MUMBAI: IPL 13 was the much-needed break that enlivened Indian audiences from the Covid2019 pandemic-induced gloom. While the tournament was played in the UAE, it saw scores of brands advertising during the game to reach out to their audiences. This year, the league clocked over 400 billion viewing minutes and had an extremely high viewership. For the record, the IPL 13 opener saw a viewership of over 200 million-plus. Multiple brands roped in endorsers from films, sports and other categories in a bid to stand out from the clutter.
As per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data, the share of ads featuring a sports celebrity went up from 14 per cent during IPL 2019 to 17 per cent during IPL 2020. The data also revealed that the IPL 13 witnessed a 3 per cent growth in the ads featuring sports stars versus Bollywood celebrities.
Aamir Khan topped the list of top ten celebrities who were featured in ads during IPL 2020. Khan registered 89,000 ad seconds, followed by MS Dhoni with 73,000 seconds and Shah Rukh Khan with 59,000 seconds.
Other celebrities who made the top ten list were Virat Kohli on the fourth spot with 45,000 seconds, trailed by Akshay Kumar with 34000 seconds. BCCI head honcho Sourav Ganguly came in sixth with 33,000 seconds, while Ranveer-Deepika ranked seventh with 27,000 seconds. Aayushmann Khurrana bagged the eighth spot with 26,000 seconds. Rishabh Pant and the Aamir Khan-Alia Bhatt pairing rounded out the top 10 with 26,000 and 25,000 seconds of ad volumes respectively.
MUMBAI: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is the IPL team with the biggest and most hardcore fanbase, a study by Ormax Media has revealed. With 26.8 million fans, the MS Dhoni-led CSK has emerged as the strongest franchise, as per the findings of the IPL Franchise Fans report, based on a research conducted among 3,200 urban respondents across 23 states in India.
The data was collected over the course of the eight weeks of IPL 2020. The study pegs the number of fans across the eight IPL franchises at 86 million (8.6 crore). The study defines a franchise fan as someone who has a clear favourite team, is emotionally connected with it, watches its matches from start to finish, and discusses the team and its players online or offline.
Following in the wake of CSK is this season’s champion Mumbai Indians (MI) at 24.8 million devotees. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ranks third, with 13.3 million enthusiasts. Between them, these three franchises account for 75 per cent of the total fan base, while the remaining five contribute to the balance 25 per cent.
64 per cent (55 million) of the total franchise fans are males, while the balance 36 per cent (31 million) are females.
CSK and RCB have the most gender-balanced fan base, with the proportion of female fans being the highest at 40 per cent each. Nationwide popularity of their star players (MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli respectively) contributes to their stronger female fan base. Mumbai Indians leads Chennai Super Kings by a slender margin when it comes to the male fan base, but the latter takes the overall number one position because of its stronger female following.
Ormax Media founder & CEO Shailesh Kapoor said: “Apart from viewership, a definitive measure of the success of a sports league is whether the teams playing in it manage to build a sizeable fan base over the years. A strong fan base is eventually the key for a profitable franchise, because it offers higher monetisation opportunities through sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandising, licensing and other such avenues. Over the last 13 years, IPL has done very well, and the fan base estimates of the top two franchises suggest that they are now two of the strongest sports teams across the world. It’s for the other franchises to learn from the success story of CSK and MI and develop a strategy to widen their fan base in the coming years.”
Mumbai: Star India delivers the biggest IPL ever in the history of the tournament. From swashbuckling young talent, exciting clashes, to nail-biting double super overs in a single day, season-13 was nothing short of electrifying. With fans enjoying matches from the comfort of their homes, Dream11 IPL 2020 has set a viewership record with an overall consumption increase of 23 per cent *versus 2019. Television viewership reached an outstanding 31.57mn average impressions.
Capitalizing on the regional appeal, five independent language channel offerings – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, and Kannada, contributed immensely to the increased viewership growth of Dream11 IPL 2020. The regional offering across languages has been received well by viewers and has increased the viewership by 28 per cent over last year.
