The Indian team has retained its winning performance in the ICC World Cup 2015 by reaching the semi-final stage of the tournament. We had earlier reported marketers were looking to pump in money after India qualified for the quarter final stage. However, there is a difference between intent and action, so how many new brands did join the World Cup during the quarter final stage and at what price?
There were several new brands that we seen during the quarter final stage of the World Cup this included brands such as Cadbury, Voltas, Indiaproperty.com, Marico, Syska LED, Microsoft Lumia 354, MTS, Hungama.com app, Max Life insurance and Freecharge.com among others.
Kartik Sharma, MD, South Asia, Maxus said, “With India making to the semis the demand from brands which were not associated with the cup has increased. The semis are expected to bring in a lot of new viewers given the excitement around the tournament fuelled by Indian recent performance. Advertisers such as Cadbury, Voltas, India Property.com, Marico, etc have come on board from quarters and many new clients are expected to come on board for the semis”. The media agency handles the mandate for Star India for World Cup.
Vinit Karnik, National Director, Sports and Live Events- GroupM ESP says, “The market certainly looks buoyant given India's success run. While it had a slow start in the initial phases of the tournament, there is generating interest among advertisers when it comes to Team India's performance. India’s performance in the triangular series Down Under was below par, which resulted in a slow beginning to the World Cup in terms of advertiser participation.”
Many brands have associated with the World Cup at this stage have either done so as they have some new offering to promote or due to the seasonality of their product. For instance Indiaproperty.com launched its #GetHomeNow sale recently and chose the World Cup as a platform. Muralikrishnan B, COO, IndiaProperty.com says, “The #GetHomeNow sale was always planned for March, post-Budget season and given the short week-long nature of the promotion, we found the Cricket World Cup to be a great opportunity to drive reach. The #GetHomeNow promotion needed to strongly reinforce the message of fantastic offers on homes and the chance to win a discount of Rs.20 lakh besides other gifts in a short period of time. Considering this objective, Star Sports & Cricket World Cup fit our requirements perfectly.”
Similarly, the Hungama.com app which was launched some time back has been heavily promoted and has also used the World Cup as a platform for promotion. Voltas on the other hand has made use of the platform due to the seasonality of their products with the onslaught of summers.
However, advertising during this stage of the tournament comes at a steep price. According to some media planners ad rates for brands taking all seven matches from the quarter final stage onwards (4 quarter final matches, 2 semi-final stages and finals) is expected to be around Rs.8-9 lakh per 10 second spot. While ad spot rates for only the India-Bangladesh quarter final match was expected to be around Rs.10-12 lakh per 10 seconds spot. Ad spot rates for only the semi-finals are expected go to around Rs.13-15 lakh per 10 seconds, while for only the India-Australia semi-final match would be expected to go up to Rs.15-16 lakh per 10 seconds. Media planners also expect ad rates to go as far as Rs.18-20 lakh for a 10 second spot for the finals. This rate could even be higher as ad rates during the 2011 World Cup final were expected to be around Rs.25 lakh per 10 second spot according to media reports. Media reports had also said that Star was expected to hike ad rates by 15-20% during the knockout stages during this World Cup. However, there are no confirmations regarding the ad rates for the World Cup by Star network.
Though the ad rates may be high at this point in time there are brands willing to pay the price to ride on the World Cup wave. When asked about whether the World Cup provides the ROI despite the high ad rates at this stage Muralikrishnan said, “Considering various alternatives on hand for this period and given our passion for cricket, perhaps there are no better alternatives to deliver bang for the buck. For a week-long promotion, the imperative is to drive immediate action from the consumers and since the start of the promotion and the campaign we have seen traffic on desktop double and grow 3X on the mobile site and apps.”
We will definitely see more brands coming on board the World Cup considering that more deals are expected to go through for some brands. This could increase even much more for the finals if India wins against Australia.
Source: Exchange4media.com
