IMC Assignment: Critique: IPL Vs Cricket World Cup, Advertising Budgets

Submitted By: Shyam Shet. E2009045

Every Indian marketer worth his dollar is gearing up to be a part of what is being touted as the biggest cricketing season of all time. In a month from now, an estimated Rs 1,500 crore of combined advertising funds will be pumped into the ICC World Cup starting February 19 and then into the Indian Premier League-4 (IPL) beginning April 8. Industry experts say this 90-day chock-a-block cricket calendar will, arguably, be the largest media extravaganza ever in terms of both viewership and revenue. What is interesting is that despite the overdose of cricket and the high cost associated with it, most advertisers are not deterred from shelling out the big bucks. In fact, they admit that cricket remains the best impact property in a fragmented media environment
Is it worth shelling the big bucks on advertisements in World cup cricket & IPL?
Cricket is religion in India & Cricketers are worshiped by a billion Indians. Despite the overdose of cricket, Indian public have certainly given a thumbs up to the mega event and there is certainly no reason, why this craze should not increase as the tournament progresses. Statistics have proved that ever since the commencement of the world cup, the viewership and advertisement revenues of General entertainment channels (GECs), are under tremendous pressure. As per data from TAM Media research, the Hindi entertainment genre’s market share declined from nearly 30% to 27% between the last week of January & the first week of March when the world cup began. Similarly, market share for sports channels airing world cup matches like ESPN & Star Sports, grew about 4% in the same period. Further Gross Rating points (GRPs), of the top 4 Hindi entertainment channels-Star Plus, Zee Ent., Colors & Sony, declined by 15-30 points. Of the total TV advertising budget of Rs 10,000 crore, nearly 20% is expected to reserve for World cup & IPL. It could well cross 20% of the total TV spends.
What really marks a shift for a majority of advertisers & brands towards cricket is the attractive return on investment (ROI), Associated with cricket. This is precisely the reason why brands like Reebok, Maruti, Sony & Hero Honda, are parking 30-60%, of their overall ad budgets in getting cricket related sponsorships. Auto companies like Maruti Suzuki & Hero Honda, have large advertisements budgets allocated during the world cup & IPL.Their core target group is Male in the age group of 25-34 years, which have a heavy affinity towards cricket. Thus it is certainly worth spending the extra buck on advertisements during the World cup & IPL. According to data from aMAP, which records overnight viewership data, a record 73.6 million people tuned in to the India-England match. These figures certainly justify the big spending of all the corporates on advertisements during the world cup.
World Cup Vs IPL. Which is the better option?
The debate: World Cup Vs IPL, is itself debatable. Both the IPL & World cup, are expected to deliver a similar viewership at similar efficiency benchmarks. Hence the decision to invest in WC 2011 or IPL 2011, or both, will be based on the brand or advertiser’s marketing objective, and not viewership.
World cup 2011 & IPL have many interesting facts going for them. Some of the key features which make advertisements in World cup 2011 lucrative include: * Given the rich form of the current Indian team, over the last 4 months, and the fact that they are the favourites to lift the coveted trophy, there is a heightened interest in WC, among the Indian masses. Besides in all probability this will be Sachin’s last world cup. Hence the entire country will be praying that he is able to cherish his dream of being part of WC winning squad. * The current format of the world cup ensures that India will certainly qualify for the knockout stages. This is very encouraging for the advertisers, as people stand to lose interest once the home team is out. The last world cup in the Caribbean was a nightmare for all advertisers, as India failed to make it in the second round. * Brands that predominantly target males and youth will associate with both the tournaments in some form as staying off-air is not an option for them during this season. Traditionally, large advertisers on cricket have already taken up sponsorships on both the tournaments or on WC 2011 as it comes at the start of the purchasing season for consumer durables, financial products and automobiles. But the brands with new initiatives and launches in FY2012 will pick up IPL 2011 as it will come under the fresh budgets for the year. * WC is a mega cricket event involving national pride and passion as compared to other cricket events involving local teams or unknown clubs. This is the one tournament that is not played so much for statistics, but for staking claim to the numero uno position. As India takes its rightful place on the world’s economic stage, it is natural for people to take forward this winning spirit in sports as well and the recent winning strides of India in the CWG, Asian Games, badminton, and tennis further whet India’s appetite for the win in this WC. * With more than 95 per cent of households (HH) being single television HH and the WC matches being played in the core prime time, it will attract high viewership not only from men but also women. Additionally, scheduling of Indian matches on weekends would further augment the viewership. And, there is no other big television event in this time period (19 February-2 April) to take the eyeballs away from the WC. * The WC commercial format and structure provides for less clutter for brands as compared to local league event/s and the strict ICC rules protecting sponsor brands against ambush marketing further safeguard the sponsorship monies
Where does IPL score over the Cricket world cup, from an advertisement perspective? * The IPL 2011 is expected to garner viewership from a wider demographic set, as opposed to a male-dominated World Cup viewership, because of the combination of cricket, glamour and drama vis-à-vis pure cricket. This will result in a greater set of FMCG and women-focused brands investing in IPL 2011 as against WC 2011. Considering that general entertainment channels have shown a drop in viewership of about 20-25 per cent during IPL and major ICC tournaments, these brands will not have too many channels to invest in. * The biggest difference is that once a marketer decides to get on to the cricket bandwagon, the World Cup carries a far larger element of risk; mainly in that its success is highly dependent on the performance of Team India. And the World Cup has only six guaranteed India matches. While one can presume India’s entry into the quarters and beyond, we are still looking at a maximum total of nine India matches. * The IPL offers no such danger. We are becoming more and more local in nature — the rising number of ‘city’ pages in most dailies alone bears huge testimony to that. Then, the shorter format of the IPL game is actually more suited to our current mindset and lifestyle where we need everything shorter and faster. Coupled with the entertainment factor, IPL becomes a wholesome family show. * As an annual event, the IPL is more prone to getting stronger and longer commitments from marketers than the World Cup, which happens every four years. That the IPL is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) marketing platform is now a well established fact
Conclusion: Both IPL & Cricket World cup present an excellent opportunity for Indian marketers to lap up the unending bounty of cricketing enthusiasm in this country. Both the world cup & IPL 4 are outstanding marketing platforms-to launch products and services, to kick off new campaigns and to garner the attention of millions in a short fan of time.
From past data, one can conclude that both present equal viewership opportunities for marketers. However as an annual event IPL is more prone to getting stronger & longer commitments from marketers then WC, which happens every 4 years. True the World Cup runs high on patriotic passion, but IPL makes a stronger case for the marketer’s buck.
However one needs to be cautious, as past studies on IPL 2010 sponsorships have revealed that the investments made by advertisers is not a sure fire route to heightened visibility and increase in awareness/perception measures. Out of 65 brands that were associated with IPL 2010 in some form or the other, only four brands garnered unaided awareness of 25 per cent or more. This clearly indicates that a co-presenting sponsorship or an associate sponsorship does not necessarily mean greater visibility than a spot buy or an action replay package, etc. Greater return on investment on both WC 2011 and IPL 2011 will depend on a combination of factors like overall media visibility of a brand, likeability of the television commercials, and advertising proposition among other factors.