From Swiggy’s smashing ad campaigns to the walking billboards on ground Advertising and IPL

From Swiggy's smashing ad campaigns to the walking billboards on ground

Advertising and IPL: A love affair worth $5.3 billion*

Indian Premier League (IPL) is not just another cricket tournament; it's the annual cricket extravaganza hosted on the Indian land. IPL is decade old today and its infectious energy has covered not only the cricket fans worldwide, but the brands too.

Who doesn't wants to be the part of this IPL Fever? When the balls rolled out for this year's IPL season on April 7th, brands were beforehand ready to dive in. Major telecom players like Airtel and Reliance Jio announced a treat for their users to stream all IPL matches on their apps.

Jio launched a game 'Jio Cricket Play Along' for its users to offer a chance to win tons of goodies. From Snapchat's snap codes to Amazon's Alexa, the 'knowledge bank of IPL', every brand wants to live, eat and breathe the tournament.

IPL has captivated massive advertising interest and brands are marrying the tournament to gain the high-quality reach and recall value. While Nestlé Munch is enjoying being the official Crunch Partner for Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore and a special campaign- MUNCH My T20, Amazon is back with its Chonkpur Cheetahs Apni Dukaan ad campaign.

The ad slots have been slated by brands like LinkedIn, Sri Sri Tattva, Samsung India, Voltas and many more.

But it's swiggy's smashes with its 'No order too small' ad campaign, interwoven with the cricket spirit, is making noise in the advertising world. Paytm adopted a unique strategy by joining the gala as the Official Umpire Partner of the VIVO Indian Premier League for the next five years.

Paytm holds a strong relationship with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). This young brand also enjoys being the Title Sponsor of India cricket.

How brands are surfing on the richest sports wave with the team

NOKIA: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Marketing Strategy– pulling up its marketing initiatives to re-build the brand image

Goibibo: Mumbai Indians (MI)

The Deal- The brand will be featured on the back side of team's jersey this year for captivating great visibility. Following the marketing strategy, the brand is cheering its audience to download its app through its ad campaign.

HP: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

The Deal – Players will take part in HP led promotions and commercials. The brand will be bestowed wide visibility across retail outlets, on-ground activations and will also be featured on team's jerseys.

The Muthoot Group, India Cement, Gulf, Nippon Paint, Equitas, HIL, ACT Fibernet: Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

The Deal: Team's appearance in brand's Commercial

Kent Ro, Royal Stag, Lotus Herbals & Fena: Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)

The Deal – all jerseys and merchandise of Kings XI Punjab will carry brands logo along with this; the brand Fena will further have brand exposure at team's home grounds.

DTDC, GMR Group & JSW Sports – Delhi Daredevils   

The Deal – Being the official logistics partner, the express parcel service provider DTDC will oversee the entire back-end logistics operations for the team. The brand's logo will be visible on the lead trouser of the DD playing jersey.

Nerolac- Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

The Deal- presence on the helmets of the Sunrisers Hyderabad players

BookMyShow – official IPL ticketing partner for Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals

This season, the IPL fever allured entertainment chieftains, Marvel Studios, and Eros Now to join the stream. Marvel Studios joined hands with Kolkata Knight Riders to launch a special edition of merchandise. In concert, Eros International announced its sponsorship for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

IPL has been hot among the brands and as a result we have seen many unusual partnerships of the brands and team like Emta Group, a Kolkata-based captive coal mining company which came as a sponsor of Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals' sponsor Floriana, a New-Delhi-based marble company and finally the Bangalore-based OSR Cinemas Pvt. Ltd.

To mark their entrance as huge as it can be in the northern region of the country, the brand signed a sponsorship deal with Kings XI Punjab to gain visibility for its brand Q Cinemas with 'Q Logo' featured on team's merchandise.

As per the words of Amit Gupta, head of marketing for OSR Cinemas, "People are seeing the Q logo and by the time we open our multiplexes they will recognize the brand."

Putting all the deals together, it just proves that the bigger you pick, the more eyes you win for your brand's presence. Well keep eyes on those walking billboards though!!

*According to global valuation and corporate finance advisor Duff & Phelps.