https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/picking-the-right-game/67543914
This summer marketers will be
facing a dilemma on whether to go high on IPL or on the General Elections, both
mega events likely in April and May of 2019. Not to mention the ICC World Cup
that follows right after. Few years ago this would have been an issue only for
those marketers targeting male audience (ACs for example) since cricket and
news were both seen to be content driving male viewership. Two things have
changed since. Both IPL and Election related programming have found 45% of their viewership
coming from females. This is drawing many categories to these events. Further,
joint decision making is happening in many purchases such as durables and auto
drawing even more traction from other categories. As a marketer
with limited budgets, what makes sense for you this year since both the mega
events will be watched by your prospects? Will you go for the IPL or the
General Elections?
What are the numbers saying?
Reach is one of the most
important reasons why marketers take high impact properties and pay a premium.
Recent five-state assembly election viewership data suggests that reach of News
channels on counting day alone was better than combined reach of IPL’s three playoffs and the
finale1. We looked back at the
Karnataka elections in May 2018 to make sure it was not an aberration. The reach of counting day on
leading Karnataka news channels was twice that of the entire Star
bouquet matches for the IPL finals for the Karnataka market. With the new TRAI pricing,
reach of sports channels may take a hit while news is largely free to air.
This, if it happens, will dent IPL reach further.
What about ratings and pricing?
While average match rating of IPL was quite high compared to election
programming on News channels, when we look at the CPRPs2 (cost per rating point), news channels score much better. Owing to
low cost of inventory, they allow for high frequency plan as well. So if you
have a message you want to hammer, General Elections may be the way to go. Of course this is all TV. Digital will have
its own nuance.
Qualitative parameters
IPL however offers other
advantages. Coming from one publisher, it is just one deal you have to
negotiate. Programs and telecast have finesse and consistency which allow you
to plan your campaign well in advance. Planning a campaign around elections on
the other hand can be haphazard. You may have to sign deals with multiple news
channels across multiple languages. This may give you a good spread and help
you do better market prioritisation, but will be a hassle nevertheless.
Programming can be different in different markets and most importantly, as a
brand, you may want to stay away from politics.
The eco-system
Let us now look at the eco
system of viewers, trade, internal stakeholders and the marketplace. Viewers
may be keener on elections as opposed to IPL as it is more participatory in
nature since your vote counts and your fate, even if
short term, is somewhat linked to the outcome of the elections. Or so you feel.
IPL on the other hand happens every year and this year it may witness partial
presence or complete absence of many international players owing to the upcoming
ICC World Cup. It is also possible that part of the IPL is moved out of India
owing to the elections leading to somewhat low interest levels from viewers.
If we look at trade
(dealers, store owners etc), they are likely to be equally excited about both properties
since the community is male dominated. The internal stakeholders however
(management, sales team, employees etc) may be happier with IPL
because of the pride and glamour associated with the property. 3
IPL content is proprietary
and available with one publisher. It is therefore often seen as a seller’s
market. Plus there are clear guidelines from BCCI on what is possible and what
is not. News on the other hand is democratic. With so many news channels competing
with each other, you are likely to get a deal of your choice with a lot thrown
in as value-adds. You may also be allowed to do varied brand integrations and
innovations during elections on news channels compared to IPL.
Deep
dives can tell you which one works for you and at what price. Which of the two
you take finally depends on what your brand needs, what your customers and
trade watch and how deep are your pockets.
1 Common
TG across all three sets - SEC
AB 22+ MF. Election programming taken from 8AM to 5PM and 8PM to 11PM on
respective days and IPL programming includes all IPL matches on respective
days.
Set
1 (HSM markets): Counting Day and four Polling Days (5
days) of the five-state assembly elections held in Nov-Dec 2018 on 5 Hindi News
and 3 English news channels compared with three IPL playoffs and IPL Finals (4
days) on All Star channels (All Sports, Star Plus, Jalsha,
Gold, Pravah, Suvarna, Asianet etc).
Set
2 (HSM markets): Fifteen days of programming until the
counting day of the five-state assembly elections held in Nov-Dec 2018 on 5
Hindi News and 3 English news channels compared with last fifteen days of IPL
2018 concluding with the finals on all Star channels (All Sports, Star Plus, Jalsha,
Gold, Pravah, Suvarna, Asianet etc).
Set
3 (Karnataka): Counting day of Karnataka elections on 3
Karnataka News channels and IPL 2018 Finals on Star Sports 1 and Start Sports
Hindi for Karnataka market
Hindi
News Channels considered: Aaj Tak,
India TV, ABP News, Zee News, News 18 India
English
News channels considered: Times Now, Republic TV, CNN News 18
Kannada
News channels considered: TV 9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarna News
24
2
Spatial Access Intelligence
3 From
discussions with clients
