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Tag: Dream 11

  • Apollo Tyres takes the front of India’s shirt in record guesstimated Rs 579 crore deal

    Apollo Tyres takes the front of India’s shirt in record guesstimated Rs 579 crore deal

    MUMBAI: Apollo Tyres has replaced Dream11 as the lead sponsor of India’s men’s and women’s cricket teams in a three-year pact guesstimated to be worth Rs 579 crore, the richest jersey deal in the sport’s history.

    Media reports state that the Gurugram-based company will pay the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI
    ) Rs 4.5 crore for each bilateral match and Rs 1.71 crore for ICC fixtures,  covering 121 bilateral games and 20 global tournaments through March 2028. Dream11 had reportedly been paying Rs 4 crore per bilateral game.

    The switch follows the government’s ban on real-money gaming platforms under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025, which ended Dream11’s contract and left the team without a shirt sponsor during the Asia Cup in Dubai.

    BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia called the deal “a partnership between two institutions that have earned the trust and respect of millions.” Vice-president Rajeev Shukla said the intense bidding—from Canva, JK Cement and other suitors—proved the “strong market confidence in Team India’s global brand.”

    Vinit Karnik from WPP Media had this to say on Linkedin: “Apollo Tyres stepping in as Team India’s lead sponsor marks more than a sponsorship—it underscores commitment to excellence on a global platform. Cricket is India’s cultural heartbeat, and this partnership reflects vision, scale, and legacy. At WPP Media, we are proud to stand alongside Apollo Tyres in this defining journey.”

    The Apollo logo will now feature on all formats of Indian cricket, giving the tyre maker unprecedented global visibility and underlining cricket’s unmatched commercial clout.

  • Dream11 elevates Yash Mehta to director of product marketing content

    Dream11 elevates Yash Mehta to director of product marketing content

    MUMBAI: Dream11 has announced the promotion of Yash Mehta to director of product marketing content, effective July 2025. In his new role, Mehta will spearhead the product content division, focusing on orchestrating innovative product marketing campaigns to significantly boost feature and platform adoption, engagement, and retention. 

    Dream11 highlighted that Mehta’s team has already contributed to increased product usage through interactive and data-informed content strategies. He will now be responsible for leading content performance across various channels, including push notifications, banners, emails, and static web pages, while developing user-centric, data-driven creative solutions and spearheading innovative interactive intellectual properties to enhance user adoption and retention. 

    Prior to this promotion, Mehta served as senior manager, product marketing | content at Dream11 from August 2023.  In that capacity, he was instrumental in maintaining and growing product marketing channel click-through rates (CTRs), including 3.5 per cent for push notifications, 20 per cent for stories, seven per cent for banners, 30 per cent for app inbox, 16 per cent for in-apps, and a 52 per cent email open rate. He also led a team of five on adoption, engagement, and retention initiatives through interactive content strategies. 

    Mehta’s nearly decade-long experience in content strategy and campaign orchestration includes stints at MTV India, National Basketball Association (NBA), and Ozy Media. He previously held roles such as integrated marketing associate at Ozy Media and production trainee, digital and social content publishing at the NBA. His career began as a social media executive at Merry Men in April 2011. 

    He holds a master’s degree in integrated marketing and digital marketing from NYU School of Professional Studies, graduating in June 2018. He also earned a master of business administration (MBA) from Lala Lajpatrai Institute Of Management and a bachelor of commerce (B.Com.) in marketing from H.R. College of Commerce & Economics.

  • Dream Sports and Microsoft team up to play hard in India’s gaming market

    Dream Sports and Microsoft team up to play hard in India’s gaming market

    MUMBAI: Dream Sports is putting on its game face with Microsoft. At the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (Waves) 2025 in Mumbai, the sports tech powerhouse inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the American software giant in a bid to supercharge India’s booming gaming industry.

    The tie-up will explore local publishing opportunities for Microsoft’s global gaming portfolio, while co-developing AI-fuelled innovations tailored to Indian tastes. The goal: build cutting-edge online experiences for the country’s 600 million-strong gamer base.

