Gaming and esports companies are looking forward to 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for amplifying reach through cricket fans. Companies in the space that have already been spending heavily in the festive season have increased their marketing budgets by close to 50 percent compared to the same time last year. Festive period added to World Cup, most companies said is the best season to add new customers in the user kitty.
Games24x7, for instance, has launched a new campaign for its fantasy sports platform, My11Circle. Titled ‘My11Circle pe team banao, har din SUV jeeto’. It is a three-films campaign featuring their brand ambassadors Sourav Ganguly and Shubman Gill.
Industry sources reveal that Game 24X7’s investments in the period for campaigns and advertising has gone up by 60 percent over last year.
ROI from this investment is nothing but a boost in user base. This year with the Word Cup, the company expects their user base to grow by 1.5x.
“My11Circle has been able to build a strong connect with cricket fans in India through multiple engaging campaigns in the past. All our campaigns around key tournaments have received a tremendous response including our recent associations as title sponsor of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2022, title sponsor of the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants and more. With a lot of anticipation around the ongoing T20 World Cup, fans from all over the country will be exploring new ways to support their favourite teams and players and we want to make the most of it,” says Saroj Panigrahi, Senior Vice-president, My11Circle.
‘Sports and esports indeed share the same ethos.’
Overall, while TV has seen a lot of new brands in the space launch their campaigns, digital has seen a significant growth. According to latest numbers from TAM, the sector ad insertions on digital media saw a growth of 27 percent in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period last year. The top few advertisers in the period being Head Digital Works, Bacasable Global, Mihoyo, Buff Tech, Playgames 24*7, Gameskraft Technologies and others.
On the other hand, the top five brands to advertise in the period on TV were Zupee, Ace2three.Com, Fairplay, Mobile Premier League and Rummyculture.
Driving conversations and brands towards platforms
Indian cricket remains a big draw for the country and for live streaming platforms like Loco, which is an online gaming, live streaming and esports platform for gamers. The World Cup season witnessed a lot more conversations among fans compared to any other time.
Indian cricket remains a big draw for the country and for live streaming platforms. The World Cup season witnessed a lot more conversations among fans compared to any other time.
There are different genres of content that get created around this time on their platform, says Anirudh Pandita, founder at Loco. “There are chill streams, which involves creators doing analysis post-match with their friends and fans; streams around fantasy picks, and folks simulating the cricket matches of the day through online games like RealCricket, WCC, EA Sports Ashes cricket etc,” he says.
Another game streaming and eSports platform Rooter is also tapping into World Cup fever. They are hosting a Cricket eWorld Cup tournament. The Real Cricket (mobile game) based eSports event will be powered by 1XBet, and feature eight teams named after some of the top participating nations.
This is the company’s second cricket IP of the year after Cricket League hosted during the Asia Cup. The prize pool too has been doubled to Rs10 lakh.
Aiming to connect with the 800 million cricket fans in India, Rooter Piyush Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, Rooter says, “With the previous edition of the league recording an unprecedented 15 million+ views, the company is confident of replicating the immersive experience, where fans can root for their favourite players. We want to establish our brand in the cricket esports space and this is a great opportunity for us.”
Thanks to the millennial and GenZ users on the platform, Rooter is constantly onboarding new brands. The latest addition being Airtel, HP, H&M, Flipkart, Spotify and many others.
There is an overlap between gaming and esports audiences and those of sports events especially cricket, making the T20 World Cup a marquee event for them to associate with and scale their advertising efforts.
Overlapping audience profile
Talking of the millennial and GenZ user base, Rajan Navani, founder and CEO at JetSynthesys says, in terms of advertising, there is an overlap between their audiences and those of sports events especially cricket, making the T20 World Cup a marquee event for them to associate with and scale their advertising efforts across digital platforms during this period.
“What Diwali means to the retail and e-commerce industry, T20 World Cup means to the esports and gaming industry. Particularly for JetSynthesys, since we have a 65 percent global market share of simulated cricket through our games, Real Cricket and Sachin Saga and the World Cup is our call to action to get gamers to actually play cricket electronically and also watch e-cricket champions play great matches. Sports and esports indeed share the same ethos,” he says
According to Navani, India being a country filled with cricket fanatics, the large viewership helps build significant brand recognition. “This has got a lot of new brands to come on board that want consumers and audiences to discover them. Overall, an exciting time for brands and advertisers” he says.