What a Bonanza of Cricket and Advertising!

The ICC ODI Cricket World Cup could not have come to India at a more opportune time. Just when the country’s economy is weathering the global slowdown and actually growing at a decent clip, it could do with a booster dose of high energy sporting action and consumption. Just when beleaguered Disney Star is recovering from the huge losses at this year’s IPL, it is more than making up through the cricket World Cup telecast and advertising revenue. And finally, it’s all in the spirit of the festive season, as it began in India last month itself.

Advertising during the festive season does hit a new peak every year, and this year too advertisers seem to be spending big on all media. Someone like me who is from the advertising and brand communications industry but has been unemployed for over 16 years, can only look on wistfully and think how I might have handled a particular campaign, and how it could build the brand. That said, I have managed to watch quite a bit of the cricket this time, and the added incentive for me to do so was to be able to see new advertising campaigns. Planning and deciding on brand campaigns this time must have been really easy: just focus on the ODI World Cup because almost everyone is there.

In the search for maximum eyeballs and share of mind, companies would also hope for a larger share of consumers’ wallets. And because it’s all taking place during the festive season, they are not likely to be disappointed. Apparently, viewership records are being broken in this ICC ODI World Cup and it is being reported that India matches have registered a 178% increase in advertising slots. Some even say that adverts during India matches cost five times as much, strange and even discriminatory as it might seem to many. But that is in the logic of media – the more watched or popular a programme, the higher the advertising rates. The precise advertising spend during this ODI World Cup is not yet known; media reports numbers ranging from Rs. 20 billion to Rs. 35 billion , which looks like a shot in the dark. We might have to wait until the cricket World Cup ends to have any idea of the exact advertising spends by companies.

Usually with cricket championships, the biggest advertisers are snacks and soft drinks brands, automobiles -mainly motorbikes and scooters – and pan masala and gutka (a form of chewing tobacco) brands. Then, we can also expect to see advertising from mobile handset brands and TVs, sportswear brands as well as beverage alcohol brands.

This ICC ODI Cricket World Cup, we had these usual suspects and more! The big surprise was the sheer intensity of advertising from mobile phone payment apps such as Phone Pe and banks as well, such as IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank. In this article, I would like to share what I think of many of these campaigns and how in some instances they might have been handled better.

Sprite running a cricket world cup-based advertising campaign; video from YouTube

In the soft drinks category, there were Coca Cola and Sprite, with the latter dominating the screen. Pepsico is mostly advertising its snacks, with one advert for its range of sizzling spicy hot Doritos, Lays and Kurkure, and the other for Lays potato crisps featuring Dhoni who pays a surprise visit to watch cricket in a home on the condition that they serve Lays. While Coca Cola aired its new international art gallery advert, Sprite has created a new campaign exclusively around the cricket world cup in India. These work quite effectively to communicate the chilled refreshing taste of Sprite when things get heated while watching the matches. The creative, and slightly humorous idea of the heated and disastrous consequences of misconstruing something not meant for one’s ears, with Sprite cooling things down is quite well done, I think. I wish the wording and phrasing of some of the script had been more appropriate, such as using “just chill out, when what they mean is probably “just chill”.

On the use of celebrities in these cricket World Cup adverts, I must say that Gatorade from Pepsico has really wasted Hardik Pandya in an advert without a creative idea. The pan masala advert from Vimal which uses film stars such as SRK, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgun is the same old advert, while Kamla Pasand has created a new campaign around cricket, contrasting cricket stars such as Gavaskar with Sehwag, and Kapil Dev with Chris Gayle. The idea remains the same as before, but this time, it’s cricketers who do the talking.

On campaigns with celebrities again, I think Mak Lubricants from HPCL with their Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid adverts have done well in their choice of celebrity as well as in the storylines. On the other hand, the advert for Oppo Flip phones with Zeenat Aman and another lady, both dressed in black formal evening wear, is a waste of a celebrity. I think it lacks an idea and I was taken aback by the suggestion of a lesbian relationship between the characters; is that something acceptable now in Indian advertising?

Speaking of mobile phone adverts, but for this Oppo Flip phone, there are few in this cricket World Cup. One would have thought that Samsung and Apple which has just recently launched its iPhone 15, would have taken advantage of the World Cup and the festive season to advertise more. But I was surprised to see a new campaign by Vodafone Idea , or Vi, which has nothing to do with cricket but is advertising with a new message of not being alone in this world. It is inviting people to be someone’s we, or Vi, but sadly the executions are mundane and lacking any compelling consumer benefit. At a time when Vodafone Idea is still losing subscribers, the idea of being someone’s we is terribly misplaced. The brand needs to get back to the drawing board and first figure out a new brand strategy having erroneously merged the two brands Vodafone and Idea.

Next, I would like to discuss my thoughts on the automobile adverts that one sees during the ODI World Cup. M&M dominates the screen with adverts for its range of SUVs. The adverts seem to be trying to communicate some unique features of M&M SUVs, but I am yet to see what these are. All the adverts seem to be saying is that while you get to drive them, the rest of the world talks about them. Quite a waste of money in my opinion, considering they are one of the broadcast sponsors and their advertising is quite an intense burst.

Maruti Suzuki is advertising its leadership in SUVs although its advertising is not that intense. And Skoda is advertising with a festive offer message. There aren’t too many two-wheeler adverts from Hero and none from Bajaj this World Cup, which is surprising to say the least.