“It’s the biggest IPL the nation has seen and the response from fans and advertisers has been stupendous. The record-breaking opening week gave us the ideal start and laid the foundation for a record breaking season. We are extremely delighted that this season has been the biggestever in terms of viewership, engagement and ad sales. Enhanced story-telling, localisation, contextually relevant marketing and technology innovations formed the pillars of our offering. We are encouraged by the growth we have seen in southern markets driven by our regional feeds and higher consumption across demographics especially in rural markets and amongst kids,” Star India head – sports Sanjog Gupta said. “Season 13 witnessed some explosive matches which were aptly supplemented by innovative programming, world-class production – both remote and on-ground. This wouldn’t have been possible without the fantastic work done by the team at BCCI in staging the tournament under extenuating circumstances and seamless functioning from our teams inside the bio-secure bubbles in India and UAE,”he added.
The record-breaking start to the Dream11 IPL 2020 started with the campaign ‘EkSaathWaaliBaat’. The campaign aimed to uplift the mood of the nation by bringing people together for the biggest cricketing tournament of the year. Star Sports, India’s leading sports broadcaster – pulled out all stops to ensure viewers and fans are offered an unparalleled experience of the Dream11 IPL 2020 from the comfort of their homes.
The season began with sold-out inventory, with 18 sponsors and 114 advertisers onboard, setting an optimistic tone to a massively successful season ahead. Star Sports pulled off the telecast of one of the biggest sporting spectacles in 2020 in just six weeks during an ongoing pandemic and a lot of uncertainties.
With fans enjoying the matches from the comfort of their homes, Star took it upon them to make sure fans of all ages and demographics were hooked to the 2020 edition. This resulted in women and kids registering impressive viewership growth of24 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. Star India’s effort to offer unmatched engagement for its viewers with state-of-the-art product innovations such as surround-in-stadia fan cheer, specialized broadcast feeds, and fan walls have received a great response and got fans closer to the game than ever before. Chapterisation of the tournament via themes such as Fan Week and Rivalry Week, along with a slate of programming including franchise shows continued to draw IPL aficionados throughout the tournament. The revamped Select Dugout this year continued to target core cricket viewers and also registered significant growth in consumption.
KOLKATA: It has been only one year since Disney+ entered the streaming war but the growth has been phenomenal. The streaming service from The Walt Disney Company (Disney) has reached 73.7 million subscribers as of 3 October. Disney+Hotstar has pushed the growth contributing around 25 per cent of the global subscribers which effectively makes for around 19 million subscribers.
“Disney+ ended Q4 with 73.7 million paid subscribers or an increase of over 16 million subscribers versus Q3. Disney+ Hotstar subscriber additions were the largest contributor to this increase, driven by the start of the delayed IPL season. Disney+ Hotstar subscribers now account for a little over a quarter of our global subscriber base. Disney+ overall ARPU this quarter was $4.52. However, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, it was $5.30,” Disney senior executive vice president and chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said in an earnings call.
This means that Disney+Hotstar’s ARPU is at about 78 cents or around Rs 58.
Disney+ entered India coupling with its existing service Hotstar, which the mouse house took over as a part of its Twenty First Century Fox acquisition in April. The rebranded service Disney+Hotstar has signed up around 19 million subscribers in six months which is no small feat, especially in a crowded market like India.
Originally, Disney planned the launch in March with the beginning of IPL 2020. Unfortunately, the Covid2019 crisis forced the company to change the plan. Although it could not exploit the unparalleled popularity of IPL at its launch, it is reaping the benefits now. Moreover, the timing of launch may have also worked in its favour as the lockdown has massively boosted the OTT ecosystem.
Disney+Hotstar contributed around 15 per cent of Disney+ overall subscriber base in Q3. The service can grow its base faster as it has expanded its footprint to Indonesia in September. The company also announced its debut in Singapore on 1 November
The giant media conglomerate is gradually focusing more on direct-to-consumer (DTC) business making up for its late entry in the game. “We are going to continue to ramp up our investment in DTC and we will be heavily tilting the scale from our linear networks over to our DTC business as we see it as a primary catalyst for growth,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek commented.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international segment revenue grew 41 per cent to $4.9 billion in Q4, while segment operating loss declined from $751 million to $580 million, as a result of better results at Hulu and ESPN Plus.
