MUMBAI: A new research report has revealed that throwing cash at just traditional TV spots during the IPL might not be the most effective way to go if an advertiser wants to hop onto this high impact property.
The eye-opening study from CrispInsight’s eDART-IPL24, in partnership with Kadence International, suggests brands would be better off plumping for sponsorships and stadium branding rather than just splurging on conventional commercials alone without any connect with what’s going on in the game or or in the studio.
“Sponsorships and strategic brand placements are proving to be just as powerful, if not more, than traditional advertising in high-impact events like IPL,” declared CrispInsight founder Ritesh Ghosal, who’s clearly not one to mince words.
Despite over 100 brands scrapping for eyeballs during last year’s tournament, only a handful – Jio, Tata Group, Slice, BKT, and Paytm – aced it with top-of-mind recall. The kicker? None relied on just traditional telly commercials to make their mark.
The report exposed a gaping disconnect between GRP (gross rating points) spend and actual brand recall. While Dream11 led the pack with a 37.7 per cent recall from 1,730 GRPs, some big spenders found themselves caught behind – gutka brand Vimal splashed out on 3,016 GRPs but limped home with a measly 2.4 per cent recall.
“IPL is one of the most competitive advertising platforms,” noted Aman Makkar of Kadence International. “Standing out requires more than just high ad spends.”
With IPL ad rates now requiring the GDP of a small nation, savvy marketers are discovering that non-FCT strategies – team sponsorships, on-screen placements, and stadium branding – keep brands in the spotlight long after the commercials fade to black.
As the 2025 season looms large, the message is crystal clear: it’s not about how much money you throw at the IPL – it’s about where you pitch it.
MUMBAI: There are companies which are better known globally because of their association with sports. Amongst them is: BKT or Balkrishna Tyres.
The Six Nations Rugby has announced a long-term partnership with BKT, a global leader in off-highway tyre manufacturing. The agreement designates BKT as the official tyre partner for both the Guinness Men’s and Women’s Six Nations Championships, commencing with the 2025 tournaments.
BKT, founded by Mahabir Prasad Poddar, makes a range of tyres and has been a sponsor of several sports events like Curling Canada (Title sponsor), Euroleague Basketball, United Rugby Championship, Monster Jam, Big Bash, Ligue2 BKT, Serie BKT, and LaLiga. It has been associated with some of these events for more than 10 years on a global basis.
The partnership with Six Nations Rugby kicked off with the Guinness Men’s Six Nations on 31 January 2025, and will be followed by the Women’s Six Nations on 22 March. BKT will also introduce a new award to recognise rising stars in international rugby, reflecting its commitment to fostering future talent in the sport.
The Six Nations Rugby CEO Tom Harrison expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration: “The Six Nations is rugby’s most loved annual competition. We are thrilled to welcome BKT as a partner and look forward to working closely with them to enhance the experience for fans and players alike.”
BKT Europe managing director Lucia Salmaso highlighted the alignment between rugby and BKT’s values: “Rugby embodies teamwork, physicality, fair play, and loyalty — values we hold dear. This partnership allows us to support both the prestigious Championships and the next generation of rugby talent.”
BKT, known for its extensive range of tyres for sectors including agriculture, construction, and mining, continues to strengthen its presence in the world of sports. The new partnership underscores its ambition to contribute to the growth of rugby on a global scale.
NEW DELHI: Cricket is the by far the best media vehicle for any brand if it intends to connect with masses at a pan-India level. The game cuts across all socio-economic boundaries, age-groups, geogrpahies and reaches to 196 million households with television sets. The brand can further amplify its reach by connecting with its audiences on the mobile screens. Be it IPL, T-20 leagues, one day matches or ICC World Cups, all of them have been able to deliver great results for the brands.
Currently, we are in the first week of IPL season 13 and going by reports, more than 200 million people tuned into watch the game on day one. The tournament has created history and is already delivering reach for brands. While the bandwagon of the teams, BCCL, and the broadcaster has a large number of traditional players, an equal number of digital first new age brands are also on the roster.
The count of the latter is growing year-on-year. These brands are spending big money around IPL to get more downloads, website visits, referals, impact, and what not. Spokespersons of many of these brands have mentioned that the viewership and reach of IPL is increasing year-on-year and the tournament helps them increase their brand recall and reach. IPL, which is also known as the advertising festival of the Asian subcontinent pushes the brand saliecy to the next level. It is important for these brands to strengthen their community and engage with newer audiences that sample its products or services
Brands across edtech, fintech, food delivery, fantasy sports, financial accounting, and healthcare are advertising across IPL season 13.
Here are some of the campaigns released by the digital first brands that are running during IPL.
