After a pause in very nearly a half year, a significant game – one of the most cherished and anticipated ones, has hit the stands and it won't be wrong to state that it has revived numerous spirits. With the IPL on going all out in the UAE, even brands are capitalizing on the expanded eyeballs. According to reports by AdEx India, a unit of TAM Media Research, IPL has developed as one of the greatest brand perceivability stages because of its high viewership, prompting brands enrolling a spike of 5%.

Ad filmmaker Pinaki Bose, says, “The last six months were a dry season for advertising. And now, post-COVID unlocks, this is the biggest event which also gives a chance to brands to connect with people and they will make the most of this situation. Our homegrown brands will get mileage through telecasts on the web and television. If a player walks out with a bat that has my branding, then that’s also visibility.” He adds that people were prepared for IPL in April because that’s when it was planned. “Sponsorships were in already, advertisements were mostly ready at that time. So those ads would also get released now,” he says.

With increased options for broadcast, the consumption for content has also increased. This, coupled with factors like the absence of any live-action and people wanting a break from the pandemic, has led to brands pumping in more money. “There is a greater degree of eyeball focus because there has been a gap of a long period of time where live cricket content has not hit the grounds. This is the first time in many months that we have live cricket hitting the stand. Brand recall is definitely going to be higher because of the hiatus, so brands have poured money into this. We should expect at least a 10% increase for brands that have advertised this time. There is a greater degree of excitement with advertising,” says brand strategist Harish Bijoor. But this increased visibility might not translate to sales. “Advertising is more about creating an image at this moment, but overall that (sales) is the ambition,” he mulls.

Talking about how this actually affects revenue generation and makes Indian brand truly international, ad guru Prahlad Kakkar offers a different perspective. “The only revenue is television, but who watches TV now? Would an Indian sitting in New York or Philadelphia pay through their nose for a satellite connection to watch IPL? When you talk about an Indian brand becoming internationalized, you are not talking about Indians buying Indian brands; you are talking about goras buying Indian brands.” He adds that more often than not, it is about spinning a narrative to suit brands. “If they make the media believe that this is a great event to advertise on because it will internationalize the brand, they will get more visibility. They are trying to generate advertising revenue that does not exist,” he says.