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Today, sports symbolise more than just a display of one’s athletic competence. At the turn of the 21st Century, the global sports industry has emerged as a vast and thriving ecosystem estimated at a mammoth $506.93 billion in 2024 while growing at a CAGR of 5.6 per cent. Fueled by extensive viewership and relentless marketing, each sporting event (depending upon the popularity of the respective sport) transcends its role as mere entertainment to emerge as a significant commercial entity, attracting a gamut of sponsors, stakeholders and ultimately, generating colossal brand value. Take for instance, the Indian Premier League (IPL), the biggest and most-watched T-20 extravaganza in the world, fittingly exemplifies this phenomenon. In the 2023 season alone, the IPL garnered 505 million television viewers and an additional 450 million digital spectators, highlighting its mega influence and marketability. With such extensive visibility, brands engage in intense competition for prominence, whether through on-field endorsements or billboard advertisements or even full-fledged brand sponsorships.
Home-Grown Loyalty
To that end, several indigenous brands have ventured into partnerships with IPL teams, a strategic move often influenced by the brand's prominence within a state and its significant consumer base in that region. Such alliances with IPL teams originating from specific locales aim to resonate with cricket enthusiasts in those areas, thereby enhancing the brands' outreach on a broader scale. These partnerships employ distinctive terminology to convey brand messages effectively and strike a more profound bond with consumers. Through association with cricket, brands can effectively navigate consumers through the purchasing process and reinforce brand recall. These collaborations extend beyond mere logo visibility and comprise joint efforts in content creation and consumer engagement initiatives that are aimed at cementing stronger connections with the target audience.
Mass Effect
The strategic alignment of brands with cricket events like the IPL has consistently demonstrated its effectiveness in maximizing brand presence and guiding consumers through various stages of the purchasing process. This helps brands establish a pathway for consumers, beginning with awareness, progressing through consideration, and ultimately influencing their purchasing decisions. By leveraging the widespread popularity of cricket to make a deep impression on consumer behaviour, brands can develop their desired brand imagery and successfully convey brand propositions within the consumer psyche.
A Connection that lasts
Therefore, brands are increasingly integrating with sporting events like the IPL 2024 to champion causes and forge deeper connections with audiences. These affiliations serve to establish a profound link between the brand and the functional essence of the sport. Unlike conventional sponsorships, which often entail logo placements or advertisements, brands are now pursuing more substantial partnerships. This evolution, centred on storytelling and advocacy for causes, has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Through these designations, brands can highlight the causes they endorse through their involvement in sports.
Interestingly, brands don't simply forge connections with teams or sports on a peripheral level; they aim for alignment in brand ethos. Without this harmony, partnerships are superficial sponsorships primarily concerned with logo visibility. Nowadays, brands prioritize establishing meaningful connections rather than merely acquiring media assets. Each brand participating in the IPL has unique objectives and positioning needs. The brands have specific goals which they diligently seek to achieve, depending on their stage in the brand cycle. These sponsorships within the IPL prove impactful, and when consistently maintained across multiple seasons, they yield remarkable results and leave an indelible mark on a consumer's consciousness. These not only enhance brand recall but also foster brand recognition, which significantly influences consumers' consideration process.
IPL – The Ultimate Marketing Carnival
The IPL continues to stand tall as one of the most lucrative and highly engaging platforms for brands to showcase their offerings through innovative campaigns and activations. From fan zones to meet-and-greet events, companies can leverage the tournament's celebratory atmosphere to forge deeper connections with their audiences. An affiliation with a tournament like IPL can certainly drive marketing efforts forward when strategically planned and executed. An enormous increase in brand awareness can be observed among consumers through such associations on numerous occasions. After all, contextual partnerships prove more impactful than mere brand logo exposure. Therefore, it is no surprise that the IPL has become a prime destination for brands to launch new products and services. The high-decibel buzz around the tournament presents the perfect opportunity for companies to maximize the impact of their launches, with a captive audience of millions.
Conclusion
For ambitious Indian brands seeking to go national and even global, the IPL serves as the ideal Launchpad. By teaming up with popular franchises or becoming official partners, these brands can piggyback on the tournament's immense popularity to amplify their reach and recall. The presence of their logos on team jerseys, perimeter boards and through strategic ad placements ensures top-of-the-mind brand salience. As the IPL juggernaut continues to mushroom, charged by the boundless passion of Indian cricket fans, it is poised to remain the go-to branding platform for ambitious Indian companies. With its unrivalled reach and engagement, the tournament offers a surefire way for brands to not only enhance their overall visibility but also forge lasting connections with their audiences.
(Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni is the General Manager of Brand & Marketing at Centuary Mattress)
