Shubhra Saraf Sethi, Head - Product, Revenue Strategy & Customer Marketing – Sports at Disney Star, shared key insights on ‘Live Sports - Leading the growth of TV and Brands in India’ at the e4m TV First conference.
Shubhra started the session with insights on the unrivalled power of television in India, led by 900 million viewers across the country. “To put that into perspective, TV viewers are 3X of total UPI users and >4X of total online shoppers in India.” She highlighted that live sports is leading the growth of television, not just in India. “Not just India, but even in technologically advanced markets, TV is the chosen destination for live sports viewing. When it comes to sports people like to watch it on the big screen across the world and not just in India. 95% of Super Bowl viewers watched the game on linear television. 114 million viewers watched the game on TV while only 7 million streamed it. IPL is the Super Bowl of India.”
She then spoke about IPL crossing the 500 million reach mark for the first time in 2023, making it the biggest-ever edition on the big screen. “In fact, 2023 was the year when cricket on television created and recreated history, with all major cricket events past eclipsing viewership records. Asia Cup delivered a reach of 306 million, whereas IPL garnered 505 million and ICC CWC saw 520 million viewership. To top it all, the reach of the World Cup final on TV was 300 million on a single day.”
Shubhra also spoke about IPL on TV delivering for brands across the funnel, from awareness to consideration to conversion. “A fintech brand for instance, leveraged IPL on TV for the last 3 editions and witnessed massive uplifts in consideration during the associations. The trust and credibility that television commands helped the brand leapfrog to market leadership on the back of IPL TV associations. In terms of sales impact, a smartphone brand witnessed 76% increase in sales leads during its IPL TV presence last year.”
Further in her talk, Shubhra shared insights from a Sync Media report that analyzed campaign performances of 10+ IPL advertisers from 2023. “The report states that 85% of all improvements in the business KPIs, whether it's an increase in awareness, consideration scores or even brand impact, were driven by television, showcasing the ability of television in driving highly differentiated impact.”
Speaking on the importance of elevating the success of brand associations through TV, Shubhra spoke about reinventing television by moving away from commodity into a quality buy, with cricket on TV delivering high-quality attentive GRPs. “Sports is helping brands tell effective stories which brings brands closer to their customers. Brands like Mondelez and Airtel have captured the attention of millions of viewers through integrated organic campaigns built by Star Sports during IPL, helping them to achieve their brand objectives. This IPL we are offering brands an opportunity to deeper engagement with viewers, whereby IPL viewers can have an engaging experience with their second screen by accessing additional content, contests, and rewards. It can also help brands generate leads for their activity.”
She concluded by highlighting that IPL 2024 on Star Sports presents a goldmine of an opportunity for brands to leverage an unmatched scale at utmost efficiency, with the ability to drive differentiated impact.
