IPL 2022: Disney+ Hotstar rolls out the red carpet for brands, sees higher returns

Brands are geared up for the new season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), commencing from March 26, 2022. The frenzy surrounding the second leg of the IPL 2021 edition, along with the availability of restricted inventory, had pushed the League’s ad costs to more than Rs 17 lakh for a 10 second ad. Star India sold the remaining 5% of inventory for over Rs 17.2 lakh per 10-second slot, bringing the season’s total bookings to nearly Rs 2,950 crore.

With the tournament returning to India after being played in the UAE for two consecutive years due to the pandemic and 25% audience allowed inside the stadiums in the first phase of the tournament, Disney+ Hotstar is betting big on the cricketing extravaganza. The platform has onboarded various categories of advertisers/ brands for different sports events in 2022. The advertisers’ interest has been quite encouraging; and worth mentioning is the participation of regional brands.

Sports streaming allows sports fans to consume interactive content, such as the ability to chat with other fans, etc. Understanding the rapid and ever-evolving shifts in the consumer behaviour over the years, Disney+ Hotstar has launched interactive and engaging solutions such as the social feed for its audience to engage with the platform while enjoying the live matches of their favourite sport.

“At Disney+ Hotstar, the constant endeavour is to enable our advertisers to reach their audiences in the most effective, impactful, and engaging way. To ensure the same, we offer our advertisers a wide range of ad formats to help them reach their marketing goals. With ad solutions ranging from pre and mid-rolls to billboards and takeovers; squeeze ups, brand pages and branded moments, to hotshots and video duets for a two-way engagement, Disney+ Hotstar provides a solution for every brand’s marketing objective,” said Disney+ Hotstar.

Brands can collaborate with Disney+ Hotstar CreativeWorks, its branded content solutions arm, to create custom content solutions to tell their brand story on live sports. There are also opportunities beyond live matches in the form of content associations before and after the matches that brands can leverage.

“Given that IPL is one of the premier cricket leagues of India, the advertisers’ interest to leverage their brand stories at the back of sports has been nothing short of great. Cricket is not just a sport but also a shared sentiment for the whole country - and that’s what the brands are excited to ride on. They want to explore different and unique ad formats to align best with their messaging and we help them bring their aspirations to reality,” Disney+ Hotstar added.

The platform has witnessed interest from advertisers across sizes, scales, and categories – ranging from FMCG, BFSI, automobile, consumer durables, gaming, e-commerce, telecom, and handsets.

Brand associations

Commenting on the sponsorship, Ashish Lingamneni, Vice President - Marketing, Swiggy, said, “As a brand and category, Swiggy’s offerings, whether food from your favourite restaurant or the instant delivery of match-day snacks/ essentials with Instamart elevate the viewing experience for millions of cricket fans across the country. With close to 200 days of cricket in store and a longer IPL season ahead, 2022 looks super exciting. We continue our association on IPL via Disney+ Hotstar, given its high reach and saliency to drive engagement during the cricket season.”

Livspace CMO, Kartikeya Bhandari, remarked, “For emerging brands, partnering with the right platform to help them reach the right audience in the most impactful manner is the key. As the biggest cricketing event, IPL has provided grounds for many brands, including ours, to get the widest reach, gain visibility, and further increase recall and salience among consumers. We look forward to our partnership with Disney+ Hotstar for IPL and driving deeper associations for fans of the sport. We have been associated with IPL on Disney+ Hotstar for 2 seasons and are looking forward to another impactful season this year.”

Amritansu Nanda, Chief Marketing Officer, Zepto, pointed out, “IPL attracts more eyeballs than any other media event in India. Being associated with this mega-event will be a giant leap for Zepto’s brand awareness and consideration. Zepto has blitz-scaled over the past seven months and operates in the top seven cities. We are cognizant that TV/ on-ground associations will lead to massive spillover to geographies where Zepto is yet to launch. Disney+ Hotstar sidesteps these concerns and is the ideal platform for association with deep targeting, contextual call-to-actions, and campaign measurement capabilities. Disney+ Hotstar also has higher IPL viewership in the metros than TV, who are all subscribers. To summarise, our partnership with Disney+ Hotstar ensures we are getting the highest bang for the buck. We are excited to be partnering with Disney+ Hotstar for IPL 2022.”

Fruitful partnership

Disney+ Hotstar has worked towards tailoring an engaging and fruitful partnership for advertisers and agencies by aligning with their clients’ campaign narrative and their TG.

Disney+ Hostar is the only platform that offers brands access to ultra-premium audiences at scale on live sports, claims the spokesperson. “Brands also have the opportunity to target their existing customers on live sports, another industry-first. Besides, brands have the option of targeting CTV audiences exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar, and can, therefore, reach their audiences through the spectrum of targeting options across geographies, language feeds, demographics, etc. Our wide range of ad assets help advertisers achieve their campaign goals across awareness, consideration and intent,” said Disney+ Hotstar.

Given the past successes that brands have enjoyed, sports advertising has evolved drastically. In order to garner deeper engagement with the audience, Disney+ Hotstar has come up with innovative ways advertisers can make the best use of.

Over and above the video ads inventory, the platform provides interactive video ads with brand pages and carousels as companions for higher impact. “Brands can also associate with key features such as Super 6s and 4s, fall of wickets, milestones at key moments during the match. Moreover, brands have the opportunity to associate with content formats beyond live matches, with our pre- and post-match segments such as highlights, previews, compiles, stats and reports,” Disney+ Hotstar added.

The new-age brands are constantly looking for ideas to reach their audiences in a way that is both fun and engaging. To enable the same, Disney+ Hotstar offer a range of branded content solutions to its advertisers, including:

• Branded Segments - Associations in the form of branded segments for the pre- and post-match segments.
• Customised content creation - Bespoke content creation to enable the brand to tell its story at scale
• Influencer-led content - Leveraging the power of influencers as spokesperson to tell the brand’s story