5 Ideas You Can Steal From Marketing Strategies Of The IPL Sponsor Brands

The Indian Premier League is one of the most viewed, loved and followed sports event in India since 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.

The Franchise Model

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

 List of Sponsor on Television

• Phone Pe
• Coke
• Asian Paints
• Maruti Suzuki
• Dream 11
• Make My Trip
• Swiggy
• Voltas
• MRF
• Big Bazar
• Samsung QLED
• Polycab
• Oppo
• Vivo
• Byju’s
• Mondelez
• Mobile Premier League
• Vimal

List of sponsors for Hotstar

• Amazon Pay
• Dream 11
• Coca-Cola
• Flipkart
• Madhura Garments
• Maruti Suzuki

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 – Media Rights

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.

Vivo – The Name Game

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.

CEAT – Strategic Timeout Partner

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.

Tata Motors – #Loveatfirstdrive

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.

Dream 11 – ‘Ye Game Hai Mahaan’ 

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.

Summarizing our observation:

1. A great Franchise model creating a win-win situation for all.
2. A solid viewership and fan base being a Hive of attracting bees (the sponsors and investors) has led IPL to get a bid of 16347 crores for it’s media rights.
3. The name says it all, the IPL coined as THE Vivo IPL for 4 years from (2018-22) increases the brand awareness so much that the company becomes a household name and is recognized by everyone.
4. The Strategic Timeout is a well strategy by IPL, to commercially run ads and to generate revenue it is a perfect model and in every match, within theses 2.5 minutes they generate 34.5 crore rupees considering 10 lakh rupees as a rate of ad for 10 seconds.
5. There is some catch, in the catch! The Iconic Fan catch contest by Tata says it all, that how launching contest like this and awarding it’s premium car, can create a buzz in the town and increase it’s sales.
6.  An Impressive product with an Impressive brand Ambassador can do wonders, Dream11 a fantasy cricket league game which is one of it’s kind has captured 50 million customers until now and its user base is increasing day by day and has attracted lot of investors too.