IPL-Advertising: Impact, Evolution & Opportunity - How brands are playing the IPL game across TV, digital and on-ground

IPL Advertising: Impact, Evolution & Opportunity

The Market Research Society of India (MRSI) held its third Wednesday Webinar of the eighth season on 23rd April, 2025, on “IPL Advertising: Impact, Evolution & Opportunity - How brands are playing the IPL game across TV, Digital and On-Ground - and what’s their Scorecard?".

The session was hosted by Sivakumar Somnathan, Consumer Behavior Consultant, Curious Cat Consulting, Amitabh Mishra, Head Insights & Analytics - India, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Sunder Muthuraman, Independent Consultant, and Mukul Gautam, Independent Consultant; including speakers Anshu Yardi, VP Business Partnerships & Communication, TAM, Karthik Shankar, Head - Digital Investments, GroupM, Sandeep Ranade, EVP & Head - Quantitative Research Division, Hansa Research Group, and Deepa Mathew, Chief Insights and Digital Marketing Officer, CEAT.

The discussion shed light on the dynamic evolution of advertising strategies over the years and the myriad ways in which IPL—the country’s biggest sporting spectacle—is leveraged across TV, digital, and on-ground platforms. It also explored the metrics brands use to make smarter media decisions and how the consistent use of IPL has delivered performance outcomes for brands across sectors.

Sivakumar Somnathan, Consumer Behavior Consultant at Curious Cat Consulting, opened the session by highlighting how the IPL has evolved beyond just a cricket tournament. He noted that it has transformed into one of the most significant advertising spectacles of the year, with brands vying for visibility across television, digital platforms, and even within the stadiums themselves.

Sharing her views on how IPL advertising has evolved over the years and what brands need to keep in mind, Anshu Yardi highlighted that the pandemic played a crucial role in how brands advertised on IPL. Quoting data from a TAM Sports report, she said, “In the last 5 seasons of IPL, we have seen a shifting game on Linear TV. The total ad volume on Linear TV is still to recover completely to pre-covid levels. FCT shows a 24% drop on pure ad commercials. In 2019, dominating sectors on FCT like Telecom, Auto, Durables gave way to newer categories like BFSI and F&B sector with 9x and 28% ad volume growth respectively. NFCT/Digitally embedded ads showed a 39% drop in 2024 as compared to 2019."

Anshu highlighted the post-COVID shift in IPL advertising from linear TV to a multi-screen strategy, with growing investment in OTT and CTV. “In 2019, linear TV dominated, but now brands have multiple ways to reach audiences—and this will only grow," she noted. With increasing media fragmentation, she emphasized the importance of a diversified media mix. FMCG remained the most consistent spender, while EdTech and e-commerce peaked during 2020-2022 before declining. New entrants like fintech, fantasy gaming, and food delivery gained ground, while auto and smartphone brands rebounded in 2023 post chip shortage.

She also outlined three major shifts since 2019: the evolution of ad formats to interactive, QR-led creatives; a move from reach to ROI-driven campaigns; and a rise in regional and multilingual customizations. Looking ahead to 2025, she said IPL will become a performance-led moment, powered by programmatic CTV, AI-driven regional creatives, real-time ROI tools, and sharper focus on viewability in a fragmented, multi-screen world.

Speaking of the IPL’s impact on driving sales and outcomes on digital platforms, Karthik Shankar noted that IPL today is part of a much larger and more complex ecosystem, with its presence extending across on-ground activations, television, and digital platforms. He emphasized how the digital medium, in particular, has been scaling rapidly from an advertising perspective, unlocking deeper capabilities and broader possibilities. “Digital is no longer just an add-on—it’s becoming central to how brands engage, measure, and drive impact during the IPL," he observed, highlighting the growing sophistication in how campaigns are executed across multiple touchpoints.

He further emphasized IPL’s transformation into a technology and data-led ecosystem, with auction moments and live events now serving as marketing opportunities. He spoke about how digital has empowered brands with granular targeting and measurability. In partnership with JioHotstar, GroupM created over 400 campaign innovations, allowing brands to experiment with formats, influencer integrations, and hyper-local activations. Shankar reinforced that live sports remain unmatched in capturing audience attention in a distracted digital environment.

Sandeep Ranade shared compelling insights from HRD’s Syndicated tracker IPLOMANIA, highlighting shifts in IPL viewership and advertising effectiveness. “Viewership is increasingly moving from linear TV to OTT and Connected TV (CTV), with CTV viewership seeing a 2.25x jump from 2023 to 2024. This shift is driven by enhanced viing experiences such as multilingual commentary and multiple camera angles. Advertisers that span across multiple media platforms - TV, digital, on-ground - experience significantly higher uplift in brand awareness (35-50%) compared to TV-only campaigns. Jersey sponsorships, boundary branding, and on-ground pads are among the most recalled brand placements. Notably, non-core IPL categories like food, fashion, and footwear are also seeing strong uplifts (16-24%), validating IPL’s expanding relevance beyond its traditional male-centric demographic", he added.

Further speaking on how the uplift is seen when the brands are present on multiple media or single media, Sandeep said, “Brands that diversify their IPL ad spends across media and on-ground assets—like player jerseys and boundary placements—see significantly better uplift than those sticking to a single channel. Even categories outside IPL’s core demographic, such as food, fashion, and footwear, are achieving strong awareness gains. With changing viewer loyalties—RCB edging out CSK, Virat surpassing Dhoni, and emerging stars like Abhishek Sharma gaining ground—advertisers have fresh opportunities to align with fan-favorite teams and rising players across metros and non-metros alike. These insights are crucial for brands aiming to optimize their IPL association strategies across media platforms and player alignments."

Offering a perspective on how marketers and brands can leverage IPL, Deepa Mathew highlighted the power of IPL’s visibility, emphasizing the value of CEAT’s ownership of the strategic timeout. “In a low-involvement category like tyres, visibility is everything. The timeout gives us 150 seconds of undivided national attention—across TV, OTT, stadium screens, and social media", she noted.

She illustrated how the brand leverages this moment not just for visibility but deep consumer engagement. From QR codes on stadium boards driving web traffic to CGI-driven social content, CEAT has transformed a 150-second ad slot into a full-funnel marketing engine. Deepa underscored how consistency and creativity have elevated CEAT in a low-involvement category, turning recall into tangible business outcomes.

Summing it up, Deepa stated, “The IPL strategic timeout gives us not just eyeballs, but impact—product visibility, social buzz, brand love, and ROI. For us, strategic timeout truly equals strategic impact."

In summary, the session illustrated that IPL 2025 is not just a media event—it's a full-fledged platform for strategic brand activation, storytelling, and performance marketing. With advanced metrics, real-time experimentation, and expanding reach across screens and segments, IPL remains a critical lever in the evolving media mix. To gain deeper insights into the evolution of IPL from an advertising point of view, watch the complete MRSI webinar here