Live sports are an ideal time for brands to put out creative digital campaigns. With lakhs of eyes glued to the screens, everyone stays tuned in for hours to watch a game. As a result, advertising during this time brings in maximum viewership from these audiences. Moreover, the fans’ emotional investment with their favourite teams make this an ideal opportunity for brands to capitalize on.
In India, this marketing extravaganza centers around cricket championships, like the Indian Premier League and currently, the T20 World Cup. Brands not only invest crores on these campaigns, but also go all out when it comes to creativity.
Here are some brands that successfully utilized digital marketing during live sports and events:
CRED (IPL 2021)
Cred has gained notoriety for its innovative and humorous ads that we see during commercials for live sports like IPL. This campaign has blazed all of social media as it featured star cricket celebrities like Rahul Dravid and Kapil Dev.
In addition to TVCs, they have also included ‘CRED Power Play’. This involves users getting a chance to win 100% cashback on bill payments during the IPL powerplay overs.
Many influencers have been involved in boosting this campaign by sharing memes based on these ads, as well as creating their own humorous content for the brand.
Campaign Impact: The campaign led to a 6-7x increase in daily sign ups for the app.
Lifestyle (IPL 2020)
Fashion brands also get involved in digital marketing during live sports. Lifestyle promoted their new collection during the 2020 IPL season with their campaign #FashionPremierLeague.
This campaign, executed by Greenroom, involved promotional content that showcased 8 different looks based on all the 8 different teams. The campaign also engaged with their audience, asking them to share their cheering look for their fave team for a chance to win prizes.
Campaign Impact: The campaign garnered over 90K+ views on reels and a total reach of 1000k+ on Facebook with 60k+ impressions on Twitter
Zomato/ Swiggy (IPL/WCCT20 2021)
Food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato are some of the leading brands that gain from live sports. The two invested crores on marketing and discounts during IPL in an attempt to revive the losses suffered amidst COVID.
These campaigns focused marketing on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, with TVCs aired during the games and collaborating with influencers. Polls, quizzes and IPL-themed discounts on selected restaurants boosted the campaigns carried out by the delivery companies.
Campaign Impact: Swiggy saw a 30% increase in orders during match days. Furthermore, they saw 1M+ daily active users during the course of the event.
Coinswitch Kuber (IPL 2021)
There has been a digital marketing boom when it comes to cryptocurrency. Brands like CoinSwitch, CoinDCX, BitBns and CoinSwitch Kuber have all begun to market themselves using popular celebrities for their campaigns.
Crypto investment platform Coinswitch Kuber, partnered with Disney + Hotstar during IPL to have their TVC ads aired throughout the season. TVCs involved a collaboration with Raveer Singh, who premiered in their campaign across all digital platforms. They have also collaborated with various influencers on Instagram.
“India is a cricket loving nation. With millions of people watching, we couldn’t think of a better platform than IPL to introduce cryptocurrencies. With our campaign, we hope to get people interested in learning about cryptocurrency and how they can benefit from them.” -Ashish Singhal, CEO and co-founder of CoinSwitch Kuber
Burger King (WCC T20 2021)
Burger King has introduced a campaign titled ‘The Greatest Hack’ for the WCC T20 series. An AR filter on their app allows users to redeem exclusive offers. These offers can be collected for every boundary hit, each wicket taken, and other such riveting match moments. As the game unfolds, the audience can simply scan the match moments present on their screen to win exciting offers.
The brand utilizes all digital platforms to market this campaign, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
In conclusion, live sports and live events are a great time for brands to create captivating and entertaining campaigns. As everyone settles in to support their favourite teams, we will witness such campaigns being broadcasted during this T20 season.