Unlike last year, this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) has a healthy mix of legacy and new age companies as compared to the last year when companies like Byju’s, Zepto, Cars24, etc. ruled the roost. Experts say it’s because of the ongoing funding winter. 

According to the market research platform Unomer, brands like Dream11, Tata Neu, Rupay, Jiomart, CRED, Tiago.ev, AJIO, CEAT, Asian Paints, Airtel 5G, etc.  are some of the most visible brands on IPL this year.  Apart from the usual suspects like FMCG, auto and telecom majors, this year’s tournament saw a drastic cut down from last year when it comes to new-age companies like edtech majors Byju’s and Unacademy, online payments firm PhonePe, subscription service Amazon Prime, healthcare start-up Pristyn Care, quick commerce player Zepto, electric vehicle maker Ather Energy, online social commerce platform Meesho and online used car marketplace Cars24, among other things. 

Brand guru Harish Bijoor acknowledges funding winter to be the reason behind this trend. “There’s a start-up funding winter that’s for sure. Investor is talking about profitability and not about the GMV, eyeballs. etc. IPL seems to have replaced every form of cricket emerging as a product of choice for a brand manager. There are usual advertisers like FMCG, banking, automotive, etc. and who spend as much as eight months of their entire budget on IPL,” Bijoor told BT.

Brand experts, however, believe that a lot of companies prefer digital as a go-to medium for advertising as compared to broadcast. According to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data, the number of advertisers on TV had fallen by 42 per cent in the first 29 matches of this season. This year IPL attracted 47 advertisers on TV so far compared to 81 advertisers in the last season. Brands like CRED, PayTm, Swiggy, Acko, Byjus, which, until last year, bet big on TV, have given it a miss this year. Amazon, Samsung, UB, Indeed, TVS, Castrol, Noise, Puma, etc. are Jio-Cinema-exclusive brands this year.

According to Elara Capital, this year’s digital and TV un-bundling is a disruption for monetisation opportunity for IPL. “Brand vertical split has changed this year with Fintech, retail tech, commerce, new age edutech, etc. being there in very small portions because these companies have seen an ad spend cut anywhere in the range of 20-40 per cent. The current spending environment is driven by Jio ecosystem around digital led by FMCG majors, some of the consumer staples companies, large superapps, etc.,” Karan Taurani – Senior Vice President – Research Analyst, Elara Capital said.

He believes that for the advertiser it becomes very difficult to decide on which platform and how much to spend. He adds that Jio Cinema has received a poor customer feedback when it comes to watching experience hence the larger share of consumption will come from Star Sports. “TV is getting a bigger advantage this year. Connected TVs supported by healthy broadband is the future, but TV is here to stay for now,” he added.
 
He says that the number of digital advertising on IPL has been very dismal this year with many internet, e-commerce and new-age companies giving it a miss.

Another important trend to note this year is narrowcasting instead of broadcasting, brand expert Manish Porwal explains. “Overall, the digital and TV audiences have separated. Because of digital which allows for brands to pick and choose its audience which has allowed variation of different kinds of brands to get in. The ability for a client to place his ad in his required slot has gone up and hence narrowcasting has gone up. IPL every year is becoming slightly better in terms of gender and age ratios, too,” said Porwal, Managing Director, Alchemist Marketing & Talent Solutions. Taurani, too, says that digital is way more accepting of local advertisers, especially niche advertising verticals which are still not that relevant as far as TV is concerned. 

“Traditional verticals are more skewed towards TV. Traditional vertical will have 70 per cent of their advertising coming from TV. But if we look at concurrent viewership, TV is doing better,” he said.

He added that this year ad rates have seen a cut as far as TV is concerned while digital has grown on a low base and because it is free of cost. Last year, ad rates for TV were around Rs 14-15 lakhs for a 10-second slot. “That would have seen a correction by 20 per cent,” he said. In digital, he added CPMs last year were at Rs 250-300 per 1000 impressions.  

“That would have seen a growth of 30-35 per cent this year because if it being on AVOD and completely free,” he explained.

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