How IPL 2021 can convert challenges into opportunities for brands in the digital space

Year on Year the trends of videos as a marketing tool have been growing on exponentially and that is not stopping anytime soon

By Siddhartha Vanvani

It’s that time of the year again where cricket rivalries in India divide friends and families on which is the best cricketing city in the country. The much awaited IPL is here and with a surge in the second wave of the novel coronavirus, it is one of the most stress-busting activities in daily lives while people are advised to practice extra caution by staying/working from home again. IPL brings joy to not only the masses at home, but also presents a big opportunity for brands to reach out to the audiences who care about them.

As per the Vivo IPL watch report released by Hotstar in 2019, they set a benchmark of over 10.3 Million plus simultaneous viewers, leaving behind most if not all major global events. Did you know the match held between CSK versus SRH in 2018 crossed 8.3 million plus simultaneous viewers? That’s not all, this figure was crossed 2 times again in the same IPL tournament! If these stats are something that doesn’t convince you, maybe a 3.5 times increase in watch time will light a fire in your marketing brain!

This bodes well for advertisers and brands who are trying to ‘ride the IPL wave’ to reach out to a very large scale of potential clientele and customers.

Here are a few ways in which brands will hop on to the IPL marketing train in the year 2021 and convert challenges into opportunities in the digital space.

Exploring new ad platforms and resolving outreach challenges

Ads and performance Marketing are the top gainers and will continue to be the best scaling services for all brands. The Disney+Hotstar network has been promoting their native ads platform for most part of this and last year’s IPL network. Many new brands will hop on this ad platform and consequently look to make changes to way performance marketing as a process is conducted.

New regions and resolving audience consolidation issues

The IPL watch regions report from Hotstar indicates that they reached 55% of urban audiences. This is great! However, let’s focus on the 45% remaining population. The access to high speed internet and 4G services has started to transcend geography. Jammu and Kashmir, an area of India which recently only had 4G services resumed is a potential seller’s market for brands to explore newer audiences and consolidate the entire behaviour of their TG.

Moment marketing and solving the issue of relevance to people

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three years, social media brands have completely changed how they go about marketing themselves. Meme and moment marketing have become the way brands market themselves to stay relevant. Be it, three super overs in two matches to an iconic player moment that can be a meme, brands will hop on to anything related to IPL that will catch eyeballs!

Video promotions and solving the problem of long form engagement

Video is still king! Year on year, the trends of videos as a marketing tool have been growing on exponentially and that is not stopping anytime soon. A five times growth in videos as a marketing tool was recorded last year and the trends suggest it could be even more this year. Brands will produce more and more video content and have explainer videos, testimonial videos, exciting offer videos, and some innovative video theme-ads to create an ecosystem of a fresh and innovative business with customers at its center.

The wave of IPL is bringing with it strong tides of brand marketing, promotions and a chance to explode humongously in the digital space. It’s time to sink or swim!

The author is founder and CEO, Digidarts

Read Also: Brand versus performance marketing, what’s ideal to jumpstart D2C business growth

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