The Indian Premier League is one of the most viewed, loved and followed sports event in India since more than a decade now and has a viewership of millions across the globe exceeding the viewership of America’s most famous annual championship game of the National Football League “The Super Bowl”. The IPL franchise has stunned the world and is the most successful franchise model out there.
We have handpicked 5 Online Marketing Strategies of IPL and its sponsor brands which has made IPL the most sought-after event in the world and a huge game-changer for the sponsoring brands.
Over more than 80 brands have bid heavily to be a part of 12th edition of THE IPL which has now become a marketing fiesta. Duff & Phelps’ annual study of the IPL suggests an increase in the overall value of the IPL ecosystem from US$ 5.3 billion in 2017 to US$ 6.3 billion in 2018, supported by the broadcasting rights fee surging at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.9%.
With a staggering bid of Rs 2199 crores, Star Sports became the official streaming partner of IPL for 2018-22
Here is the IPL sponsor list with the following details of title sponsor, official partners, Official digital streaming partners, official broadcasters, strategic time out partners, umpire partners.
IPL Series Sponsorship | Brand |
Title Sponsor | TATA |
Official Partners | CRED |
Official Partners | RuPay |
Official Partners | TATA Safari |
Official Partners | Dream11 |
Official Partners | Upstox |
Official Partners | Unacademy |
Official Broadcasters | Star Sports |
Official Digital Streaming Partners | Disney+Hotstar |
Umpire Partners | PayTM |
Official Strategic Timeout Partner | CEAT |
Sponsors | Brands |
Co-Presenting Sponsor | Dream 11 |
Co-Presenting Sponsor | TATA |
Co-Presenting Sponsor | BYJU’S |
Associate Sponsors | Cred |
Associate Sponsors | Spotify |
Associate Sponsors | Meesho |
Associate Sponsors | Asian Paints |
Associate Sponsors | Swiggy Instamart |
Associate Sponsors | Pepsi |
Associate Sponsors | Kamla Pasand |
Disney+Hotstar has onboarded a total of 13 sponsors for the 15th addition of the TATA IPL 2022. The detailed list is as follows:
Sponsors | Brands |
Co-presenting | Dream 11 |
Co-powered by | TATA |
Co-powered by | CRED |
Associate Sponsor | Swiggy |
Associate Sponsor | Pristyn Care |
Associate Sponsor | Zepto |
Associate Sponsor | Ather Energy |
Associate Sponsor | Niyo |
Associate Sponsor | Parle Agro |
Associate Sponsor | Spotify |
Associate Sponsor | YourSpace |
Associate Sponsor | Loreal |
Associate Sponsor | Spinny |
Star Sports being the highest bidder of broadcast, digital rights with a bid of 16,347.5 crores (Approximately 2.1billion USD) has put them in an advantageous situation for 4 years (2018-2022), Sony Pictures with the second highest bid of Rs 11,050 would have retained the television rights and other bids by other 11 big players including names like Facebook, Reliance Jio, Airtel.
Star managed to get the Media rights because that time composite bid was allowed. Further E-auction is conducted on 12 June 2022 and winner will be going to declared at the same day.
In 2022, Plenty of companies like Dream 11, Unacademy, Rupay, CRED, etc. becoming a part of IPL Sponsors, getting different benefits to increase sales, reputation, brand value due to massive viewership of 400+ Million.
And as a result, the tata has increased the brand visibility, promoting Tata Neu making it the most visible and engaged of IPL 2022.
At the Early success, Tata neu hits 2.1 million app download just with in a week. Day by Day as the TATA IPL 2020 draws closer to playoffs, it became more interesting and viewers as the part of marketing.
The Above results shows that how big brands successfully utilize digital marketing to maximize with best ROI during the IPL Season 2022. But There is always give and take, for any partnership that wish to Grow.
The TATA has replaced the Chinese company vivo and became the IPL Title sponsor for the year 2022 and 2023.
CEAT became a strategic timeout partner by paying a whopping 31 crores in a contract signed for 3 year, it has become a household name due to its unique CEAT strategic timeout strategy and is being one of the most recalled names in India as reported by YouGov
To engage audience, CEAT started various trivia contests on twitter roping in Rohit Sharma for the same.
