ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Final: Several brands go in for non-celebrity ads on TV  

Non-celebrity advertisements took up a fair share of the ad airspace during the television broadcast of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final between India and Australia on Sunday as nearly 25 brands chose to focus on their messaging rather than opting for a popular brand ambassador.   

During the eight-hour final match on Sunday, some of the prominent brands which aired ads on official TV broadcaster Star Sports without the use of popular brand ambassadors included Fogg, Sprite, Vi, Cadbury, PhonePe, Hero Vida, Mahindra Thar, Lloyd, AMFI, Dove soap, SBI Car Loan, Brooke Bond Red Label, Polycab India, PC Chandra Jewellers, Bata, Blackberry, Amul, Groww, Ambuja Cement, Nerolac Paints, Dabur Vedic Tea, Mahindra Finance, ACC Cement and Amazon Prime Video. 

Those endorsed by celebrities were a tad fewer. They included at least 22 such as Amazon Pay, MRF Tyres, Vimal Pan Masala, Kamla Pasand, Reserve Bank of India, Indigo Paints, Swaraj Tractors, Dream11, MAK Lubricants, Puro Salt, Macho, Mastercard, Denver, Jindal Panther, Skechers, Blender's Pride, Maruti Brezza, Dabur Red Bae Fresh Gel, Zepto, Manyavar, State Bank of India and Lay’s.  

Only about 20 brands dominate the World Cup season, pointed out Manish Porwal, MD, Alchemist Marketing & Talent Solutions. “It may be purely coincidental that sponsors of these ads may not be using celebrity endorsers in their current campaign. Generally, however, brands are leaning more towards the use of celebrities,” he added.  

“Besides, as advertisement durations are reducing over time, celebrities are able to create disruption and engagement for the brands more quickly. It becomes easier to say the story through already stablished characters,” he said, referring to Google Pixel’s ad with Anil Kapoor featuring his famous character Mr. India.  

At the start of the Cricket World Cup in October 2023, a total of 26 brands had signed up as sponsors with official broadcaster Disney Star for the 2023 edition of the World Cup. The tournament is pegged to have generated Rs 2,000-Rs 2,200 crore in combined ad revenue on TV and digital platforms compared to the Rs 1,350 crore it did four years ago in the 2019 edition, according to a note from brokerage firm Elara Capital. 

With only three startups (PhonePe, Dream11 and LendingKart), the list was a sharp contrast to some of the sponsoring brands in the last World Cup which included Byju’s, Dream11, CarDekho, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Amazon Echo, Amazon Prime, Policybazaar, Paisabazaar, Pharmeasy, Swiggy, PhonePe, Uber, UberEats, Cars 24, and Netflix. 

The final match on Sunday saw India lose to Australia in Ahmedabad – the city hosted both the opening match and the final. It was a culmination of 10 teams playing against each other in 48 matches between October 5 and November 19, 2023. India hosted the coveted tournament after a gap of 12 years. This was the first time India was the exclusive host. In 1987, it hosted it with Pakistan, in 1996 with Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and in 2011 along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.  

Also Read: 'Now they'll have to use Teams': Elon Musk takes a dig at Sam Altman after he joins Microsoft