    Dream Sports co-founder & chief executive Harsh Jain said, “We are eager to build innovative & future ready experiences by leveraging Microsoft’s deep technical & AI expertise along with our base of 250 million Indian users. We look forward to working together to redefine the future of online gaming in India.”

    Microsoft India  and south Asia president Puneet Chandok echoed the enthusiasm: “We are excited to explore a collaboration with Dream Sports, leveraging their vast ecosystem of 250 million users. Together, Microsoft and Dream Sports aim to elevate the Indian gaming landscape by tailoring it to local needs and delivering transformative AI-driven experiences”

    The partnership lands as India’s gaming market hits a high score—$3.8 billion in FY24, with mobile users leading the charge. More than 66 per cent of gamers now hail from non-metro cities, and 44 per cent are women, according to the Leveling Up: State of India Interactive report.

    With cheap data, smartphone ubiquity, and growing backing from investors and policymakers alike, India is no longer just a player—it’s becoming the arena.

    Game on.

  • Dream 11’s IPL technology challenge

    Dream 11’s IPL technology challenge

    MUMBAI: IPL 2025  Day One. The much hyped and awaited opener between RCB and KKR is about to begin. The Dream Sports War Room – as the tech hub has been labelled – is a hustle-bustle of activity. Energy levels are high, there’s tension in the air amongst all the engineers and product managers who have stationed themselves in the office for the cracker of a match that’s about to go on air. 

    Viewer engagement expectations on the Dream 11 app  are higher than ever following the merger of JioCinema and Disney Hotstar into this behemoth streamer called JioHotstar with a subscription base of 60 million.
    Even before the first ball has been bowled fantasy players by the millions have started their game play on Dream 11. 

    At the centre of it all is Dream Sports chief technology officer Amit Sharma  – the commander of the nerve centre that keeps millions of cricket fans connected—come traffic surge or system meltdown. Like the captain of a ship sailing through a turbulent sea he retains his calm so that he can steer his charge safely through the storm.  

    “IPL isn’t just a cricket tournament; it’s a digital gladiatorial arena,” Sharma explained on Linkedin. ” We’re all hands on deck, I really mean it. Every team works in tandem to make it bigger and better than the previous season! While the event lasts just for a couple of months, we prepare by making our systems more robust throughout the year. There’s a lot that goes behind stitching the most seamless experience for our users – from coming on the app, selecting a contest to making their dream team and real-time leader boards – it’s truly a journey. On top of our mind is the fact that we’re not just hosting an app; we’re managing a national digital phenomenon that can spike to 700 million requests per minute. “

    And how does the engineering team manage to keep the app in good enough shape  despite the killer load that piles up when the league gathers steam? 

    Before the first ball is bowled, Sharma’s team conducts a “service operational maturity assessment” (SOMA)—a forensic examination of over 100 critical services. Engineers run what can only be described as digital stress tests: benchmarks that would make Silicon Valley veterans break into a sweat. Chaos tests and real-world load simulations are pressured on the system to fine-tune applications and infrastructure.

    “We’re not just testing; we’re essentially performing open-heart surgery on our digital infrastructure,” he quips. Some systems receive targeted upgrades, while others undergo complete architectural metamorphosis.

    A key tool that streamlines the massive inflow of online players is “Scaler”, Dream Sports’ in-house traffic 
    management marvel. This system doesn’t just respond to traffic—it anticipates it. Predictive models allocate resources before traffic spikes can even think about overwhelming the system.

    The war room’s crown jewels? Two razor-sharp monitoring systems:

    1. Watch Commander (WACO): A real-time performance sentinel that catches anomalies faster than a fielder’s lightning-quick catch.

    2. Pulse: A user interaction tracker that identifies potential glitches before they can say “out.”

    Behind every algorithmic prediction and system upgrade is a team of engineers who treat digital resilience like a cricket strategy—meticulously planned, ruthlessly executed. Dream Sports’ incident management system stands ready, a digital emergency response unit primed to tackle any unforeseen technological yorkers.
    Each IPL season is more than a sporting event—it’s a technological crucible where Dream Sports redefines the boundaries of digital scalability, says Sharma. “It  challenges us to rethink and refine how we approach scale, speed and reliability,” he adds. 