Dream11
The fantasy app brand has taken the title sponsorship for the tournament. It has released a campaign #YeApnaGameHai that urges people to download the app, sample the game and continue with it. The brand leads the fantasy sports category with over 90 per cent market share.
Policybazaar
The fintech brand has launched its new television campaign “AapKiSideHai” that features its brand ambassador, Akshay Kumar highlighting the brand's promise of embracing a holistic customer-centric approach while helping to bridge the insurance protection gap in India. The new ad series also highlights the brands unparalleled support to customers, while providing them with the ease of comparing and buying term and health plans online with guidance at each and every step.
Swiggy
The online food discovery brand is urging people to order more during the IPL times and is offering discounts around it. The brand is running a strong media plan and is known for coming up with interesting ads during the IPL.
PhonePe
The Bangalore-based digital payments company is running TVCs featuring Bollywood stars Aamir Khan and Alia Bhatt. It has released five 20-second ads that tied together made one complete story: The guide to PhonePe. The ads tell us the story of Alia Bhatt who’s at the police station for her brother Tyson who’s behind bars because of an ambiguous road mishap. Inspector Desai (Khan) instructs her to pay a fine and she uses the PhonePe app to do so; the conversation from Desai’s instruction to Bhatt’s action is the sum of the five ads.
Khatabook
Khatabook, a business app that helps MSMEs streamline business transactions online has released it ad on the IPL. The ad features M.S Dhoni in different attires from Sharmile Sharmaji to Techno Tawde in the ads and showcasing distinct features of the app.
OkCredit
The brand has partnered with Delhi Capitals and running TVCs with the tagline – ‘Digital India ka Digital Bahi Khata’. It is a free-to-use accounting and ledger app that helps small businesses in India keep track of their digital transactions. The brand aims to engage with small, local brands and entrepreneurs for its expansion.
Byju’s
Byju’s is pushing its new offering – Byju’s Classes – to parents across the country through their IPL campaign spearheaded by its long term brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan. The ad highlights the key features of the product and Khan plays the role of a teacher to a group of parents and discusses the common worries they have regarding their children’s after-school tutoring needs. The campaign aims at redefining the concept of tuitions in an otherwise fragmented after-school tutoring market.
Great Learning
This IPL Great Learning released its first ever multi-film ad campaign featuring brand ambassador, Virat Kohli consisting a series of films titled, ‘Power Ahead – Jo Seekhta Hai Wahi Aage Badhta Hai’. The ad focuses on the importance of lifelong learning, and showcases how upskilling is a necessary step for students and professionals to move ahead in their careers.
MyTeam11
Their IPL campaign “India Ki Apni Fantasy App” aims to promoting the message of “Indian Brand for Indian People”. It aims to bring more people to commuinty and sample the game. The ads emphasize on taking pride in playing one’s favorite fantasy cricket game on a homegrown application which promises to bring the users closer to the experience of the actual matches of the league. The films witness several cricket experts recommending and creating their own teams in the MyTeam11 app.
Jio
Mukesh Ambani owned fiber brand Jio released its latest ad in the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan series. This time it features Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh with several cricketers such as Virat Kohli, AB De Villers, among others. The Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan tune first arrived on the IPL advertising scene in 2017.
White Hat Jr
The edtech app that teaches coding to children is in vogue. People have been talking about it on the internet and the brand was recently acquired by Byju's for 300 million dollars. The online learning brand is running a TVC campaign across IPL to increase awareness and create brand saliency.
MediBuddy
The digital healthcare platform has launched its first TV campaign – ‘Aapka Health Buddy’ to communicate that MediBuddy is a friend that everyone can trust to address any healthcare need – 24*7, for the entire family. The TVC encapsulates the lives of families and seeks to impart the important message of not neglecting one’s health.
My11Circle
The fantasy sports app endorsed by former Indian cricketer and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is asking people to come on the platform. The campaign is aimed at increasing the size of the community and getting more and more people to sample the product.
Amazon
The online shopping portal has started its festive season campaign with IPL. Their campaign #HarPalFashionable is focused towards pushing people to start their festive shopping from the platform. Over the years, the brands has been clocking massive GMVs during this time. It will be interesting to see how people reach to this years festive season.
Myntra
One of the biggest online fashion brands of India has joined the IPL bandwagon for the first time and partnered with Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings.
MUMBAI: Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT), India’s leading manufacturer of off-highway tires has signed on as “Official Global Partner of LaLiga”. BKT aims for performance without limits – just like sport. And like Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LaLiga), it has a global presence that reaches people all around the world. These conditions create a fertile ground for a new partnership.
