The Echo-nomist

It’s that time of the year again… 8 teams, 2 months, 1 winner! Cricket enthusiasts are all geared up to cheer for their team. Players are ready to smash the ball out of the park. And sponsors are ready to see their sales go up.

We’re talking about IPL.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is sort of a big deal. Everyone watches it and brands spend A LOT of money.

Star will pay BCCI ₹3,269.5 crore for broadcasting rights. Vivo will pay ₹2,199 crore for the title sponsorship rights for 5 years. The other official sponsors are paying ₹220 crore. Even the sponsor for the strategic timeout is paying ₹60 crore.

But the question is- is it worth spending so much money? Is it impactful? Well, there is no direct answer to this.

To advertise in IPL is huge for any company. They have a wide reach. In 2020, there was a surge in the viewers to 405 million (836 million people in India watch TV). For reference, general entertainment category programs collectively reached about 350 million viewers in 2020. Another reason is, the ads keep coming. There is a 20-30 second ad break after every over and every wicket. This means, the ads are shown frequently and they’re for a short duration so the viewers are likely to engage more.

Yan Liu, CEO at TVision, said “Ads that aired throughout the IPL had 41% higher Attention than the average ad, so it’s no wonder marketers want to invest there.”

I’m not going to go into how the brain works and which neuron of your brain is triggered. But according to a study by a Cognitive Neuroscientist, Shikher Chaudhary, in the driving emotional state that motivates people, sports content gathered a 15% higher passion than GEC, 20% higher than news content and 12% higher than movies also. They also found that the response to the same ad had a stronger response during a sports game, when aired between different genres of content.

The thing about IPL advertisements are that you watch the same ads, repetitively for 50 days. So by the end of it, you’ve seen that ad umpteen times and it’s ingrained in your mind. Especially if the ad is catchy. Like- “yeh mein kar leta hoon, aap jaake Dream 11 pe team banaiye,” and those CRED ads from IPL 2020.

If their tagline/ad sticks with the viewer, next time they’re looking at that particular product/service they will think about that company and will be more inclined to buy it.

The brands have to make impressionable ads, targeting the right audience. If they’re successful at that the they can reap the benefits of advertising in IPL.

America has the Super Bowl, which is their big sports event of the year. People look forward to it all year long and brands prepare advertisements way before hand. If you can advertise in Super Bowl, there’s nothing like it. A 30 second ad cost $5.6 million in 2021.

Interestingly enough, Oracle conducted a study of 2000 Americans who plan on watching the Big game. According to it, 53% of people said Super Bowl wouldn’t be the same without ads. Whereas, 11% of people ONLY plan on watching the ads.

Ads are also entertainment for people. Majority of the people (55%) said that the main reason they watch Super Bowl ads is humour. 13% watch to learn about new products and 7% for the celebrities. Gen Z’s watch it to get new ideas or learn about new products. Since they’re young, impressionable minds, it’s easier for the brands to influence them.

Needless to say, Super Bowl is huge and so are its advertisements. But how long will it take IPL to reach that level? Can IPL be the Super Bowl of India?