Four years later, India and Pakistan are once again gearing up for a showdown at the ICC ODI World Cup, presenting advertisers with a unique one in four-years opportunity to capitalize on high impact, visibility, and reach. Experts are anticipating ad revenues to surpass Rs 3000 crore during this World Cup. 2019 was no different when it came to ad volumes.
Down the memory lane of advertisers’ rush
A quick throwback to the June 16, 2019 India-Pakistan World Cup league match showed that a staggering 20 hours of advertising were broadcast on the 14 channels that aired the match. According to TAM, the average ad volume per channel during the match was 87 minutes.
Interestingly TAM analysis revealed that throughout the entire season, the ad volumes per channel in minutes averaged at 67 minutes.
This highlights the immense advertising interest and engagement generated specifically during the high-stakes India-Pakistan World Cup match.
Breaking it down further
60 plus categories, 75 plus advertisers and 130 plus brands took the centre stage on the India-Pakistan match day in the 2019 World Cup.
The top categories were cellular phones-smart phones, cars, pan masala, ecom-online shopping and perfumes/deodorant.
Amazon India was the leading advertiser, with seven percent share of ad volumes during the India-Pakistan match and also one of the overall top five advertisers with 23 percent contribution to total ad volumes during World Cup 2019.
Amazon.In, Kamla Pasand Pan Masala, Disney Byjus Early Learn App, Phonepe and Fogg were the top five brands to advertise during the match.
Overall World Cup 2019 advertising trends
Overall, 570 hours of ad went live across the 21 channels that telecast World Cup 2019. The data includes commercial advertising time on television on live matches between May 30, 2019 and July 14, 2019.
Over 75 categories advertised in the period. Perfume/ deodorant, pan masala, ecom – online shopping, ecom – wallet and cellular phones-smartphones were the top categories.
The count of advertisers stood at 90 plus. Speaking of advertisers, as per the same TAM report, the top 10 advertisers contributed 47 percent to ad volumes.
Vini Product, Amazon Online India, K P Pan Foods, Parle Biscuits and FX Mart were the top five to lead this list.
When it comes to brands though, there were a total of over 180 plus brands that advertised during the 2019 World Cup. The top five in the list were Amazon.In, Kamla Pasand Pan Masala, Phonepe, Fogg and Disney Byjus Early Learn App.
Will this year be bigger?
The craze just keeps getting bigger. As per early trends and experts close to development, the demand this time is brand agnostic.
“There are two factors that are working here. The fact that the World Cup is happening in India and it is timed with the festive season is working wonders to create hype and buzz. More than 50 advertisers were on board when the inventory sales took off,” said a popular media buyer.