    Back to Dream Sports War Room and to the opening match of the IPL. All that is needed to take RCB to their first victory in the 2025 edition is a thump to the boundary, which Livingstone does when he wacks the Johnson delivery past mid-on to the ropes  to the dismay of those in the Eden Gardens stadium. 

    In the war-room, Sharma leans back and heaves a sigh of relief. The match saw the Dream 11  app getting a peak concurrency of 16.5 crore users. And it held up strong, without any glitches to the delight of all the engineers who were on standby. Another battle won. Till the next one.

  • Dream11’s star-studded campaign yields record concurrency on IPL 2025 Day one

    Dream11’s star-studded campaign yields record concurrency on IPL 2025 Day one

    MUMBAI: Dream11 has kicked off the IPL season with a bang, smashing records faster than a Hardik Pandya six. The fantasy cricket platform registered an admiration worthy 16.5m concurrent users during the tournament opener between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore—testament to a marketing campaign that began brewing in the boardroom nearly eight months ago.

    Dream11 chief marketing officer Vikrant Mudaliar orchestrated what industry insiders describe as a “logistical hat-trick” by corralling Bollywood heavyweights Ranbir Kapoor and Aamir Khan alongside cricketing royalty Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav for this season’s television commercial.

    The campaign’s central question—”Aap key team mein kaun?” (Who’s in your team?)—taps into the very essence of fantasy cricket while resonating with fans across the subcontinent. With Dream11 already boasting 240m users,  Mudaliar’s sights are firmly set on the next 100m cricket-mad Indians.

    “We needed a reach of 500-600 million,” he revealed to Storyboard18. “Only cricket and the IPL and Indian cinema combined can deliver that level of exposure.” The campaign, directed by Nitesh Tiwari of Dangal fame, required military-precision planning with multiple sets, parallel shoots and a complex scheduling ballet to accommodate the stars’ limited availability.

    The adverts, filmed over several days in party settings, in planes, showcase something rarely seen in Indian advertising: self-deprecation from genuine celebrities. “The ability to poke fun at oneself requires a certain maturity,” noted  Mudaliar. “Much of the humour came from the celebrities themselves.”

    Such starry productions don’t come cheap, with budgets reportedly running into  crores. However, Dream11 has optimised its marketing spend by stepping back from co-presenting sponsorship of IPL broadcasts, instead betting big on creative quality.

    The strategy appears to be paying dividends. While Amit Sharma, chief technology officer, and his team work feverishly behind the scenes to keep the platform running smoothly under unprecedented traffic on Day 1 of the IPL as Virat Kohli blasted RCB to a victory over reigning champions KKR, Dream11’s war room is celebrating a return on investment that even the shrewdest fantasy cricket player would envy.

    As  Vikrant might say: when you’ve got the Hitman, Pandya, Sky, Rishabh, Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor on your team sheet, century-making becomes considerably easier.

  • JioCinema Brand Spotlight: Illuminating IPL campaigns with unmatched brilliance.

    JioCinema Brand Spotlight: Illuminating IPL campaigns with unmatched brilliance.

    Mumbai: In the fast-paced world of advertising, innovation is key to capturing audience attention and creating memorable brand experiences. This IPL season, JioCinema embarked on a journey with its new initiative – Jio Cinema Brand Spotlight. This initiative aimed to elevate select ad campaigns, offering them exclusive exposure during the crucial first six overs of IPL matches.

    Six prominent brands – Dream 11, Charged by Thums Up, Britannia, Dalmia Cement, Parle Products, and HDFC Bank – captured this unique opportunity to debut their campaigns on JioCinema during the IPL matches. What set these campaigns apart was not just their prime placement but also the narrative behind their creation.

