There were plenty of hits and misses in IPL's fifth edition. But in the final moments of the game, brands batting on cricket's big ticket property went home quite happy.

Ms Anuradha Aggarwal, Senior VP –Brand Communication and Insights, Vodafone India, said, “The IPL for us has delivered very well both in terms of efficiency of reach and effectiveness of on ground engagement with our customers.” Vodafone has been associated with the tournament for five years.

Other long-standing sponsors such as DLF too believed that IPL had managed to retain its brand value. “IPL managed to stay in the news and continued to draw families. Its television ratings should have improved as it had some last-over finishes and exciting finals,” said Mr Rajeev Talwar, Group executive director, DLF. Asked if the company would look at renewing its deal with IPL, Mr Talwar said that it was too early to comment.

Winning team KKR's principal sponsor Nokia too was in celebratory mode and said it would play up the association with the team more next year.

Official broadcaster SET Max appeared relieved with the outcome of the final match. As Mr Rohit Gupta, President, Ad Sales, MSM (the owner offset Max), said, “The previous final was a one-sided affair unlike the finals this season which took the game to the wire. KKR's highest score generated interest which can well push up the ratings beyond that of last year.”

However, estimates from the industry indicate that the official broadcaster might fall short of its revenue target of Rs 1,000 crore by around Rs 200 crore.

Meanwhile, although SET Max struggled to fill its ad inventory, those who advertised on the channel during IPL scored due to the lack of clutter. Especially gaining were first time advertisers such as the Kolkata-based, Rs 450-crore Dollar Industries. The company used IPL for the first time for its hosiery brand, spending almost Rs 3 crore on the property this season. According to Mr Vinod Gupta, Managing Director, Dollar Industries, “Summer is the prime season for our product and so we decided to use the IPL to get mileage for our brand.”

It also helped the brand ambassador of Dollar, Akshay Kumar, get the right kind of visibility for his forthcoming film, Rowdy Rathore , scheduled for release just after the IPL.

IPL 5 had a mix of advertisers from the big auto brands such as Mercedes Benz, Ashok Leyland, and Volkswagen to smaller ones such as Vimal Pan Masala, V Guard and Lovely Professional University.

(With inputs from Abhishek Law)

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