This brings me to an observation that most brands seem undecided whether to advertise with cricket as a message, or with the festive season in mind. None seemed more confused than Cadbury, which began with an advert about the young man of the house going to watch a cricket match live with his major domo and cook, while his wife looks forward to having friends over later for dinner. I couldn’t see what Cadbury chocolate had to do with any of this. Then the brand pivots to a festive season message with Cadbury Celebrations and something to do with every home being a store.

Having worked in the Delhi office of Ogilvy all along, I have never had anything to do with Cadbury, but I thought a better strategy for the brand would have been to extend its “kuch meetha ho jaaye” campaign idea to celebrating the game of cricket. “Mooh meetha kar lo” is what many Indians say in Hindi when they wish to share the pleasures of small victories in life by offering sweets to each other. Pardon my atrocious Hindi, but the thought is that when batsmen score tons, or when bowlers take a fifer, or when teams win, it’s time to bring out Cadbury chocolate and share it. A campaign around this idea could have even been extended to an on-ground activation programme, with Indians celebrating small victories and milestones with Cadbury chocolate going around cricket stadia. I thought the strategy could also have showcased Indian hospitality towards international teams and their fans, considering Cadbury is an international brand.

Jockey advertising quite aggressively with the cricket world cup; Video from YouTube

Usually, one would expect sportswear brands to advertise heavily during a cricket World Cup tournament, but there weren’t any of the well-known brands this time. The only sportswear brand advertising with its shoes is Skecher, with celebrities such as Kriti Sanon and Mitali Raj. On the other hand, inner-wear brand Jockey is advertising heavily with what looks like an entire new line of athleisure wear for men and women. The adverts look international – not merely because of the American voice over – and focus on product features. One is left wondering if these products are available all across India or only online because the adverts end with jockey.in website address. I thought that in order to make the most of the new launch and to be clear, they should have been present in print as well as in digital at the same time.

The presence of so many banks and digital payment adverts during this World Cup was a surprise and a pleasant one for me. Phone Pe seemed to be doing two different kinds of adverts: adverts promising ease of use and convenience with Phone Pe which seems to be targeting young and trendy consumers, including women, and the other focused on monthly health insurance premiums paid through Phone Pe targeted at an older and not so well-off consumer segment. They seem to be advertising heavily during this Cricket World Cup. Then, IndusInd Bank which I have never seen any advertising for in the past, is advertising its mobile app called Indie with ideas that seem to be taking an indirect swipe at American Express with its visualization of centurions. Here, the idea of the centurion has been flipped to suggest “doing battle” rather than financial security and protection, which is how Amex uses the symbol, though never in advertising.

Digital payments brand Phone Pe targeting young, trendy consumers during Cricket world cup; Video from YouTube

Not to be left behind, Axis Bank also is advertising its app, called Open, if you please. I wonder who or which advertising agency suggested this brand name to them. These adverts also don’t seem to be very sure of just what kind of customer they are targeting.

All this made me wonder if the Star Sports Hindi commentary channels would have a different set of advertisers. Why wouldn’t Disney Star have thought of the differentiated advertising opportunity, considering the millions in India who might be watching the vernacular channel? I then went over to the Hindi commentary channel but didn’t see any particular difference considering the little time I spent there. If Hindi commentary channels attract different viewers and therefore different advertisers, the pan masala adverts, those for two-wheelers, tractors, and many other new advertisers ought to shift there. The one thing I noticed is that the Hindi commentary team doesn’t step out on to the cricket ground for a live discussion between innings, spending it inside a news studio instead.

I also visited a few brands’ pages on Twitter – sorry, X – to see how they were advertising on social media around the time of the cricket World Cup. I was surprised to see that none of the soft drink brands were focused on digital in the same way as television and streaming. Some of the fast-food brands such as Domino’s were tweeting a lot during matches with clever lines trying to link the cricketing fact with the food. But they aren’t adverts and I am not sure how much these kinds of tweets help. McDonalds is advertising something called McDonald This Match, which is just trying to draw a connection with cricket, but the adverts or the offers are not exactly cricket or World Cup-based. All of it only confirmed my opinion that digital and social media advertising doesn’t help build brands, or raise their saliency especially during an important occasion such as this.

All in all, I’d say the advertising fare this ICC ODI World Cup has been pretty ordinary or even below average. I think most brands couldn’t decide whether to advertise using cricket, or the festive season. But even the brands that decided to stay focused on brand such as M&M SUVs were doing such a terrible job of it. And some sponsors such as HUL simply wasted their advertising budget on this World Cup with sporadic adverts for several brands; I saw adverts for Bru Coffee, Surf Excel LiquidWash, Dove, Vaseline Moisturiser, Trésemme and Lakmé, with none of them making an impact.

The ones that did make an impact and advertised heavily were Sprite, Phone Pe and Jockey. I wish could say the same for the cricket matches, though. With some matches so terribly one-sided, and teams getting bundled out for scores under 100, I haven’t enjoyed watching the matches very much so far. In fact, let me stick my neck out and say that cricket matches have been looking “fixed” to me, for many years now. Fixed in terms of match schedules, dates, timings and scores, all of which appear based on reading stupid meanings in numbers. Just the way unprofessional PR agency idiot bosses are wont to do.

So far, India has an unbeaten record in this ODI World Cup. After all the advertising extravaganza we have had this 2023 festive season, I would just say, may the best team win.

This article was first published on my blog on November 6, 2023.