Brands gear up for an exciting quarter as Asia Cup kicks off the festive-cricket season on a high note
The last two quarters of the year are always big for brands and consumers. Brands formulate engagement, build recall and drive sales. Consumers make the most of these festivities by spending on experiences and purchases. After two years of primarily remote festivities and shopping sprees, people are all set to celebrate the upcoming festivals with family and friends. With an overlapping cricket season on the horizon, get-togethers would be abuzz with discussions and fanfare. Brands are gearing up to become a part of these celebrations for people all over the country.
There is a lot for brands to look forward to, tailoring their communication for festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam, Navaratri, Durga Puja, Diwali, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. With a rise in consumption of OTT platforms, especially among highly engaged premium audiences, advertisers can reach consumers via various ad formats while leveraging the scale of live sports.
Scheduled from August 27 to September 11 this year, Asia Cup presents brands with a great opportunity to connect with highly engaged, premium audiences across thirteen T20 matches, including three potential India v/s Pakistan face-offs. A few days later, the landscape would get further charged with Australia and South Africa tours of India — followed by the phenomenal T20 World Cup, where fans can cheer for team India from October 16 to November 13, with each of the 47 matches set to be more exciting than the last.
Brands can strengthen recall and achieve festive campaign-centric goals by leveraging a combination of these leagues. Consistent presence across multiple tournaments helps brands drive growth. According to the Brand Lift studies by Disney+ Hotstar, partnering for multiple tournaments helps brands see a 3X growth in key metrics such as ad awareness, message association and purchase intent.*
With Disney+ Hotstar, brands can pick from a diverse range of ad solutions and custom targeting options to share their narratives with the most premium, urban audiences on live sports. These include mid and pre-rolls, features like Super 6s and 4s, fall of wickets and the man of the match. Brands can creatively leverage in-match moments like the spotlight on the opening batsmen as he walks in and the third umpire decision, which everyone waits with bated breath. Highly customizable branded moments are also great avenues for brands to explore while driving up consideration.
Brands with a strong social media engagement focus can integrate into the social feed and be a part of the conversation during live matches with branded emojis, hotshots and video duets. For large-scale visibility, brands can leverage billboards, branded pages and splash screens. Brands can be a part of the VOD (Video On Demand) narratives on Disney+ Hotstar to drive association and maximize impact — Super 6s, Super 4s and exclusive content hosted by the platform’s in-house anchors.
Advertising during live sports is evolving by the day. With a festive season in tow this year, the industry expects ad spend investments to increase multifold. Over a hundred brands are already a part of the narrative! While the features for Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup on Disney+ Hotstar are sold out, the rest of the inventory is also selling fast.
Get in touch with us today to chalk out a plan for your brand’s presence in this year’s festive-cricket fervour.
