2018 Indian Premier League: Vivo, Coca-Cola among Star India's 11 brand partners
Mumbai: After claiming global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) at a staggering price of Rs 16,437.5 crores for five years from 2018-22, Star India Pvt. Ltd, the official broadcaster for the extravagant T20 tournament has attracted around eleven brand partners.
The brands include smartphone maker Vivo SA, beverage maker The Coca-Cola Co. and Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd among others.
This will be the first instance where the cash-rich league will be available on digital platforms, along with television, and the broadcasters were thrilled with the response gained.
“The multi-lingual and multi-screen experience has created unprecedented value for brands to reach consumers in a way they possibly never have before. This is the first time that one organization is able to take both streams—TV and digital—to the consumers. That gives brands a larger opportunity which has generated a lot of interest among advertisers” Anil Jairaj, executive vice-president and head of sales for Star Sports was quoted saying to Business Standard.
IPL, the world’s richest and fanciest T20 tournament, has also attracted other brands such as Polycab, Elica Kitchens, Kent and Dream 11 Inc., a fantasy sports platform. The Uday Shankar-led network said that it will reveal the name of the other sponsors during the upcoming 10 days.
The aforementioned sponsors will gain on-air time across Star TV’s network as well as digital platform Hotstar.
“IPL has always lived up to its promise of being the most impactful media property and this year there is the added attraction of the return of two popular teams. We are seeing good traction with our clients.
Star has developed a very strong marketing plan and has created a lot of innovative opportunities for advertisers across their broadcast and digital platforms,” said CVL Srinivas, chief executive of media agency Group M South Asia and country manager for WPP India.
In 2016, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) had attracted nine brands while digital platform Hotstar was associated with close to ten brands. According to media reports, SPN’s ad-sales revenue was estimated to be Rs 13 billion while Hotstar’s revenues ranged from Rs 1.8 to 2 billion.
With Star still holding the broadcasting rights for all cricket matches played in India until 2018, the broadcast network could see its ad-sales revenue skyrocket until the end of the year. While it’s too early to put a number on Star’s expected revenue income, market estimates state that around Rs 20 billion would be a favourable target.
