Star Sports, the official television broadcaster of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has provided a wealth of opportunities for advertisers to participate across budgets and goals for the upcoming 2024 season.
Before we get into the pointers, it’s worth noting that the IPL television broadcast presented marketers with unprecedented scale, with over 500 million viewers for the first time in 2023. Since then, cricket on television has surpassed all prior viewership records, and advertisers have been lured to the medium throughout the year due to its consistent measurability and great impact.
Major cricketing events in 2023 saw a significant turnout of both established and emerging businesses, with over 300 brands advertising on television. Established brands such as HUL, Airtel, Mahindra Auto, Emirates, Parle Products, Tata Neu, and Britannia, as well as emerging brands such as Happilo, Joy Cosmetics, SENCO Gold, Nippon Paints, and Godavri (Eblu), have capitalised on these mega events through TV partnerships.
Let’s take a look at the new opportunities that the network will offer to brands in the upcoming season of the cash-rich league:
Maiden Partnership Opportunities for Brands – Star Sports has introduced a wide array of customised and contextual partnership opportunities on the largest platform, which is IPL on TV. Exclusive associations targeting categories such as, but not limited to, lifestyle, luggage, health, nutrition, beauty, airline, grooming, and technology can be leveraged by brands to accentuate their proposition and deepen their association with viewers. Brands will be able to go beyond FCTs and leverage assets like live features, branded capsules, and live bugs, which will allow brands to enhance brand recall and own the association within their category.
Sharper Targeting at Scale on TV – Brands will be able to advertise more flexibly than they ever could in the past with the broadcaster introducing focused media buying opportunities with IPL on television. Now brands can buy ad spots for specific geographies such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, etc., as well as do franchise-focused buys, enabling significantly higher concentration among key markets at an unparalleled scale.
Disruptive Bite Sized Assets – Brands will now be able to leverage high-impact, bite-sized assets during IPL on Star Sports. A wide variety of assets, such as squeeze-ups, push-backs, and other graphical elements, can now be bought on a daily, weekly, and fortnightly basis. For brands that want to drive high salience, call to action, or moment ownership, these assets provide a low-outlay, high-impact opportunity for brands in this IPL on TV.
Startup Powerplay – The broadcaster recently announced a game-changing innovation designed for early-age startups to bring alive their brand or product story in a crisp 60-second communication on the biggest property in TV media, IPL. The ad will be strategically positioned during the live telecast of matches at the pre-decided positioning of the first spot during the strategic timeout or closer to the start of the match, both positions where the viewer is attentively tuned in to the game. The USP of Startup Powerplay is that it provides complete brand exclusivity to the advertiser, as only one startup per day will be allowed to leverage this property. At a special, attractive price, startups can choose any IPL match of their choice to leverage the product.
Ajit Varghese, Head of Network Ad Sales at Disney Star, stated, “Our client conversations around IPL have shifted focus from pricing to value creation, be it through our platform, innovations, or contextual advertising. Beyond traditional advertising, brands are increasingly leveraging brand integrations within cricket programming on TV and implementing associative marketing strategies through branded content, customized solutions, brand integrations, innovations and much more.”
IPL 2024 on TV is poised to be an important catalyst for marketers, owing to its unrivalled platform reach, affordable scaled participation, and a wealth of opportunities tailored to brand objectives.