It’s that time of the year; most of us come united to glue to the tv. A respite to our mundane indoor lives we have been leading during the pandemic. A yearly event that brings fun and excitement, every night for over 45 days – the glitzy glamorous cricket series, IPL (Indian Premier League). An enjoyable, dedicated way to pass time because routine has become tragic for us. The IPL series brings a ray (probably, a truckload) of hope for brands to slap their advertisements across a mere billion viewers. Ka- ching!
Over time (14 years), the IPL series have garnered interest among various fans, including the not-so hard core cricket lovers. It could be the format, the duration, or the timing for telecasts (during the summer months), that has made these short daily matches garner rising viewership every year. The 2020 edition proved that the pandemic couldn’t play a bummer to the sporting spirit. This meant that all advertisers saw it as an even bigger opportunity for businesses to either redeem themselves or to flourish further. Brands don’t shy from splurging lakhs for few seconds of ad slots and crores to be co-sponsors. The current edition is believed to bring over 3800 crores of ad revenue for the sports channel hosting it.
What’s interesting is the shift of products and services that have been advertised over the years. IPL has always been a hot spot for releasing new ads for existing products and for introducing new products. Remember the Vodafone ‘ZooZoo’ ads? They were released during the second IPL season (12 years ago!) and remain etched in our memories. Thus followed a lot of ads from various telecom operators over the years, most of them meme-worthy.
What I fail to understand is the need for brands that spend a bomb on hiring the top-most celebrity for a product as small as ‘pan masala’! If last year saw one type of ‘pan masala’ advertised by a star celebrity, this year, the same ‘pan masala’ has two celebrities roped in, the second star bigger than the previous. What’s more, another brand of ‘pan masala’ made its way, this time, with an equally big star! (Yes, there are quite a lot of star celebrities up for endorsements). Then, there are some implausible ads that fail to appease. Like an actor who probably didn’t go to college and made a successful career out of acting is advising you to take up coding and online tuitions (probably stemmed from his regretful career choice, who knows?). How influential is that?
With years, we have seen a paradigm shift in a rise of apps and technology that is being advertised. A lot of digital payment apps, digital banking have been given precedence. This also implies there is a huge focus on money management. There are quite a few apps that show you where to invest and track your money. At the same time, there are others that show you ways to lose them. They term it as ‘fantasy sport’ but you know what it is – online betting games. Like there was a dearth of offline IPL betting that they had to introduce legal online ones, for all ages, via huge advertisements. How appealing! You might find few hilarious, relatable, ads too. I like the preemptive father who renews his car insurance at the click of a button, right before handing the keys to his son for his first drive. What follows is the car jumping, steering and swirling to bump into a parked car at the side (Been there, done that).
We know that a lot of thought and creativity might have gone into these ad concepts but how many of them serve the purpose of brand recognition? The ads may be beautifully executed but do all of them lead to conversion? In a purely entertaining cricket format, such as an IPL, these ads probably complement the entertainment quotient. I doubt how many of them we shall remember in the future, however. We all loved Rahul Dravid as ‘Indiranagar ka gunda’ but are we going to remember it for a product that lets you pay your credit card bills? I think not.