“The real bright spot has been our direct-to-consumer business, which is key to the future of our company, and on this anniversary of the launch of Disney+ we’re pleased to report that, as of the end of the fourth quarter, the service had more than 73 million paid subscribers – far surpassing our expectations in just its first year,” Chapek said.
MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) has, for the past few weeks, intensely monitoring possible surrogate advertising during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Asci has put in place daily updates on the monitoring of alcohol brand extension advertising, instead of its regular weekly feeds, for immediate processing of complaints. Complaints against eight such advertisements, which are in potential violation of the Asci code, have been registered over the past one month. These include whisky, beer and white liquor brands. In all these cases, Asci has written to the advertisers within 24-48 hours of airing of the commercials, seeking a response.
The advertisements picked up range from those selling music CDs to packaged water, non-alcoholic beverages, and merchandising. The key to Asci's investigation is determining what are surrogates for liquor and what constitutes genuine brand extensions.
Asci’s codes and guidelines are clear about what qualifies as a genuine brand extension:
· For a brand extension of a product (liquor, tobacco, etc) to be considered genuine, it must be registered with an appropriate government authority such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India etc.
· In-store availability must be at least 10% of that of the leading brand in the category that the product competes, or sales turnover must exceed Rs 5 crore per annum or Rs 1 crore per annum in each state it is distributed in
· It must have a valid certificate from an independent organisation for such turnover and distribution data
Advertising for such brand extensions cannot feature what is prohibited by law or banned products. Neither can the advertising allude to or hint at products that cannot be advertised.
As per the law, advertisements for liquor brand extensions can run on TV if they have a CBFC certificate. The IPL broadcaster for TV has confirmed to Asci that all advertisements are checked for CBFC clearance so that they are not in violation of the Cable TV and Network Act. Keeping that in mind, Asci has processed complaints on advertisements appearing in OTT, digital and print media.
Asci secretary general Manisha Kapoor said: “We are being extra vigilant because the IPL is one of the biggest marketing platforms in India. We are looking at advertising across media – print, OTT, digital. When we spot potential violations, we ask advertisers to substantiate their claims of their product or service being a genuine brand extension within seven days. This includes sales, distribution and market share data that must be certified by an independent body. Only if they fulfil the criteria for a genuine extension, is the advertisement allowed to continue. If the advertiser fails to respond within the allotted time, the complaint is taken up ex-parte by Asci’s independent consumer complaints council.”
Asci is the self-regulatory body of the advertising industry that has as its members, agencies, advertisers, media houses and other stakeholders. Its mission is to increase consumer trust in advertising by ensuring honesty and adherence to ethics in all marketing claims.
NEW DELHI: IPL buzz volume is on track to go two times from the last season, reaching more than 60 million, indicated the Wavemaker Mesh report, released recently. Last year, the buzz volume was 37 million.
The report is curated by Wavemaker using real-time data intelligence solution via reading real-time environmental signals on multiple data-points. This season report has data sources from multiple consumer touchpoints across Digital ecosystem ranging from Social Listening, Google Searches, Website visits, BARC, Video analytics in partnership with VIDOOLY, Interaction data points collected from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
The report also indicates that the social buzz of the cricketing extravaganza is mirroring TVR and the next two weeks might see a huge surge there, after momentous buzz fatigue. Chennai Super Kings is driving the league’s social media popularity.
The report also highlighted the top 10 most loved ads; in pecking order: Dream11, Oppo, Tata Motors, Samsung, Paytm First Games, Gulf Oil, Make My Trip, Lifebuoy, Bingo, and Gamezy.
Additionally, cricket fantasy leagues are enjoying never before seen engagement with 90+ million web traffic and 300 million Google searches for the top 5 leagues in September 2020.
