MUMBAI: Indian Premier League host broadcaster Star Sports has announced Vodafone Idea, rebranded as “Vi”, as co-presenting sponsor of the upcoming IPL 2020, scheduled to commence from September 19 in the UAE.
With the onboarding of Vi, Star has officially “sold out” sponsorship packages for this year’s IPL. Dream11, Phone Pe, Amazon and Byju’s are other co-presenting sponsors of IPL 2020. The broadcaster has signed 10 associate sponsors – Polycab, USL, Coca Cola, ITC, Mondelez, Kamla Pasand, Rummy Circle, AMFI, Gillette (P&G) and Dailyhunt
Brand Vodafone has had a long standing association with IPL since the beginning of the sporting event in 2008. The partnership helped it build high brand recall and affinity with television viewers and cricket lovers in India with its unique campaigns involving the lovable ZooZoos. Brand Idea has also actively participated in the previous editions of the tournament as sponsor of many teams and created memorable brand activation campaigns. The unified brand in its new avatar Vi will bring unique digital based experiences for Indian audiences this season.
In 2018, the company cut its ad spends and opted out of being an official sponsor and was only a spot buyer during the 11th edition of IPL. This is the first ever sponsorship deal that Vodafone Idea has signed since its inception in August 2018. If we look at how much a co-presenting sponsorship deal costs during IPL, media experts say that the rate quoted is around Rs 20 million per game. For this year with 56 matches, the overall co-presenting sponsorship deal is likely to be around Rs 1.12 billion. Also, a co-presenting sponsor gets ad slots of around 180 seconds per game.
Sport, like no other genre, has the ability to evoke passion and emotions amongst fans and followers. In a country where cricket has been akin to religion and is followed with passion and fervour, the Dream11 IPL has become one of the biggest sporting platforms designed to appeal to a wide section of consumers, pan-India.
