Comments
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is as much about cricket as branding and visibility, with companies vying to catch the eyeballs of millions of viewers, especially youngsters, glued to the television sets. In this game, start-ups have upped their ante when compared to established companies. They are punching way above their weight in sponsoring IPL teams this season.
Over a dozen start-ups, including Cred, Dream11, acko, meesho, The Souled Store, Ather, boat and Unacademy, are associated with IPL teams. The start-ups rich with funds are burning them for visibility by associating themselves with India’s biggest sporting event, feel brand experts.
T20 format, the biggest show
The new-age brands want to play the T20 format cricket against the more nuanced, long-format waiting game that the test matches are, says Ravi Raghavendra, National Creative Director, Thinkstr, an advertising and design agency.
The prohibitive ₹15 lakh for a 10-second spot is not stopping many new-age tech brands from going all out during the IPL, with over 50 million avid viewers devouring every second on TV, and a few millions more on OTT, and some consider it money well burnt, he adds.
“The IPL is like the SuperBowl of the US. If your brand has done fantastic leverage of the event, it will become the talk of the nation for a while. Who does not want this?” asks Jyothsna Yalapalli, Remote Brand Head for 7 Start-ups.
From CRED to Byju’s, WhiteHat Jr, Dream 11 to new age start-ups and regional brands such as Evoult Wellness from Delhi, Niine Sanitary napkins from Gorakhpur and Andhra’s Double Horse, have made their brands salient through associating themselves with the IPL.
The IPL is a very innovative launchpad, with a range of Ad inventory that attracts millions of eyeballs for a sustained period. Any brand can achieve a critical mass if it leverages this platform cleverly because cricket is like mainstream cinema and can break barriers of language and region, she added.
Ambi Parameswaran, Author- Ad Veteran, when asked why many established companies are not there in the IPL, says that chances are that brands like CRED are out spending the conventional advertisers. Start-ups have VCs breathing down their neck to spend and build the business. The capital is very ‘impatient’ and even if the founder is wanting to go slow and steady, the VC may be happier burning the cash to get the start-up ready for the next round of funding.
“IPL is the biggest show in town. It reaches a pan-India audience, both men and women. I suppose they say let cost per thousand eyeballs be damned, let us build quick awareness, the VCs will give us more if we burn through the first ₹100 crore. The music goes on,” he added.
Arun Natarajan, Founder of PE-VC funding analytics service Venture Intelligence, is of the opinion that having concluded mega funding rounds in 2021, consumer-targeting start-ups need to scale rapidly to justify their elevated valuations. It is no surprise that some of the newly minted Unicorns spend heavily on advertising and sponsorship in the annual IPL carnival.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.