NEW DELHI: IPL 13 was the most awaited live property of the year, especially after Covid2019 turned us all into house-bound hermits. It provided people with a much needed break from the pandemic-induced stress and negativity. Starting from day one, audiences have been glued to their screens (TV & mobile) to watch their favourite team progressing up the IPL scoreboard. It was widely reported that the opening match of IPL scored over 269 million views, making it one of the biggest opening day numbers for any live event in history. In the most recent update, BARC India has shared that IPL 13 has clocked over 108 million cumulative reach which is 11 per cent higher than IPL 12, which clocked 98 million cumulative reach.
On the other hand, the tournament has already clocked 7 billion viewing minutes while the previous instalment clocked just 5.5 billion minutes. For IPL 12, the data analysed includes Week 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, which covers 44 matches aired across 24 channels. For IPL 13, the data analysed includes week 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, which covers 41 matches aired across 21 channels. This season of IPL began on 19 September and will culminate on 10 November. The matches are aired on Star Sports and streamed on Disney+ Hotstar.
NEW DELHI: If a brand wants to reiterate its positioning or share new positioning; introduce a new product/service or range; induce high brand recall or saliency, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is the perfect platform for it. The cricket extravaganza attracts undivided attention from millions of fans across the country, on both television and mobile screens.
Homegrown brand Apis, a name to reckon with in organised honey trade in the country, took a cue from the above insight and decided to introduce itself to the pan-India audiences via IPL. The brand has partnered with Rajasthan Royals as an associate sponsor and is the leading headgear partner for the team.
Until 2015, Apis was mostly into B2B exports of honey and domestic private labels, but then it decided to foray into the B2C space as well. The nearly century-old brand – specializing in honey, tea, cookies, pickles, jam, dates, preserves – raked in Rs 102 crore in revenue for the fiscal year 2018-19.
Apis was keen on making its debut with IPL due to its mass viewership but had been unable to do so before because of the tournament’s timing.
“IPL has always been scheduled in the April-May period, which is not a key advertising season for brands like us. This year it coincides with our critical advertising period and we feel it is the right time for us to associate with the tournament,” said Apis CEO Pankaj Mishra.
The brand has planned a strong foray into the B2C space by leveraging IPL to create an impact on the minds of consumers, and thereby improve brand recall. “The goal of the collaboration is to strengthen brand value and recall by engaging with a vast consumer base. The brand logo on the team's helmet is aligned with the overall brand narrative of ‘Immunity Building’ being a necessity,” explained Mishra.
He went on to say that during the pandemic health has taken centre stage in everyone’s lives. As a result, people are rediscovering honey as an effective natural therapy, capable of reducing acute inflammation and boosting immunity.
The association of the honey brand with health benefits will be amplified with a 360-degree campaign and marketing mediums covering television, print as well as digital and social media platforms, he added.
To this end, the brand is holding contests on its socials and creating content to engage with the audience. It has also signed on for digital promotions across cricket affinity platforms like Hot Star, Cricbuzz and Gaana.com.
Simultaneously, Apis is working to release a TVC that will push the brand messaging. “The brand will spend 60-70 per cent of the marketing budget on digital media, followed by the other mediums of communication,” Mishra summed up.
He was of the view that the brand’s tie-in with the IPL will also generate a massive reach and exposure not only at home but in the UAE market also.
In the three years since its entry into the B2C segment, Apis has performed fairly well in terms of revenue, with the south Indian market being the strongest in terms of performance. Hence, the partnership with Rajasthan Royals was in aid of making a strong impact across various regions.
On the back of strong consumer response, the company added four new categories to its product portfolio – Apis Fruit blast, Jams, Apis Pickles, Apis Preserves, and recently, Apis soya chunks during the last two years. It has plans to introduce more products in the coming years.
Delineating the overall objective, Mishra said: “The brand has plans to clock Rs 200 crores this fiscal. In spite of being the lean season, the first half of the fiscal has delivered good numbers and we expect a stronger operational performance. Now, as we are entering the higher consumption cycle for our product categories, we are planning new launches, thus adding on to the top line.”
