Marketers are gearing up for a digital advertising surge in the upcoming IPL24, with prominent CMOs Lakshmi Narayanan B, Chief Marketing Officer at CEAT Limited, and Krishnarao Buddha, Senior Category Head at Parle Products Pvt Ltd, indicating a significant shift in their media mixes. They were speaking on MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast series, with Pavan R Chawla, series host and Founder-Editor of MediaBrief.com.
Lakshmi Narayanan B, Chief Marketing Officer at CEAT Limited, who was on Ep 107 of MVP, spoke with Chawla on a wide spectrum of topics including India’s biggest advertising and marketing tentpole, IPL2024, had this to say about CEAT’s marketing investments slated for the IPL.
Acknowledging the importance of both, traditional and digital channels, Lakshmi, as he is popularly known and addressed, when asked how CEAT Tyres had split its advertising budgets between linear TV and Digital during the last IPL, “Clearly, I think the majority of 60 percent would have gone across to Digital.” When asked about their spends split on IPL24, Lakshmi replied, “We’re keeping all options open.”
To the corollary question: “But give me an indication… if last year was 60 percent (ad spends on Digital) and digital is growing and cord cutting is happening and you’ve already answered all of that… so tell me, will it (digital spends) grow? I guess it will?”, Lakshmi said, “It will grow on digital; yes.” He added, “We are yet to finalize on the campaign. I think once you finalize the campaign, then, you know, it becomes an obvious thing to kind of pick either linear or digital.”
Krishna Rao Buddha, who was on Episode 97 of MVP, indicated a substantial transition towards digital advertising, marking a departure from previous editions where television dominated. He said, “In the past 15 editions of IPL, I think barely two or three editions we have missed. Other than that we have been a strong associate partner with most of the editions of IPL. (Till last year’s IPL) Television was almost about 98 percent. But for the World Cup (that quickly followed the IPL 23) … we’ve already signed up with digital and as of now I can say that we are almost this time it’s a complete swap and we can say that we are almost about 90% digital and 10% television.”
With the emergence of Connected TV (CTV) as a potent channel, marketers see immense potential in leveraging the digital Over The Top pipeline to reach premium audiences effectively.
When asked how important Connected TV and news channels are to CEAT’s media mix to support its marketing strategy, Lakshmi said, “I truly believe that they are very powerful… I believe that Connected tv has the power to have a very (much) sharper communication to the audience and to absolutely to a premium audience.”
So, as consumer behaviours continue to evolve, driven by factors like increased disposable incomes and the proliferation of smart TVs, the shift towards digital advertising appears to be a strategic imperative for brands seeking to maximize their marketing impact during IPL24.
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