How Are Brands Using Cable TV Platforms To Reach Target Audience During IPL Season?

Sharad Alwe Sep 26, 2020

IPL has brought a big wave of positivity to the fans, audiences and advertisers.

Advertising has seen a lull through the year 2020. However, the festive season has added a bright rainbow to the gloomy skies.

As we are already a week into IPL, we have started seeing the reports, analysis & decoding of various aspects of IPL 2020. Online Services as a category has emerged as the strong and dominant advertising force this IPL. Within the same E-commerce, Edu-tech, payment services have been having been attracting eyeballs on-air as well as on-ground. Type of sponsors across all telecast platforms, i.e. OTT, TV have been online funded advertisers. However, buying a spot/sponsorship is not going to be easy or economic, especially for local, aspirational brands and it will be big opportunity missed in these resurgence period.

Smarter Solutions to connect with masses during this cricketing extravaganza is needed. Various smart deals have been cracked by multiple advertisers like multi-team association deals wherein rather than investing big and being main sponsors, better to invest low & smart and then increase the brand’s visibility as it will be visible across all matches.

Brands like Colgate, boAt, BKT Tyres have done tie-up across 6 teams which ensures them visibility across majority of days in these 60 days mega ticket event.

We christened this thought more than 25 years back when private television channels cable into the country- higher visibility, higher opportunity to see, i.e. OTS.

All the cash crunch advertisers are adapting smart strategy and are trying to play the tried & tested OTS game here to ensure high TOM. Low investment, high returns – A smart deal has been the flavour of this IPL season, enabling multiple views across multiple days over multiple platforms with an effective association.

So rather than paying a hefty amount of Rs.10-20 lacs for 10secs of glory better play smart.

During IPL, our Homes have become stadiums with the cricket mood- or cricket fever as we call it. This year, the only viewership that brands will get will be on TV and online. Television is still the consumers favourite child for family or friends cohesive IPL viewing. It still caters to around 19-20 crore Households in India, out of which more than 60% receive their satellite transmission via Wired Digital Cable Set Top Box (STB).

Wired Digital Cable platform has evolved over time and emerged as a stronger entity in these times. Now where brands are looking for a smart solution to stay connected with IPL, this platform is offering a perfect smart ad STB solution. Solution that that caters to all the channels subscribed by a consumer- Satellite or DD or Cable.

Biggest Villain for Advertisers has turned into their SUPER HERO. “Remote” is the new SUPER HERO for these Set Top Box driven solutions.

Imagine your brand message while consumer surfs the channel? First thing he sees as soon as he switches on the set top box (STB)?

Just imagine how many times an individual surf a channel in a day and every time you swap, there is your brand visible irrespective of an ad or content; that’s the power of EPG advertisement – “high number of views”.

Now, a brand whose competitor is spending on IPL, but wants to guerrilla market on STB at a much lower cost, this is ideal. A marketer can buy inventory only on CSK or RCB or SRH match days or any team specific matches.

This is an unskippable channel agnostic solution, wherein your ad is assured viewed whenever the audience operates the remote. These solutions are purely STB related and doesn’t cater to only Cable channels. They can be customised at a metro or state level in their regional language to ensure relatability and relevance. It offers a Cross-content High Opportunity to See (OTS). These solutions come at 1/15th of the cost of regular spot /sponsorship buy on a satellite television.

So, now a brand that is already on IPL but wants to extract that extra reach in a specific market can use these STB geotargeted solutions; and for the brand for which IPL was always an aspiration, it has now turned into a reality.

Rather than basking on the 10secs glory better you hop on the multiple views every time a channel is swapped for 7-10secs.

Another STB solution is ‘Bootup Advertising’, which works like a front-page Print Jacket on TV which can’t be missed. It’s like gateway to a television. Bootup appears every time you switch on an STB, much before any channel appears – it is the first thing visible as the STB boots up.

Imagine when cricket lover switches on his TV at 7pm for toss, and first thing he sees before any channel is a bootup screen or landing page with your brand exposure.

This year there are close to 10-15 brands who have opted for multi-team association deals, as they look to multiple their viewership beyond a 10secs TVC spot. These are comparatively budgeted, and this approach ensures brand visibility at a low level of investment and get higher visibility for your brand by reaching every corner of India with customised messages, they will see, all at an affordable cost!

STB solutions ticks all the boxes of better OTS, multiple views, affordability and biggest factor being the solutions are “Unskippable”

So, this IPL season make sure your brand message hits boundaries.