Apis’ association with the IPL is a smart move but the brand has to be very focused towards measuring the RoI. “Our aim is to gain an increase in brand awareness, increased engagement, brand loyalty and trust, which will thus get converted to sales. We will measure success on the basis of our increase in followers, engagement rate, reach, and impressions on social media. These marketing activities would help us in the sales of our products,” Mishra stated.
As per media reports, the honey market in India was worth Rs 15,579 million in 2018, registering a CAGR of 10.9 per cent during 2012-2018. The market is further projected to reach a value of Rs 28,057 million by 2024, at a CAGR of 10.2 per cent during 2019-2024.
An Apeda report stated that honey exports from India grew 19 per cent year-on-year in 2018-19 to 61,333 tons, valued at Rs 732.16 crore. In 2019-2020, the country exported 59,536.75 tons of natural honey to the world for the worth of Rs 633.82 crores.
NEW DELHI: In India, there are two things that people lose their minds over: cricket and festivals. And the IPL is a festival of cricket. Add on the fact that this year, it happens to coincide with the Dussehra-Diwali season – and it's no wonder that brands are pulling out all the stops when it comes to advertising and promotional campaigns to capitalise on miraculous opportunity.
Ahead of its Big Fashion Festival, fashion e-commerce platform Myntra has decided to hop on the IPL bandwagon to maximise its visibility and sales. The brand has also tied up with multiple brand ambassadors tailored to click with different demographics and help the brand double its sales compared to the same period last year. It is also Myntra's debut on the IPL pitch.
‘IPL will help Myntra expand into newer markets’
Myntra has partnered with not one, but three IPL teams – Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, and Chennai Super Kings. The brand is RCB’s official fashion sponsor and will have its logo on the upper right chest of the team’s jersey. CSK and MI will carry the Myntra logo across the teams’ branding and communications.
According to Myntra, VP- marketing Achint Setia, “Myntra is keen to form deep connections with users across India and believes that engaging with prospective customers at all possible and relevant touchpoints is crucial to this vision. We believe that cricket in general, specifically the IPL makes for a key touchpoint and will help Myntra expand into newer markets.”
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The company has a bunch of activities planned with its partner teams. It has developed strong user engagement through social media, via the RCB, CSK, MI, and Myntra handle, where customers can win unique daily prizes by participating in interactive contests centred around the cricket tournament. The fan engagement innovation ‘Virtual Wankhede’, developed in association with the Mumbai Indians, is a platform which provides MI’s army of fans to unite virtually and cheer on their favourite team.
"The way IPL has also come up with innovations by bringing in the virtual crowd noise, virtual meet and greet with top fans, has helped the brand to drive a lot of traffic from digital and social channels,” Setia added.
To leverage the season effectively, the fashion portal has planned several exciting gamification features and content properties which will provide users with entertainment in the coming days.
One such feature that has grabbed users’ attention is the Myntra Fireball, which provides customers the opportunity to bag specific and time-bound deals by catching a moving ball of flame on the Myntra app.
‘Looking to expand in South, tier-2 and tier-3 cities’
The unique overlap of the IPL and the festive season this year was like a lifeline thrown to brands reeling under the Covid2019 crisis and Myntra is trying to make the most of it. Besides a 2X growth in sales from last year, the fashion firm is also expecting sales momentum from tier-2 and tier-3 cities to continue into the festive period. In fact, it is anticipating that over 50 per cent of its sales will come from outside metro and tier-1 cities.
Looking at the team partnerships closely, the e-commerce firm has chosen two teams from south India and one from north, highlighting its push to diversify and expand its reach. Setia also agreed, saying: “We intend to make a big expansion in the south market. RCB and CSK not only have a strong following in the metros such as Bangalore and Chennai but also drive countless conversations in the smaller cities and towns of the south market.”
Mumbai’s importance to retail businesses can hardly be understated and tying up with the city’s most prominent sports team will only further solidify Myntra’s position in a crucial market, he elaborated. Factors such as team popularity and style quotient were also given strong consideration by Myntra executives when opting for team partners this IPL season.
