Television continues to drive the largest aggregation of viewers in the Indian Premier League. As per BARC, a single match of IPL has the power to deliver 100 million viewers. Brands have enjoyed a huge impact on business KPIs through IPL on TV at minimal investment outlays. TV Advertisers on IPL have enjoyed a stellar CPM of INR 45 while leveraging this unmatched scale.

At a recently hosted Business Leaders Meet by Star Sports and exchange4media, a diverse panel of experts addressed SMB brands on the power of IPL on Television and the price flexibility of the platform that makes it accessible to advertisers across the spectrum.

The panel was chaired by Sohini Ganguly, Senior Correspondent, exchange4media.

Vikas Saxena, Co-Founder, Sync Media kick-started the session by busting the myth of TV not being measurable. “TV in modern times is a very measurable medium. Unlike 2-3 decades ago, now there are smartphones in people’s hands, which makes TV measurable very quickly because people start searching for you. This further becomes essentially more important for the up-and-coming brands, because with this search share going up, there is a boost to the future market share of the brand. There is a direct correlation between the two aspects,” Saxena explained. Busting yet another myth, he said that it is wrong to think that advertising on television during cricket events is expensive. In fact it is the cheapest property according to Saxena. “The KPI rise per rupee cost is the cheapest when it comes to cricket,” he said. Saxena further highlighted the qualitative benefits of advertising on television, where Saxena shared that once a brand advertises on TV, even their digital campaigns start to see a boost.

B Sridhar, Executive VP – Mainline Business, Media Planning at Innocean echoes a similar opinion and notes that one doesn’t need to burn the bank to be on TV. “When we talk about ROI, the point is what is the investment in media doing in the mindspace and in the marketplace. With pure exposure on TV during cricket events, you are reaching a prospective buyer, an influencer and a user all at the same time, who are ready to be in the market today, tomorrow or in the very near future,” he explained. According to Sridhar, this builds a mental inventory of the brand into the future and one needs to look at it holistically, rather than performance-led campaigns.

Brands like Blackberrys have taken a step further and gone beyond just pureplay advertising, to be shown during live sports broadcast, explained Rajesh Sethuraman, VP – Brand Experience at Blackberrys. The brand associated with Star Sports as Cricket Live’s Official Wardrobe Partner. “We had a very clear objective, one of which was for building awareness. Cricket on television, especially IPL, gives you the best reach. We also wanted to speak to young millennials and also build a bit of stature and in the process, showcase the real product,” said Sethuraman. Following this association, the brand saw the recall going up and the awareness level almost doubled in a span of barely 6 months.

Speaking of the alco-bev category, which can come off as a tricky segment as far as advertising is concerned, Joydeep Basuroy, AGM, Pernod Ricard shared that an association for advertising on TV during live sports helps to create shared brand experiences to drive equity when friends and family come together to enjoy live cricket on TV. “It also helps to get a newer audience, when the family gets together,” he added.

Sharing some statistics, Basuroy shared that IPL on TV has garnered around 25% new female audiences, which was unheard of in live sports. “A bigger screen helps foster those connections,” he said. According to him, in the alco-bev category, the emotional connect is of utmost importance and television helps build a strong emotional connect with the audience. “Thus TV gets a priority over OTT viewing for us,” Basuroy added.

Sridhar added here that sports provides a great amount of contextuality to build a brand and take it to the next level. He concluded the session by saying, “Bada screen hai toh bada maza hai, bada platform hai toh bada faayda hai!”