      

    Beyond just securing a prime spot for launching their opening day campaigns, JioCinema’s brand spotlight is offered an opportunity for brands to engage with audiences in a more meaningful way. In an exclusive initiative, brand spotlight facilitated a unique marketer’s moment, where the campaign makers and brand custodians shared exclusive insights and stories behind the creation of their campaigns and brand films featured on JioCinema.

    The platform didn’t stop at merely showcasing the ads; it dug deeper into the creative process by providing viewers with insights into the making of these campaigns. This move involved hosting dedicated trays on the sports page of the app for these brands. These trays not only housed the extended edits of the campaigns but also offered an intimate look into the brainstorming sessions, challenges faced, and creative decisions made by the brand custodians and agency heads.

    For the first time in the industry, fans had the opportunity to go beyond the glossy surface of advertisements and gain a deeper understanding of the thought that goes into crafting these spots. By offering behind-the-scenes content alongside the ads, JioCinema transformed passive viewers into engaged participants, creating a more immersive experience for IPL enthusiasts.

    Watch the behind the campaign stories here: 

    Charged by ThumsUp’s campaign: https://go.jc.fm/fRhd/9isgyf5n

    Parle Products’ campaign: https://go.jc.fm/fRhd/vnbiuqs4

    Britannia’s campaign: https://go.jc.fm/fRhd/7k61354u

    HDFC Bank’s campaign: https://go.jc.fm/fRhd/l0x74mae 

    Dalmia Cement’s campaign:  https://go.jc.fm/fRhd/cwatxrte

    Dream11’s Campaign: https://go.jc.fm/fRhd/ay9tmeiw

    Brand Spotlight was an innovation for advertisers around the opening match of TATA IPL season 2024. The packages and offerings have been specifically designed to help select advertisers, no matter what the objective, category, and scale of business. Each proposition from JioCinema has been curated to enhance the brand’s proposition and increase the potential of scale and targeting possibilities they can extract on digital.

  • Top five fantasy gaming apps transforming digital entertainment in India

    Top five fantasy gaming apps transforming digital entertainment in India

    Mumbai: In the ever-evolving landscape of digital entertainment, these cutting-edge applications promise to redefine the fantasy gaming experience. From breathtaking graphics to innovative gameplay mechanics, these titles are set to transport players into realms where imagination knows no bounds. Whether you’re a seasoned adventurer or a novice explorer, our carefully curated list ensures an unforgettable journey filled with mythical creatures, magical landscapes, and epic quests. As the gaming industry continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, these applications stand out as the vanguards of the fantastical, offering players a ticket to unparalleled virtual adventures. Brace yourself for a year of enchantment, as we dive into the immersive worlds crafted by the top fantasy gaming applications.

    Dream 11

    Dream 11

    In India, Dream 11 is the most widely used fantasy sports app and is currently trending the most. Users of this software can play a variety of fantasy sports, such as basketball, kabaddi, football, hockey, and cricket. Co-founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream11 is the greatest fantasy sports app in India. With over 110 million daily users, the app has various brand ambassadors, including M. S. Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah. The company pays out about ₹250 million in wins every day.

    Super4

    Super 4

    Super4 is one of the leading cricket fantasy gaming applications. It’s built with users’ convenience in mind. Its user-friendly interface allows them to effortlessly navigate through the app, discover new games, and engage in seamless gameplay. The company prioritizes users’ safety and privacy, implementing robust security measures to ensure a secure gaming experience. Users can join Super4 on an extraordinary journey as it revolutionizes the gaming landscape in India. Super4 is there to empower, inspire, and ignite the passion for gaming. Users are encouraged to embrace the spirit of India’s own gaming app.

    My11 Circle

    My11 Circle

    If you have a strong interest in cricket, you really should give My11Circle a try. Renowned athletes like Rashid Khan and Shane Watson serve as brand ambassadors for the organisation, along with Sourav Ganguly, President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. With over 13 million users, the platform is among the most reliable fantasy sports app producers in India. Additionally, the app has paid out more than ₹1 billion in prizes. There is no maximum withdrawal amount specified on My11Circle, in contrast to many other fantasy sports software platforms.

