IPL Celebrates League Of Fans For Its 10-year Anniversary

The agenda of converting a national sport into something beyond entertainment attracted more than just sports enthusiasts, including a large segment of the audience watching the league together. The fans who have followed IPL throughout nine seasons have helped build the league into a huge brand. In order to celebrate the 10th anniversary, Sony Pictures Network and the creative agency DDB Mudra created six ad films under its campaign “10 Saal Aapkey Naam” dedicated to its fans.

A report by BARC in 2016 shows that SPN (Sony Pictures Networks) has consistently captivated audiences during the prime time of VIVO IPL broadcast. A sporting event like IPL has achieved a cumulative reach of 335 million among pay television households. With this, the league grew by 50% from its opening week in the year 2016 stated by BARC. The data was recorded of as and when the matches were telecast on the channels.

The BARC report also highlights that IPL with 902 GVM (Gross Television Viewership in Million) is 231% better than the 2nd most viewed channel in prime time at an All India level, and with 655 GVM at HSM (Hindi Speaking Market)level is 198% better than the 2nd most viewed channel in prime time. Having a high expectancy from the year 2017, SPN along with their new advertising campaigns are excited about the season coming up in April.

In an interview with BW Businessworld, Neeraj Vyas, Senior EVP & Business Head, Sony Max cluster, SPN shared some insights and details to the 10th year of IPL:

How does Sony approach the ad campaigns for IPL each year? Is it a very challenging process?
It is very easy to say in hindsight that all the campaigns were successful and recalled but it takes away a good 3-4 months of our lives every year to put up something that is credible. Most important is the fact that we put up something that is enjoyable, credible and unique. VIVO IPL is one of the marquee campaigns of the year it being seen by so many people at the same time and is something that the whole television industry looks forward to seeing. At The end I feel that it has been a challenge every year, it takes 17 to 18 meetings with the creative agency to crack the code and get audience attraction before the main event by launching promos and advertisements that will engage more fan following than the last year. But at the end of running the campaigns, it is really gratifying when you see the ad campaigns being telecasted and when you see the kind of response you are looking for. It’s like getting butterflies in the stomach when you witness the hard work during the launch.

How have other sporting leagues fared compared to IPL in terms of growth?
Other leagues have yet a long way to go honestly and it’s a little unfair to compare VIVO IPL to the rest of them. VIVO IPL is about the cricket which has passion/religion in this country. It’s way ahead of anything else that Indians like to do. This country is essentially about movies, music and cricket and cricket by far is the biggest sport that the country believes in. Having said that it is equally imperative that other leagues do grow because leagues get money into the sport and a sport eventually grows if there is enough money in it to work for the development of it. So whether it is a kabaddi league or a badminton league or whether it is a wrestling league it will all grow over a period of time hence to compare it to a league that is running for nine consecutive seasons is a little unfair. Hence all the other leagues will have to buy that time to make sure that there is enough attraction from the audience and grow from there.

Has the VIVO Indian Premier League reached out to the rural audience of the country?
Sony Max becomes the biggest channel in the country during an IPL season. It has a primetime share of more than 200% compared to the nearest competitor so it beats all GEC’s (General Entertainment Channel) in all languages and it beats just about everything that runs on T.V. between 8 o’ clock to 11 o’ clock. If we talk about rural encouragement towards IPL then the data has been coming in since last year so 40% of last IPL’s numbers came from rural audience viewership. This year the base is going to be expanded more so the viewership is going up from 153 Million homes to 182 Million homes which mean that the base has gone up and the reach has gone up at the same time.

Why did Sony Pictures Network decide to telecast IPL on Sony Max?
It was a great call that we took many years back and I think what sets apart IPL as one single point of distinction and the strategic difference was Set Max. Because Max brought with it a level of distribution and availability that would have been very difficult to match with any other channel. We could have brought in a sports channel but the kind of distribution that Max has especially been available till far and wide across all platforms would be very difficult to replicate. Secondly we had seen a lot of success when Max was telecasting the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002, 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 and the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007 gave us enough experience and we had enough belief and enough reason to put Max as the hosting channel for IPL and it has been the best call that we ever took and the best call for the advertisers because they got the reach they were looking for essentially and for BCCI because we could take the game ahead far and wide.

What was the concept behind the VIVO IPL Campaign 2017?
This year there were 2 concepts we had kept in mind while planning the IPL campaign for 2017. One of them was definitely and strictly the fact that it was IPL’s 10th anniversary, while in the 10th anniversary keeping the brand, channel and treatment in mind it was very clear that how do we celebrate the brand IPL without going out there and talking about who we are all over again. If we look at the strategy in terms of numbers is 361 Million and what we spoke about in our ad campaigns was addressed singularly to all these people to come together and unite the length and breadth of the country for 2 months of prime time every year and to see the kind of growth. It was very clear that the audiences and fans have made IPL what it is and have grown IPL as a brand.

Secondly, we could have gone and created campaigns on fans and sports in a different way because the concept is not new. However, the ethos of which an IPL fan relates to the league is very different and not comparative. Hence we thought about how the fans relate to the teams and the game, the enjoyment, the intense emotions and the excitement made us think of bringing out these qualities of a fan and create campaigns around them. Because of keeping these reasons in mind we expect to see a much wider audience this time. It’s not just about competitiveness but it’s also about magnanimity.