‘Celebrity endorsements to boost audience appeal’
Brand image and new user engagement are two agendas high on the list of Myntra’s marketing strategy for its festive season jamboree. With this goal in mind, it has roped in vlogging sensation Bhuvan Bam as its first digital brand ambassador.
Myntra and Bam will co-ideate and create content that effectively portrays the brand in an innovative and entertaining manner that goes beyond the traditional forms of communication. The e-commerce platform is counting on Bam’s engaging social media presence and high resonance with the people to gain traction with his 1.93 crore-strong loyal fan base.
Similarly, as part of the Big Fashion Festival promotion, Myntra has partnered up with Soha and Saif Ali Khan to bring the sweetness of Durga Puja to the fore.
The brand film aptly re-creates the present scenario, with countless families celebrating the festive season through video calls, thereby striking an emotional chord with the audience, while underscoring the value of the right attire to enhance any festive celebration and make moments special.
The fashion e-tailer recently announced Bollywood actor Disha Patani as its first-ever beauty ambassador to further consolidate its strong position in the massive and rapidly-growing beauty and personal care (BPC) market in India; actor Kiara Advani is the brand’s nationwide celebrity endorser.
In the same month, south cine star Samantha Akkineni signed on with Myntra as the fashion marquee’s face to win over the region’s large and widespread audience.
Myntra’s holistic approach to its marketing campaigns, with Bollywood, Tollywood, and other regional celebrities, along with top IPL teams, is expected to reach 150+ million people across the nation. According to the brand, the mega fashion event is also set to witness a massive uptick in demand, at 4X over its BAU (business as usual).
Speaking about the overall marketing plan for the festive season, Setia explained: “Our key goal is to ensure Myntra has a prominent space in the key touchpoints with potential customers ahead of its blockbuster sale events. This festive season, our marketing efforts will further drive conversations around the brand through the star-studded campaigns with celebrity brand ambassadors, who have a wide audience appeal reaching all corners of the country.”
However, the company did not share the marketing budget allocated for the festive period, and replied, in terms of spends, the investment varied for each partner as the scale and size of the associations are different.
Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival is scheduled to be held between October 16 and 22. The fashion major will offer various lakh styles from the widest collection of 5000+ brands for its customers. As part of the seven-day festive season sale, the platform is expected to cater to over 4 million unique customers.
NEW DELHI: ESP Properties, the entertainment, and sports division of GroupM cited that the IPL 2020 sponsorship crossed the ₹ 500 cr mark this season. IPL finally made its comeback a little later than the usual schedule, causing a storm within the sponsors, fans, and players. Even though the pandemic has seen a direct impact on the sports sponsorship market, IPL continues to carve a niche for itself in India while also keeping its fans engaged.
The current position at which IPL stands is quite strong considering how the pandemic has taken a toll in India. This year ESP properties, being at the forefront, helped multiple brands in different categories close deals for IPL, some of them include; Paytm, Colgate, Myntra, Lifebuoy, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Clear Shampoo, Acko Insurance, MPL, Center Fruit and Tata Tea – Chakra Gold amongst others. IPL 2020 has showcased that it is pandemic-proof with the number of brands coming on board for sponsorship.
GroupM ESP Properties business head Vinit Karnik said, “Sport is a universal language that connects everyone. While Cricket in the country returned with IPL – India welcomed it with a tremendous fervour despite the games being delayed and in a ‘no-live audience’ scenario. GroupM played a pivotal role in closing central and team sponsorships deals this year which goes to show that in a pandemic like this, brands have leveraged IPL to communicate their brand stories in the best way possible. With the heartfelt connection that our country has with the IPL phenomena, the fans made sure that they loyally and virtually welcome the games making sure that COVID-19 does not impact their vibe.”
Despite the slowdown, backed by its growing presence IPL continues to attract strong consideration from advertisers and adds to the year-on-year growth of the sports business industry.