    My Team11

    My Team11

    MyTeam 11’s brand ambassador is Virender Sehwag. One can play games like cricket, soccer, football, rugby, hockey, and basketball, among others, on the platforms of the fantasy sports app development company, which offers nine different language possibilities. With over 15 million downloads, the MyTeam11 app gives over Rs five million in daily prizes through more than 100 events. In addition, MyTeam11 provides a Rs 100 welcome incentive.

    Fan2 Play

    Fan2 Play

    The fantasy sports software Fan2Play was just released in the Indian market. Established in 2020 by Fan2Play Games Pvt. Ltd., a fantasy app development business, the quickly expanding platform lacks a predetermined design. When engaging in one-on-one challenges, users can form teams of two, three, or four players on this flexible and adaptable platform. The app additionally provides the traditional 11-player competitions. In addition, players are permitted to play with their social circles and family members and create private competitions.  

  • “FanCode is focused on delivering value to our users”: Yannick Colaco

    “FanCode is focused on delivering value to our users”: Yannick Colaco

    Mumbai: India’s premier digital sports destination FanCode is initiating a slew of new offerings on its platform. FanCode deals in three major areas like live content, sports statistics, analysis and commerce. 

    Under the umbrella of Dream Sports, FanCode was launched to change the dynamics of sports consumption in India. The platform offers live streaming, sports data, analytics, statistics, a merchandising store, tour passes, expert analysis, opinions and the latest sports news.

    The company is led by co-founders Yannick Colaco and Prasana Krishnan. Both worked together at sports broadcaster Nimbus Sports until 2013. Colaco went on to join the National Basketball Association (NBA) while Krishnan joined Sony Pictures Networks India.

    Colaco was part of the international leadership team of the NBA and managing director of its India business. He spent the next six years driving the grassroots development of the basketball sport in India, setting up a full-fledged NBA Academy and building partnerships across licensing, content and marketing initiatives. He was also instrumental in bringing the first-ever NBA Games to India. 

    A consummate sports enthusiast, Colaco has been in the sports and media industry for two decades. In his view, avid sports fans in the country were underserviced when it came to accessibility to sports content. The consumption of sports content was fragmented across multiple platforms.

    He joined forces with Krishnan in 2019 to launch their entrepreneurial venture with a commitment to give sports fans a highly personalised and unified experience of sports content.

    Colaco told Indiantelevision.com that FanCode’s goal is to “redefine the way sports fans follow their favourite sports by creating a more integrated and immersive experience as well as by giving them greater access to a wide variety of sports content.”

    In an in-depth conversation with journalist Ashwin Pinto, FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco spoke about the company’s progress, challenges, trends in the sports business, acquisitions, expansion plans and more. 

    Edited Excerpts: 

    On the progress, FanCode has achieved

    FanCode focuses on redefining the way sports fans follow their favourite sports by creating a more integrated and immersive experience. It gives them access to a wide variety of sports content. Our greatest ally in delivering on this is the ability to unlock the potential of digital for sports fans.

    Since 2019, the company has significantly upgraded the viewer’s experience by integrating key services which are fundamental to their ability to follow their favourite sports. The services supply include live scores & commentary, live stream & video on demand, match insights & analytics, and official fan merchandise. All of this while supplying fans access to live streams of over 350 events and over 50,000 hours of live content. We are thrilled at the way sports fans have embraced our product and we now have over fifty million users on FanCode. 

    On the challenges faced by FanCode and its determination to be a standalone product

    FanCode is focused on delivering value to its users. Every offering that this company provides has been predicated. Given the response received so far, its viewers see value in having an integrated experience, rather than having to access multiple products to follow the same match or event.

    Fortunately, having an amazing team of FanCoders, including some of the best talents in the country, who have met the challenges head-on and continue to deliver amazing results, FanCode is blessed to meet all its product and technological challenges and give a seamless experience.

    Indian sports fans have limited access to great sports content. An integrated solution before the launch of FanCode did not exist overseas. Some companies do provide streaming of sports content but are limited to offering news and analysis. Earlier, the experience for the viewers was broken.