The partnership takes immediate effect and will run for three years until the end of the 2021/2022 season.
“LaLiga stands for excellence and is a synonym for football with a capital ‘F’,” Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director of BKT, states. “From today on, we are following a new marketing initiative within the Spanish football world, and I am really glad and proud of it. LaLiga is a brand of unquestionable value. It is an honor to act side by side this name!”
“It is a great pleasure that we can strengthen the bond between BKT and the world of sport, and above all the football world with both its rules and dynamics that we find fully in line with our own values, along with determination and the uncompromising wish to win,” Mr. Poddar added.
This is a decisive goal on BKT’s path of increasing its brand awareness. The company is extraordinarily active when it comes to communication and promotion – a unique and distinguishing feature. Sport is an instrument that perfectly supports BKT’s message on a global level thanks to its characteristic traits such as fair play, respect for the opponent, competition and strategy – values that are shared by LaLiga.
Mr. Jose Antonio Cachaza, Managing Director, LaLiga India said, “BKT has always recognized the power of sport in speaking to their key stakeholders. We are very excited to be welcoming BKT, a brand that share the same values as LaLiga, as our partner for the next three years. I’m sure that, together, we’ll be able to bring LaLiga closer to our fans over the world while our brands keep growing internationally.”
Becoming Official Global Partner of LaLiga is another initiative that adds to the numerous sport events that BKT has been actively supporting worldwide. These include the 2014-agreement with the Monster Jam circuit, the American motorsport show where giant Monster Trucks fitted with BKT tires perform astonishing stunts; the sponsorship agreement with Lega Nazionale Professionisti B, the governing body of the Italian second league championship, which was undertaken last year being effective till June 2021, and which has changed its name into “Serie BKT”.
On this partnership, Diego Forlan, LaLiga Ambassador, said, “India is extremely passionate about football and has high potential to become stronger in global football. During my time in India, I got to interact with Indian footballers, aspiring footballers and other stakeholders who were invested in building up the football environment in the country. It is good to see an Indian brand like BKT join hands with LaLiga to build more awareness.”
In addition, BKT sponsors the French “Coupe de la Ligue BKT” football competition, to which the company has given its name till June 2024, as well as the partnership with the Australian cricket championship with the KFC Big Bash League, which is valid for two more years.
At a local level, Spain is for BKT a major strategic market in Europe, especially in the farming sector. BKT provides tires operating in several specialist sectors. Yet, it is right agriculture where everything has started, and the company has literally taken the field.
The BKT brand is particularly recognized and appreciated by Spanish users, and it is the perfect moment to strengthen the existing bond. Could there be a better means than sport? Side by side anywhere – no matter whether it is a farming or a playing field.
MUMBAI: BKT and LaLiga have entered into an agreement that will see BKT become “Official Global Partner of LaLiga”.
The partnership takes immediate effect and will run for three years until the end of the 2021/2022 season.
“LaLiga stands for excellence and is a synonym for football with a capital ‘F’,” BKT joint managing director Rajiv Poddar stated. “From today on, we are following a new marketing initiative within the Spanish football world, and I am really glad and proud of it. LaLiga is a brand of unquestionable value. It is an honour to act side by side this name!”
“It is a great pleasure that we can strengthen the bond between BKT and the world of sport, and above all the football world with both its rules and dynamics that we find fully in line with our own values, along with determination and the uncompromising wish to win,” BKT Europe managing director Lucia Salmaso says.
LaLiga international development director Óscar Mayo added, “LaLiga can help brands to significantly increase their exposure worldwide. Our competition has millions of fans around the world and therefore represents a huge audience for brands to engage with. We look forward to working with BKT over the coming years and helping it to achieve its objectives.”
This is a decisive goal on BKT’s path of increasing its brand awareness. The company is extraordinarily active when it comes to communication and promotion – a unique and distinguishing feature. Sport is an instrument that perfectly supports BKT’s message on a global level thanks to its characteristic traits such as fair play, respect for the opponent, competition and strategy, values that are shared by LaLiga.
Becoming official global partner of LaLiga is another initiative that adds to the numerous sport events that BKT has been actively supporting worldwide. These include the 2014-agreement with the Monster Jam circuit, the American motorsport show where giant Monster Trucks fitted with BKT tires perform astonishing stunts; the sponsorship agreement with Lega Nazionale Professionisti B, the governing body of the Italian second league championship, which was undertaken last year being effective till June 2021, and which has changed its name into “Serie BKT”.
In addition, BKT sponsors the French “Coupe de la Ligue BKT” football competition, to which the company has given its name till June 2024, as well as the partnership with the Australian cricket championship with the KFC Big Bash League, which is valid for two more years.
