Playing in the big league: Here's how IPL sponsors are hedging their bets

With the sheer weight of the runs he scored in his first ever Indian Premier League (IPL) season this year, Englishman Jonny Bairstow awed many and ensured that in future, too, franchisees keep a close eye on him. Much like the cricketers, there are new brands that associate with the IPL every season and like Bairstow, try to leave an indelible impression on the Indian consumers.

The 12th season of the annual gala has seen a host of new brands jumping into the bandwagon as broadcast and/or streaming sponsors or tying up with individual teams. From a global beverage giant with past history of cricket sponsorships to a service start-up taking a calculated risk and even a brass band that plays in weddings; each has reasons to believe that the IPL is just the right platform that combines correct timing with the best reach and is the one-stop solution for a diverse range of brand goals.

The viewership numbers, even during the league stages, are flattering and in touching distance of the overall figure from last year (411 million versus 414 million). While the growth in viewership is consistent, according to figures released by the broadcaster, Star Sports, after the first four weeks, the fine print shows more women and children watching the league this year. For the brands, it means more target groups even as their individual views of looking at it are different.

Asha Sekhar, vice-president and chief digital officer, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, emphasises the brand’s ongoing attempts to transform itself into a total beverages company and explains how an IPL association helps the brand: “Sports events like IPL provide us with the scale to target specific audiences in the most relevant time of the year, enabling a segmented approach in reaching out to the right consumers, in the right markets, with the right brands,” she says.

Star shared a list which included Phone Pe, Mobile Premiere League, UrbanClap and Voltas as the other new entrants for this season as broadcast and/or streaming sponsors for the 2019 edition of the Vivo IPL.

Lucrative as it is, associating with the league comes at a huge financial cost, especially for brands like UrbanClap, an on-demand home services startup that is still some distance away from the consolidation stage. The company says it was a “calculated risk” and is showing instant benefits. “We had never considered IPL before primarily because of the amount of investment involved. But this time, we have built the infrastructure to sustain the demand which would come from an association with the league,” says vice-president (marketing), UrbanClap, Rahul Deorah.

Given that the cricketing event is on at the peak of summer, the company it pushing its air conditioner (AC) servicing capabilities in its advertisements. And while the viewership among women and children has registered a healthy growth, Deorah feels the IPL is the best way to reach the Indian male and sees AC repairs and so the kick-off with a “male-centric” service. “Consumer insights have validated this as a majority of the bookings are done and followed up by men establishing them as the perpetrators of the service,” he says.

Deorah is buoyed by the association. The company tracks factors such as how many extra app installations are coming at the end of each ad and how many extra bookings are coming. He claims that the average daily app installations during the IPL days have gone up three times since the launch of the new campaign and on some days, it has even touched 3.5x. He predicts it to settle down anywhere between 2 and 2.5 times by the time the season ends.

Then comes the individual team sponsorship which is less in terms of the money involved but is far more in the sheer numbers. Five of the eight franchisees, who shared the figures of new associations, have anywhere between one and six new sponsors backing them this year. K. Shanmugham, CEO of Bairstow’s team Sunrisers Hyderabad, said, this year the team has a new principal sponsor in Coolwinks.com and three other sponsors and such support gives extra motivation to the team to win the championship.

Experts such as KWAN Sports CEO Indranil Das Blah say while the broadcast or presenting sponsors have a broad leverage, individual teams can play tactically and avoid being overshadowed by players with deep pockets.

“Brand presence anywhere is important. For example, if Manyavar is at the back of the KKR helmet, it is more than a logo presence. Again, for example, if you are teaming up with Royal Challengers Bangalore and if you are lucky enough, you can get almost half a day with Virat Kohli and at Rs 2-3 crore and that’s a great value and that’s what the IPL gives you. If you are to rope in a Kohli or a (MS) Dhoni you will have to spend upwards of Rs 10 crore but if you invest smartly with an IPL team, you are getting them for less than half that amount,” says Das Blah. 

Some associations are rather puzzling. Take the case of Colors, a Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC), whose logo Mumbai Indians players are sporting on the back of their jersey. This is the first time Colors has associated it with the league but isn’t a GEC teaming up with cricket that eats into its daily-soap led viewership a tad strange?

Nina Elavia Jaipuria, head, Hindi mass entertainment and kids TV network, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd, acknowledges this paradox as a “reality” that no GEC broadcaster can run away from. “Rather than ruing the lost viewership, it is prudent to associate with it and make sure that they benefit from it.” The channel is using the association in different forms of engagement such as a competition where winner gets tickets to watch the match at the stadium and in the process is enticed to watch Colors during the hours the matches are not played.

But can too much advertising result in the fringe taking over the core, the game of cricket? And is there room to accommodate the increasing number of sponsors and partners every year? Blah weighs in: “Cricket has always been cluttered but if the brands have the wherewithal to not only pay the sponsorship amount but also have enough to spend on media, they can leverage the opportunity better. In the last two years, IPL has grown significantly. So, I don’t feel you will find sponsors saying that the IPL does not work for me because it only works for everyone who have deep pockets.”