High score on cards from cricket advertising

Place their bets on better visibility, Indian cricket team's current T20 form

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Advertisers are lining up to invest in cricket as India is set to host two major tournaments in succession. While Star India will air the ICC T-20 World Cup, Sony Pictures Network India (earlier called Multi Screen Media) will broadcast the annual twenty-twenty extravaganza the Vivo Indian Premier League. Media planners reveal that both the tournaments are attracting substantial advertising money.

“Since both the tournaments are taking place in India, advertisers are assured of greater visibility. Given the form India is in, the (T-20) World Cup is sure to gain a lot of eyeballs,” says Basab Dutta Chowdhury, COO, Starcom India.

Both the networks are aiming to sell 80-90 per cent of the inventory via sponsorships. Star India has already got close to 11 sponsors on board, including Raymond, Cadbury and Tata Sky. Raymond has allocated close to Rs 35 crore for its T-20 World Cup campaign, reveal sources.

The IPL is seeing the return of some of the sponsors from the last season like Amazon, Vodafone, Ceat and Vimal Pan Masala. New ones on board include Freecharge, Tata Sky, Coca-Cola and Oppo Mobiles. Veteran sponsors such as Havells, Mondelez, Maruti, Marico and Samsung are also in talks with Sony for an IPL berth, it is reliably learnt.

Sony, sources say, is looking at six to eight more sponsors, which will be closed shortly.

Brands like Raymond, Vimal Pan Masala and Tata Sky are expected to buy inventory on both IPL and the T-20 World Cup, implying there could be an overlap. But both Star India and Sony, say sources, have no problems with this.

Interestingly, the ad-rates for both the tournaments are steep. Those in the know reveal that while Star India has managed to command Rs 5.5-6 lakh for a ten second ad spot, the IPL rates range from Rs 5-5.5 lakh on an average.

At these rates, the two tournaments together will account for around Rs 1,550 crore in advertising spends. The T-20 World Cup, which has 35 matches, will account for around Rs 605 crore in advertising while the IPL, with 60 matches to be played, will account for Rs 950 crore. In comparison, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 earned Star India around Rs 500 crore while the IPL last year earned Sony close to Rs 900 crore. However, in the case of World Cup, the average ad-rates were significantly lower since the matches were not held on home soil.

“The fact that both the tournaments are in succession means that Sony Pictures Networks will have to move early on with its ad-sales. Given India’s performance in the T-20 format currently, advertises are queueing up to buy ad spots and sponsorships for the World Cup. In order to get a share of the brands’ advertising pockets, Sony is also looking at selling majority of its inventory in advance, even though the auctions are yet to take place,” says a media planner in the know.

Star India has an upper hand in digital advertising sales. It holds the digital telecast/streaming rights to both the tournaments and in the case of T-20 World Cup, many deals have been struck as a package with hotstar, the network's online streaming platform  which was launched with the ICC Cricket World Cup last year.