Indian Premier League (IPL) is making headlines, one after the other and the entire nation seems to be catching on to the T20 fever like never before. The stakes in terms of the money involved have become extremely high but, this is India, and in this annual extravaganza of super fast cricket nobody seems to be really bothered. This is a situation where it’s difficult to conclude if one should be happy or worried with what is happening.
Advertising rates have already exploded to unprecedented levels with the broadcaster charging a whopping Rs. 6.5 Lakh for each 10 seconds of advertising. That’s a hell of a lot of money, considering a fact that a regular ad of 30 seconds would cost Rs. 20 Lakh for each screening and assuming it is screened 10 times in a day, one requires an investment of a cool Rs. 2 Crore for a single day of advertising.
Things do not stop here, the broadcaster is trying to squeeze in as many commercials as possible between every over and has even introduced several new concepts (read distractions) like the strip ads on the screen, mini ads between 2 deliveries, branding almost everything like 4s, 6s, wickets, catches, run outs and even time-outs.
With 10 sponsors for the tournament and around 50-60 spot advertisers on the channel for this season, this daily dose of cricket entertainment comes with a very heavy dose of hundreds of ads bombarded on that poor viewer who is left with a bad headache at the end of the game.
Sure, there is a good demand from advertisers to be on the IPL, but is it worth it? Are advertisers getting their money's worth by being on air during the match? In my opinion IPL is not only too costly a proposition for an advertiser, but also not delivering anywhere close to their expectations.
Sample this; there are close to 50 new ad films that have been shot for the event and the audience is finding it really tough to grasp them. Remember the Shah Rukh Khan starrer newspaper boy ad… now, can you tell me the name of the advertiser?? No, it is not KKR… the advertiser is actually “Nokia”. It’s the same thing with the Sharman Joshi ad with his girl in the changing room of a cloth store, which many people are confusing as another ad in the Airtel series, but actually it is also another “Nokia” ad. I listed some of the known brands for a general understanding but, there are numerous unknown brands which are on air, and nobody seems to be noticing.
Internationally, there are a lot of big television events which do not have a plethora of advertisers on them, but a select few who enjoy more airtime so that the ads deliver better recall. Broadcasters of IPL in India seems to think otherwise resulting in endless numbers of ads which are going unnoticed, simply because of the sheer number of them which are on air.
After spending that kind of money, I don’t think advertisers deserve to get lost in the clutter. Unfortunately grabbing the eyeball and attention of the viewer at the same time seems to be the most difficult task of this IPL season.
Advertising rates have already exploded to unprecedented levels with the broadcaster charging a whopping Rs. 6.5 Lakh for each 10 seconds of advertising. That’s a hell of a lot of money, considering a fact that a regular ad of 30 seconds would cost Rs. 20 Lakh for each screening and assuming it is screened 10 times in a day, one requires an investment of a cool Rs. 2 Crore for a single day of advertising.
Things do not stop here, the broadcaster is trying to squeeze in as many commercials as possible between every over and has even introduced several new concepts (read distractions) like the strip ads on the screen, mini ads between 2 deliveries, branding almost everything like 4s, 6s, wickets, catches, run outs and even time-outs.
With 10 sponsors for the tournament and around 50-60 spot advertisers on the channel for this season, this daily dose of cricket entertainment comes with a very heavy dose of hundreds of ads bombarded on that poor viewer who is left with a bad headache at the end of the game.
Sure, there is a good demand from advertisers to be on the IPL, but is it worth it? Are advertisers getting their money's worth by being on air during the match? In my opinion IPL is not only too costly a proposition for an advertiser, but also not delivering anywhere close to their expectations.
Sample this; there are close to 50 new ad films that have been shot for the event and the audience is finding it really tough to grasp them. Remember the Shah Rukh Khan starrer newspaper boy ad… now, can you tell me the name of the advertiser?? No, it is not KKR… the advertiser is actually “Nokia”. It’s the same thing with the Sharman Joshi ad with his girl in the changing room of a cloth store, which many people are confusing as another ad in the Airtel series, but actually it is also another “Nokia” ad. I listed some of the known brands for a general understanding but, there are numerous unknown brands which are on air, and nobody seems to be noticing.
Internationally, there are a lot of big television events which do not have a plethora of advertisers on them, but a select few who enjoy more airtime so that the ads deliver better recall. Broadcasters of IPL in India seems to think otherwise resulting in endless numbers of ads which are going unnoticed, simply because of the sheer number of them which are on air.
After spending that kind of money, I don’t think advertisers deserve to get lost in the clutter. Unfortunately grabbing the eyeball and attention of the viewer at the same time seems to be the most difficult task of this IPL season.
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