With IPL viewership surpassing that the marketers are taking huge amount of bid in IPL, TATA has replaced the Chinese Mobile company VIVO from Title sponsor for the next two-year 2022- 2023 with an amount of 670 Crores according to Statista.
Take up the #CEATBatFlipChallenge and stand a chance to meet the one and only – @ImRo45. Come on, get going! Don’t forget to nominate your gully cricket boys! Upload the video, tag the #CEAT handle and use the hashtag #CEATBatFlipChallenge. #ContestAlert pic.twitter.com/AJCfYQ1hdX
— CEAT TYRES (@CEATtyres) April 24, 2019
The company announced that the Tata Punch Kaziranga Edition auctioned at The IPL 2022. A Pune resident Ameer khan, a big IPL fan was announced as the winner with highest bid. Recently at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai the key handover ceremony took place with offering 2 Tickets for IPL finales to the winner.
The Punch kaziranga is named on the behalf of kaziranga national park, so with a commitment towards wildlife conservation, the Bid amount is donated to the national park.
IPL sponsorship is a big strategic marketing where companies like CRED, Rupay, Dream11, Upstox, Disnet+Hotstar, Paytm are the official partners and sponsors of IPL 2022.
START SPORTS, VIVO, DREAM 11, PAYTM AND SWIGGY, CEAT AND TATA Motors being one of the most recalled brands of the 12th Edition as reported by YouGov.
Star Sports being the highest bidder of broadcast, digital rights with a bid of 16,347 crores has put them in an advantageous situation for 4 years (2018-2022), Sony Pictures with the second highest bid of Rs 11,050 and other bids by other 11 big players including names like Facebook, Reliance Jio, Airtel.
Rs 3,000 crore earned by Star India group from the T20 tournament in 2018, Rs 1,800 crore being from television and digital advertising.
Not only the cash flows but due to the increase in viewership 21% over the comparative data for the IPL 2018 (As stated by star sports), which means more expensive advertisements and more companies taking part in it.
In 2019, overall 80 companies became a part of becoming sponsors different benefits such as an increase in sales, reputation, brand value due to the massive viewership of 300+ million.
With the IPL’s viewership surpassing that of, the marketers are taking a huge bid in The IPL, VIVO the title Sponsor for IPL 2018-22 has bid 2199 crores, with a 554% increase over the previous contrast of 1000 crores, Vivo paid a sum of about 4,480 million Indian rupees as title sponsorship fee between 2017 to 2022, according to Statista.
And as a result, the hashtag has increased the brand’s visibility making it the most visible brand and engaged of this year’s IPL.
Vivo also reported its best-ever performance in India in its 1st quarter with shipping of over 4.5 crore units, tripling their sales in the period.
With an amazing brand positioning, Tata Motors has promoted its newest product Tata Harrier as a lead brand of the Vivo IPL 12th edition.
Harrier has also relaunched it’s famous Fan Catch contest, where fans get a reward of Rs 1 lakh for taking a single-handed catch of a six, this campaigns also creates excitement element in the crowd and as a reward one lucky fan who wins the most popular Harrier Fan Catch of the season will get the Tata Harrier doing this, through this indirectly the promotion which they get to do, will create a higher impact then a normal advertisement also the winner will also generate sales through word-of-mouth and sharing his experience with people he interacts with.
Along with this, they made a T.V commercial series with hashtag #loveatfirstddrive
It also made a 360-degree campaign led by television
The engagement activities of awarding the premiere Suv and the storytelling playlist of the hashtag #loveatfirstddrive drove its revenues and its sales inquire, they announced that the Harrier SUV has crossed the 10,000 units booking a milestone in the country.
60 million+ users, with a fantasy league saga Dream 11 is taking true cricketing fans by storm, the Mumbai-based firm is now truly India’s biggest fantasy sports gaming platform. And its journey to the top is very impressive. Dream11 has also received investments from Chinese online gaming giant Tencent and other summing it up to over 100 million dollars.
When asked about which brands people recall the most as advertisers/sponsors in IPL, Dream 11 emerged on the top. While Vivo had a high recall throughout, Dream 11 enhanced its recall in the consumers’ minds.
Dream11 has created a campaign with the tagline ‘Ye Game Hai Mahaan’, and have launched Six films, and they also put the spotlight on the fans and makes them feel special, which in turn is beneficial for them to pull the crowd.