ICC World Cup 2023: Why the tournament is a huge opportunity for advertisers

The return of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to India after a gap of 12 years has brought with it a huge opportunity for brand marketers and advertisers to reach out to their cricket-crazy customers.

Disney Star, the official broadcaster and streaming partner of the World Cup, has onboarded upwards of 21 sponsors and over 500 advertisers, including Hindustan Unilever, MRF Tyres, Dream11, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Booking.com. At a recent event, Ajit Varghese, EVP, Head of Network–Ad Sales, The Walt Disney Company, called the tournament a “turning point”. “Using mobile as an opportunity, we are now making sure that you can participate in Indian cricket with as low as $1 CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions). So, we are making sure that your entry point into cricket for the large set of advertisers is as low as $1,” Varghese said.

Last year, Disney Star retained the digital and TV rights for all ICC events until 2027-end for a reported $3 billion. After it lost out to JioCinema in the race to bag the rights for the Indian Premier League, Disney+ Hotstar lost nearly 21 million subscribers in three quarters. It is now looking to recover that loss.

According to data analytics firm mFilterIt, in the first four days of the tournament, top metros recorded significant growth in the number of advertisers and advertising slots. Delhi has seen a fivefold (5x) increase in advertisers, while Mumbai and Bengaluru saw a jump of 3.5x and 4.4x, respectively. Ad slots, meanwhile, jumped 7x in Delhi, while Mumbai saw the highest rise at 9x.

Per estimates, ad rates for a 10-second slot for premium matches like India-Pakistan is around `30 lakh. In that match, Disney+ Hotstar achieved a milestone in cricket streaming by recording concurrent viewership of 350 million. “Fans’ love for the game is what made it possible for Disney+ Hotstar to break all the previous records across all cricket formats and hit peak concurrency number,” Sajith Sivanandan, Head of Disney+ Hotstar, said in a statement. On TV, it clocked more than 59 billion minutes of watch-time (viewership), a growth of 22 per cent over the 2019 edition. Clearly, advertisers have a lot more to cheer than India’s win over Pakistan.

@PLidhoo