AGM - Pernod Ricard and Rajesh Sethuraman, VP – Brand Experience at Blackberrys came forward to share experiences from the brand perspective, wherein Basuroy shared how an association for advertising on TV during live sports helped the brand to create shared brand experiences to drive equity when friends and family come together to enjoy live cricket on TV. Sethuraman highlighted how associating as a Wardrobe Partner for Cricket Live helped the brand to increase recall and double their brand awareness.

In the final session of the day, Shubhra Saraf Sethi, Head of Product, Revenue Strategy and Customer Marketing - Disney Star (Sports) and Rohit Kumar Anand, Director – Product & Revenue Strategy at Disney Star (Sports) addressed the audience to share some key learnings and trends that the company has noticed over the years, when it comes to live sports.

Shubhra explained that ads on television help gain that attention in the consumers’ mindspace and last in memory. “The impact of television is that your decay rates are lower, your memorability is larger. Once you see an ad, you will remember it 3X more times than what you see on any other media,” she added.

Shubhra’s presentation also noted that while the youth are a difficult segment to reach, IPL 2023 on TV reached close to 80% of the urban youth, a massive 43% growth compared to the previous season. Among other trends were sports interest among females being on a rapid rise with IPL on TV reaching close to 250 million female viewers.

Rohit Anand concluded the session highlighting how brands can advertise with Star Sports on IPL across outlays, followed by riveting case studies of early-stage brands that have witnessed large-scale business growth through the platform.

The event was called to a close as the audience dispersed into networking dinner and cocktails, where they interacted with the Star Sports team on the variety of opportunities available to them this IPL.