    On FanCode’s business model as an SVOD platform and cracking micro-transactions

    Paying for content on digital platforms is still very new in India. Realising the need for paid users at a very early stage FanCode worked on a priority basis in expanding the ecosystem. As per the feedback received, the company found out that the largest constraints were not willing to pay even for the entry tickets. To address these, it took a page out of the hugely successful sachet pricing strategy of FMCGs in India and gave fans the ability to buy matches and events, instead of buying only monthly and annual packages. The company has also invested significantly in building technology around an in-house subscription service which created an exceptionally smooth and seamless purchase experience.

    Results have been great with a rapidly growing number of transacting users. What’s also remarkably interesting is that many match and tour subscribers come back to buy multiple times and even upgrade to annual packages.

    On offering sports fans a personalised experience

    For Fancode success is about users’ seamless experience. For example, if you’re a fan of Virat Kohli, you should be able to watch him bat, watch replays of his best shots, access his stats in the current match and his career, chat with other Kohli fans, and buy his jersey; all inside the same experience with minimal friction. 

    Personalisation of experience is an extremely important part and thus the focus is exactly on where to invest significant resources over the next year. Sports fans wear their allegiance on their sleeves and are happy to talk about who they support. It is the company’s job to take this data and build technology solutions to provide a customised experience for higher engagement.

    On setting new trends in sports consumption

    The migration of fans from traditional modes of sports consumption like linear TV, newspapers, etc., to digital channels, has been phenomenal and this continues at a rapid pace. With this migration, the expectation of what a fan should have access to has also grown. Fans want to access scores, live matches, highlights, and stats. They want everything packaged in bite sizes and they want it at once.

    On its foray into streaming sports content

    There is absolutely no doubt that there is a significant growth in fandom for sports in general across India. As FanCode continues to expand the range of events and sports that are featured, a lot of growth in other sports is also observed, which were previously underserved.

    There is some particularly good traction in partnership with Major League Baseball and the J League (football) as well as the remarkable thing is that every user who consumes these on this platform is authenticated and not just a blip on a rating scale. For FanCode, it becomes easy to improvise by having an amazing opportunity to build a direct relationship with consumers and get real-time feedback.

    On the acquisition strategy behind FanDuniya

    The acquisition of FanDuniya helped in strengthening sports statistics and analytics offering under FC stats. It helps to build one of the largest stat hubs. FanCode will continue to explore these opportunities to help create more value for the users.

    On launching its merchandising store FanCode Shop

    Sports merchandise has been a significantly underserved market in India. As sports fandom has grown the demand for fan gear has increased. There are other many elements to consider including ranges of fan gear, styling, name and number gear, fit, pricing, etc. and honestly, the market has been ignorant of most of these.

    FanCode spent a significant amount of time with the teams and leagues it partnered with, which caters to fans across the country and now has over 30 sports brands with more than 800 products. Making fan gear, and variations of it, accessible and affordable has been an important part of growing the ecosystem.

    It has partnered with several sports leagues and teams for their licensed merchandise and worked with official partners of many of the other leagues and teams which enabled it to be a comprehensive destination for fan merchandising including 10 IPL teams, NBA, Manchester City FC, Liverpool FC, FC Barcelona, Bengaluru FC, MotoGP and WWE. We also improvise our technology to innovate and deliver rapid turnaround times in both the creation and distribution of fan gear, ensuring that fans will have the latest, most topical designs of their favourite sports brands and teams.

  • Back on Track: Dream Sports Foundation lends support to sports professionals

    KOLKATA: Dream Sports Foundation (DSF), the philanthropic arm of Dream Sports has successfully supported over 3,500 sports professionals across 29 sports during the pandemic as part of its Back on Track programme launched last year.

    Out of the 3,500 beneficiaries, 3,300 are current and retired athletes, over 100 are coaches, and more than 70 are sports support staff and journalists. The beneficiaries are from 24 states and three union territories in India, it said on Friday.

    The onset of the Covid 19 pandemic has disrupted life at many levels leading to job and income loss across industries and sectors, including sports and the programme has been able to help people in need from the sports industry by providing financial aid, training, and sports equipment support, coaching, proper diet and nutrition, monthly stipends, and hygiene kits.

