IPL outdoor ad spends estimated to have dipped by 50%

Season 9 of the IPL has seen a muted response from brands, in terms of outdoor activities said the heads of outdoor agencies and media owners that we spoke with.

Mandeep Malhotra, Co-Founder of The Social Street, says spends (on outdoor) might have gone down by as much as 50 per cent this year as compared to last year. Sanjeev Gupta, MD of Global Advertisers, puts the number even higher, at 60 per cent. Even Noomi Mehta, Founder and MD of Selvel, agreed that very little activity has been seen by brands around the IPL, even though outdoor advertising, otherwise, has increased.
However, though brands might have reduced their spends on OOH, the BCCI has increased its outdoor budget for this year. According to sources, the BCCI has spent around Rs 5 crore on a massive 40 city campaign for the duration of the tournament.

“This year we are witnessing a decline in the interest for IPL from audience and brands. It may be because we have recently been through the 2016 World Cup. At Global Advertisers, we had promoted IPL campaigns on large hoardings till last year, but this year, we haven’t seen much presence of IPL on any medium. IPL has given great opportunities to us since 2008; popular brands like Pepsi, Vodafone, DLF, Diakin, Kingfisher, Set Max and Idea had promoted their brand association with IPL on hoardings around Mumbai and mini metros in past seasons,” said Gupta.

The packed cricket schedule might have led to advertiser fatigue and could be one reason but Malhotra also points out that another reason might be the kind of sponsors who have come on board this year. "The new, first-time sponsors do not want to make media spends. Sports is not something where you can just sponsor a logo on the kit and leave it. You have to do fan engagement, on-ground activities, etc.," he said.

However, Atul Shrivastava, COO at Laqshya Media, agreed with Mehta's assessment that OOH spending has increased though he admitted that it is difficult to "correlate them (OOH Spends) with IPL. "In the previous years, spends on other mediums including OOH used to come down. But this year it is normal and better. So we can say that activities on OOH have also increased (compared to last year). In terms of percentage, there is a growth of 8-10 per cent (approx) in OOH spends compared to last year around this season.

The fact that TV ads are highly expensive but the most sought after could also have contributed to lesser budgets for outdoor and other mediums. Mehta agreed that TV is the main medium when it comes to the IPL. "If you see, anyway the amount of activity being done in the home cities and stadiums has decreased over the years. Brands would rather just go for team sponsorships," he said.

The importance of TV, where a 10 second ad spot is going for around 5.5-7 lakh, according to sources, is highlighted by the example of Housing.com, which has launched its first ever TVC campaign during the IPL. Last year, the company had preferred to take the digital route but this year, the company has decided that TV will be its main focus area for advertising. When asked whether the company has any plans to utilize other mediums, Nikhil Rungta, CMO at Housing.com said, "For now, we have only taken space on TV and will be supporting it through digital properties. There are no plans for using other mediums or Hotstar, etc. right now. The main focus this year will be TV."

On the other hand, H&R Johnson, which is one of the sponsors of the Gujarat Lions, will be taking mainly the digital route, through promotions and contests. However, Joydeep Mukherjee, Executive Director & CEO of H&R Johnson, said that there would some OOH campaigns that will be carried out in "few" towns.

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Global Advertisers partners with Celebrity Cricket League

The media owning company has displayed large billboards across Mumbai at prominent locations

Global Advertisers has been doing a lot of campaigns recently and this time around joined hands with Manoj Tiwari, the owner and captain of ‘Bhojhpuri Dabang'. The association has led Global Advertisers to handle the outdoor promotion of the team, during the upcoming season of the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL).

To promote the team, the firm has displayed large billboards across Mumbai at prominent locations which is Andheri, Dadar, Sion, Santacruz, Juhu, Prabhadevi, Marine Drive and Thane. CCL is one of the most awaited events of the year; the sixth edition of the league has begun from January 23, 2016.

Commenting on the association, Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers said, "Our association with the team and CCL has great potential. The team has a good line-up of batsmen and bowlers from the Bhojpuri film industry. I am excited to watch Ravi Kishan and Nirahua play the game. Over the years, CCL has become a very popular tourney amongst the masses and it's a great platform to reach out to a large set of live audience, all at once."

Celebrity Cricket League is played between eight teams. The teams comprises all the who's who of the Indian film industry from Bollywood, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Bengali and Punjabi movie industry. It brings together over 200 film celebrities from all over the country to entertain their fans and audiences.

OOH players prepare for slump as IPL approaches

The seventh season of the Indian Premier League is set to start on April 16, with the first 20 games to be held in the UAE and the remaining 40 to be held in India (between May 2 and June 1). OOH agencies say that the IPL season causes a disruption in the business, with advertisers keener onelectronic and print media to exploit the high visibility the popular tournament generates. In fact, citing the same reasons, Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers expects OOH spending to drop by almost 30 per cent during the IPL season.

 

 

Another reason that could have an effect on spending this season is the fact that 20 matches are being held outside the country. “Spends on OOH will logically be less as brands will not see enough value. Even when the IPL returns to the country in May, the window available is very small,” said Balakrishna P.M, COO, Allied Media, a media planning agency.

Rajneesh Bahl, CEO, Percept OOH also agreed that most advertisers do prefer to go “on-air”. However, he pointed out that OOH spends from the IPL governing body itself as well as the various franchises should also be taken into account. “They (franchises and IPL) know that outdoor gives them a great option to create buzz around the tournament. So, even when revenue from other advertisers decreases, OOH does help,” he said.

Sunder Hemrajani, MD, Times Innovative Media, also agrees that franchises do use OOH extensively for their campaigns. According to him, though brands spend substantially on TV and print, interest in properties around stadiums picks up during the IPL season. “We have usually seen that our properties around the stadiums in metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore do well during the IPL season, but, overall, OOH does take a hit during this period,” he added.

On a more hopeful note, Atul Shrivastava, COO, Laqshya Media,believes with the controversies surrounding the IPL this season, maybe brands would be hesitant about being associated with it. “A lot of advertising budget is consumed by the IPL every year. Since it has started, the OOH industry has suffered from low interest during this period. With limited budgets, clients will obviously give more preference to TV and print advertising rather than OOH. I cannot predict but, if advertisers reduce spending on IPL this year because of the various issues, then those budgets might get diverted to OOH spending. Maybe then things will be different this year,” he said.

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