Disney+ Hotstar’s innovative ad campaign formats for IPL 2021

With the excitement that international cricket is bringing to 2021, Indian cricket fans have a lot to look forward to. Brands that look to reach audiences all over India needn’t look further than live cricket, and more specifically, the IPL 2021, that will be streamed live exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar.

Marketers looking to make most of their advertising spends have the choicest pick from the suite of Disney+ Hotstar’s innovative ad formats and branding opportunities. The platform also offers sharp targeting options that reach highly engaged, involved and affluent audiences on live cricket.

Innovative ad formats

For starters, Disney+ Hotstar has the following ad formats on offer for marketers looking to make the most of the IPL 2021:

 Billboards 

Billboards offer a distinct advantage: Advertisers leveraging this option can look forward to their brand being the first view display on all of Disney+ Hotstar’s app pages. Further, brands can also choose the number of days during the IPL 2021 they want to use billboards to engage with their audience.

 Pre-rolls

Disney+ Hotstar offers advertisers 5-10 second video ads, displayed before viewers enter the live IPL 2021 stream. Pre-rolls also offer targeting options at the audience-level, helping drive action in relevant target groups. Advertisers also have the option of preroll takeover asset which amplifies on screen visibility.

 Mid-rolls

These 10-30 second ads are played during breaks during the IPL 2021 live stream. Mid-rolls with companion carousels are highly effective for brand-building among highly engaged audiences. Disney+ Hotstar also offers a mid-roll takeover option for brands looking at post-click lead generations. 

 Interactive ad formats

These branded cards or branded moments appear on Disney+Hotstar’s live social feed. They allow brands to interact with audiences on the platform’s social feed during a live match.

 Squeeze-ups on live

Squeeze-ups help brands display their messaging during contextual moments of the match, in both, portrait and landscape mode.

Social engagement-led solutions

One of the reasons advertisers are looking forward to IPL 2021 is the immense opportunity for them to form deeper engagements with their viewers. To spur this, Disney+ Hotstar has introduced innovative social engagement-led features for fans. Here’s a glimpse at them: 

Video duets and Hotshots

These features help drive rich interactions with brands the opportunity to deeply engage with viewers. Both are social features, enabling viewers to interact with brand videos and stickers. Further, they can also share the stickers and videos with their social circles on the Disney+ Hotstar feeds.

Watch Parties

Watch parties are a way for Disney+ Hotstar to bring the stadium-viewing experience to viewers’ homes. Brands can partner with the platform to drive deeper engagement with fans.  A few lucky Watch Parties winners can also interact with the brand’s influencers while streaming the match live on Disney+ Hotstar. Viewers can send invite links via messenger apps or other media, and can video chat during the live stream without having to miss any of the match or their friends’ reactions!

Native presence 

Disney+ Hotstar offers several opportunities for brands to be visible on prime real estate during live matches. Here’s a look at a few: 

Brand Pages

These pages allow brands to take over Disney+ Hotstar’s social dashboard for a week. This gives brands a chance to be seen exclusively across the dashboard. It’s one of the best options to drive audiences to a brand’s campaign website.

Branded Scorecards

Scorecards are one of the most coveted properties of the IPL 2021. Brands opting for this branding opportunity can enjoy a tournament-long presence on the scorecard – Disney+ Hotstar’s most visible social assets. 

 Branded content solutions for live cricket

 Brands looking to engage with involved, passionate audiences needn’t look further than the live cricket on Disney IPL 2021. Here’s why:

• Disney+ Hotstar is the only OTT platform that enables custom targeting on live sports at scale
• The platform offers innovative branding solutions such as video duets, Hotshots, brand pages, and branded scorecards, enabling brands to get native presence on the IPL 2021 page. These options have garnered significantly higher brand uplifts when compared to traditional media campaigns
• Disney+ Hotstar’s content solutions solve marketing needs across the funnel, right from VOD branding to deep brand storytelling

What brands can expect for IPL 2021

Disney+ Hotstar has several new branding options in store for brands to engage with their audiences more effectively. These are:

Custom targeting

 The platform’s expanded list of targeting options offers advertisers the opportunity to reach the right audiences across geographies and demographics at attractive pricing options. 

Connected TVs (CTVs)

Brands now have the opportunity to reach ultra-premium audiences via industry-first CTV targeting on live sports like IPL 2021. This is in addition to the number of geo, interest, and device price targeting options that are available.

Advertising on highlights

 Further, Disney+ Hotstar now has reach beyond live streams, thanks to advertising options unlocked on the biggest content draw outside of live matches – highlights. Viewers watch highlights right after the match to catch up on moments they have missed. This has resulted in 90% of the platform’s viewership coming in within 12 hours of the match ending, driving both, a significant reach of approximately 100 million on the property (~100 Mn) as well as ~30% incremental reach over the live match.

 Advertisers can also leverage Disney+ Hotstar’s suite of targeting options on highlights to reach defined audiences.

Powerful mid-rolls

Disney+ Hotstar has also improved the capabilities of the midroll video asset just in time for  IPL 2021, with an option for advertisers to use the carousel ad asset along with the midrolls. This will give users a higher opportunity to interact with the ad, helping brands showcase their product range and features in an enhanced way. 

 Introducing Watch Parties

Since most viewers are still choosing to distance socially, Disney+ Hotstar’s Watch Parties re-create for users the experience of enjoying an IPL match with friends and family. Users can send invite links via Whatsapp/ other media to their close friends & can video chat while the game is playing, without having to miss anything on the match or any of their friends’ reactions. Brands can partner with the platform to drive deeper engagement with fans.  A few lucky Watch Parties winners can also interact with the brand’s influencers while streaming the match live on Disney+ Hotstar. 

 The Disney+ Hotstar impact

 Advertising campaigns on Disney+ Hotstar’s live cricket branding properties – Hotshots, video duets, branded cards, among others – saw ~80% higher brand-user interactions on the IPL social feed when juxtaposed with user interactions seen on the brand’s own Instagram or Twitter feeds. During the IPL season, the IPL social feed most definitely becomes the social network of choice for affluent, urban cricket fans who engage with other like-minded individuals.

 With all of this and more on offer, brands must include the IPL 2021 to leverage the true power of branded content solutions on live cricket. Click here to know more about Disney+ Hotstar’s branded content solutions, click here.