Mumbai: E-commerce brands were the biggest spenders before and during the IPL, with Vivo and Amazon Prime at the top of the recall hierarchy given their high media spends on the tournament. This was followed by the durables & automobile industries, according to the 'Hi-Cricket' study commissioned by Havas Media Group India and YouGov.
The research which was conducted between 2 April and 7 May during the first leg of IPL 2021, encompasses 4500 online respondents across ten cities in India and gives a deeper understanding of how a larger-than-life platform like the IPL helps move mind measures. The findings of the second phase of the study identify the most meaningful and impactful brands and categories of IPL 2021.
The study revealed that food delivery brands like Swiggy had a high recall, with close to 80 per cent of respondents having ordered food online at least once during the match time. Dream11 was the highest recalled main sponsor, followed by Byju’s and PhonePe, as per the study.
An increase in the number of fantasy gaming apps was observed during the IPL, however, the majority used it for playing fantasy cricket only. The overall impressions went up by 15 per cent in the first week of the IPL which dropped back to similar levels during the last week of the IPL. The study said that defending champions Mumbai Indians emerged as the favourite team at the onset of the IPL, followed by RCB and CSK.
“One of the pertinent questions that clients ask is the business outcome of high-impact properties. At Havas, keeping in line with our 'Meaningful Brands' philosophy, we wanted to understand the effect that IPL has on driving meaningfulness for brands across key high spending categories," said Havas Media Group India head of strategy Sanchita Roy. "Across all the brands that we tracked as part of this study, interestingly we saw positive shifts across every stage of the consumer funnel when we compare the pre vs during tournament numbers. Personal parameters like value for money & convenience and collective perceptions of trust & respect saw the highest increase across brands."
Almost all the top brands saw an increased association with personal and collective benefits, said the study. Automobile brands such as Hyundai, Renault, and Kia witnessed an increased loyalty conversion. Durable brands such as Voltas, Signify (Philips) and Havells also managed to increase loyalty conversions.
Havas Media Group India president and national head of investments R Venkatasubramanian said IPL 2021 will be bigger for advertisers than last year along with an estimated 20-25 per cent increase in ad spends over 2020. “The second phase of IPL 2021 is going to be equally big or supersede the first phase in terms of ratings and revenue. The entry cost is relatively very less considering it’s a high-impact property that is coinciding with the festival period once again," he said.
"Star Sports has renewed and signed five co-presenting sponsors and ten associate sponsors for the second phase of the IPL which includes categories like e-commerce, gaming, online education, telecom, FMCG and several others. The inventory is almost sold out," he added.
