MUMBAI: E-commerce brands emerged as biggest spenders before and during the first phase of IPL 2021, with VIVO and Amazon Prime at the top of the recall hierarchy given their high media spends on the tournament, according to the “Hi-Cricket” study.
Hi-Cricket, a proprietary study to understand the impact of the IPL in influencing brand health metrics across categories, was launched in April by Havas Sports and Entertainment, a sports and sponsorship specialised vertical from the Havas Media Group umbrella, in partnership with YouGov, an international research and data analytics group.
The study also revealed that food delivery brands such as Swiggy also enjoyed a high recall with the frequency of ordering remaining high with close to 80% of respondents having ordered food online at least once during the match time. Similarly, Dream11 was the highest recalled main sponsor, followed by Byju’s and PhonePe.
As per the study, at the onset of the IPL, defending champions Mumbai Indians were the favourite team followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Furthermore, most of the top brands that advertised on the IPL saw an increased association with personal and collective benefits. Automobile brands such as Hyundai, Renault and Kia and durable brands such as Voltas, Signify (Philips) and Havells witnessed an increased loyalty conversion. Across all the brands tracked as part of this study, every stage of the consumer funnel registered positive shifts when comparing the pre vs during tournament numbers.
Commenting on the findings of the second phase of Hi-Cricket study, Sanchita Royh Head – Strategy, Havas Media Group India, said: “One of the pertinent questions that clients ask is the business outcome of high impact properties. At Havas, keeping in line with our Meaningful Brands philosophy, we wanted to understand the effect that IPL has on driving meaningfulness for brands across key high spending categories like Auto, E-commerce, Fantasy Sports, Online Food Delivery and so on. Across all the brands that we tracked as part of this study, interestingly we saw positive shifts across every stage of the consumer funnel when we compare the pre vs during tournament numbers. What we have observed is that across brands, Personal and Collective perceptions have improved with the onset of the IPL. Personal parameters like value for money & convenience, and Collective perceptions of trust & respect saw the highest increase across brands.”
Commenting on the upcoming leg of the IPL 2021 that began on September 19, R. Venkatasubramanian, president and National head – Investments, Havas Media Group India, said: “The 2nd phase of IPL 2021 is going to be equally big or supersede phase 1 in terms of ratings and revenue. The entry cost is relatively very less considering it’s a high impact property that is coinciding with the festival period once again, hence it will be bigger for advertisers than last year. We estimate that the overall festive spends would increase by 20-25% over 2020. And the IPL will play a pivotal role as a platform for the advertisers. Star Sports has renewed and signed 5 Co-presenting sponsors and 10 Associate sponsors for the 2nd phase of the IPL which includes categories like E-commerce, Gaming, Online Education, Telecom, FMCG and several others. The inventory is almost sold out.”
