Market research platform Unomer has found brands like Dream11, Tata Neu, RuPay, JioMart, CRED, Tiago.ev, AJIO, CEAT, Asian Paints, Airtel 5G, etc. to be some of the most visible brands during the broadcast of IPL matches this year. Notice any pattern? Unlike last year, this year’s crop of advertisers has a healthy mix of legacy and new-age firms.
Experts point out that apart from the usual suspects like FMCG, auto and telecom majors, this year’s tournament has seen a drastic cut compared to last year when it comes to advertising from new-age firms like BYJU’S and Unacademy, PhonePe, Amazon Prime, Pristyn Care, Zepto, Ather, Meesho and Cars24, among others.
Harish Bijoor, Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults, says one reason could be the funding winter the start-up ecosystem is going through. “There’s a start-up funding winter. Investors are talking about profitability and not about GMV, eyeballs, etc.,” he says. “IPL seems to have... emerged as a product of choice for a brand manager. There are usual advertisers like FMCG, banking, automotive, etc. who spend as much as eight months of their entire budget on IPL.”
Brand experts, however, believe that a lot of companies have started preferring digital as the go-to channel for advertising compared to TV. And data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) supports that trend, with the number of advertisers on TV (it is being broadcast on Star Sports) having fallen by 42 per cent in the first 29 matches of this season. This year, TV has attracted 47 advertisers so far, compared to 81 in the last season. Brands like CRED, Paytm, Swiggy, Acko, BYJU’S, which until last year had bet big on TV, have given it a miss this year. Amazon, Samsung, Indeed, TVS, Castrol, Noise, Puma, etc., are exclusive to JioCinema—where IPL is being streamed—this year.
Elara Capital says this year’s digital and TV un-bundling of advertisements is a disruption, and a monetisation opportunity for brands from the tournament. “The brand vertical split has changed this year, with fintech, retail tech, e-commerce, edtech, etc., being there [in the ad market] in very small portions because these companies have seen their ad spends cut down in the range of 20-40 per cent,” says Karan Taurani, Senior VP-Research Analyst at Elara Capital.
An important trend is narrowcasting (targeted ads) instead of broadcasting, brand expert Manish Porwal explains. “Overall, digital and TV audiences have separated. Because of digital, which allows for brands to pick and choose its audience, it has allowed different kinds of brands to get in. The ability of a client to place his ad in his required slot has gone up and hence narrowcasting has gone up,” says Porwal, MD of Alchemist India. Taurani, too, says that digital is way more acceptable of local advertisers and niche advertising verticals, which are not that relevant for TV. “Traditional verticals are more skewed towards TV. They will have 70 per cent of their ads coming on TV,” he says.
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