    To ensure that the aid reached the most affected members of the Indian sports ecosystem, DSF also helped 16 NGOs across the country, including Nav Sahyog Foundation, Dribble Academy, Nagaland Football Foundation, The Right Pitch, The Ball Project, and many more. DSF supported sports journalists through the Playfield magazine initiative who had lost their jobs due to the COVID crisis. 

    Speaking about the programme, Dream Sports & Dream11 COO & co-founder Bhavit Sheth said, “Owing to the lack of opportunities and resources due to the pandemic, many sports professionals and athletes were giving up on their dreams as they were unable to sustain themselves. We wanted to help them land on their feet and take strides towards their personal and sporting goals through ‘Back on Track’. We are glad that we could reach several sports beneficiaries pan-India and provide integral support within the last nine months.”

    One of the beneficiaries of ‘Back on Track’ is Rani Laxmi Bai Sports Academy, Bihar, which gives girls from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to play sports at state, national and international levels. Academy’s founder, Sanjay Pathak said, “We are grateful for such initiatives that have made a significant difference for our 55 senior students, who play football and handball. They have helped in retaining their dreams of playing sports, especially during these difficult times. The girls played with a single pair of shoes for one whole year, but thanks to Dream Sports Foundation’s support, they now have multiple pairs of high-quality shoes and sports kits essential for national-level players. The monetary support is also helping us provide better nutrition to the students.”

  • Dhoni & Ranveer Singh most recalled celebs in IPL 2021 ads: Report

    Dhoni & Ranveer Singh most recalled celebs in IPL 2021 ads: Report

    MUMBAI: That Bollywood & Cricket reign supreme over Indians’ hearts and minds has never been doubted – in fact it’s a tie between both! In the annual IPL ad recall research of the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) conducted ten days after the start of the League this year both- Captain Cool Dhoni and the effervescent Ranveer Singh have come up tops with both seeming to have done equally well. This is the second consecutive year that the cricketer was at No. 1, in 2019 Shah Rukh Khan had topped the report.

    The research polled 879 respondents in the age-group of 18-35 years (M=481, F=398) across India with the survey being conducted telephonically.  

    Dream 11 was the most spontaneously recalled brand in this year’s survey, which possibly also helped enhance both the brand equity and recall of MS Dhoni who anchored the 12-ad series for the brand as its ambassador and protagonist.

    Jio Fiber, with multiple IPL teams featuring an ever-enthusiastic Ranveer Singh gyrating to a sing-song brand message came in second on recall in the research. This also helped the celebrity endorser to considerably strengthen his personal recall. This was in sync with the ultra-high recall of the brands they respectively endorse. It may be noted however, that on the IPL last year Byju’s being the most spontaneously recalled brand did not help the cause of its celebrity endorser. Shah Rukh Khan trailed behind other celebrities.  

    The study bases the celeb score on Celebrity Brand Association & Recognition to assign a metric score to each celebrity and associated brand. While Dhoni scored a high CELEBAR of 87, Ranveer achieved a score of 86, empirically almost equal to the former’s.

    Virat Kohli, expectedly did well on recall too and came third in the recall rankings. Salman Khan did surprisingly well in this year’s survey coming in at No. 4, ahead of Rishabh Pant, Rahul Dravid, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt and Saurav Ganguly who followed in that sequence.

    Despite featuring heavy media weights, Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan the Vimal elaichi ad had only an eight per cent recall.  

    Interestingly, brands without celebrities like Phone Pe, Byju’s and several others performed far better, establishing that sans celebrities good advertising still works,  especially wherever media investments are heavy.

     On the ads without celebrities, the most remembered were Phone Pe, Byju’s, Vivo, One Plus, Groww, Upstox, Kia and MPL.

    Seventeen per cent of respondents spontaneously recalled Rahul Dravid’s association with CRED ad, but only two per cent could recollect that Jackie Shroff and Kumar Sanu were also a part of the campaign.