In 2023, Viacom18 had bagged the digital rights of IPL (Indian Premier League) from 2023-2027 for Rs 23,758 crore. Disney India had acquired the television rights for the five year cycle where they paid a total of Rs 23, 575 crores.
Last year, Parle Products, a multinational food corporation, chose television as a medium to be present on during the IPL season. However, this year, they chose to go digital.
Speaking about the shift of medium, in a conversation with Storyboard18, Mayank Pravinchandra Shah, vice president, Parle Products, stated, “Firstly, television (TV) as a medium turns out to be very costly. Secondly, there’s no assurance or there is no guarantee of how many people you will reach out to when advertised on TV. Unlike TV, on digital, you only pay for a number of people who are watching your commercial.”
Edited excerpts
When did Parle Products’ association begin with IPL and how important is this platform?
Parle Products has been associated with IPL since the year of its establishment, which is 2008. Barring probably one or two seasons in between, we may not have looked at it because when you talk about a platform like IPL, we don’t do it for the sake of sustenance or regular advertising. It’s more of an impact-creating property.
Could you touch upon the ad spends of Parle Products since the company began to advertise through IPL? What are this year’s ad spends?
We normally don’t reveal ad spends, but it has been substantial. If I have to give you a ballpark figure, I think we would have spent at least Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore till date on IPL.
Last year, Parle Products chose TV as a medium and today digital has been chosen in partnership with Jio Cinema. What are the reasons for this shift?
Firstly, television as a medium turns out to be very costly. Secondly, there’s no assurance or there is no guarantee of how many people we will reach when we advertise on TV. Unlike TV, on digital, one only pays for the number of people who are watching the commercial.
That makes the entire scale tilt in favour of digital. Typically, what happens is if a match is not interesting or interest begins to wane around IPL, one is still bound to pay the amount that they have agreed to on TV for every spot that’s being aired. That’s not the case with digital. On digital, payment is done based on the number of views.
Hence, digital takes away the uncertainty that’s associated with viewership. That’s a very big draw for most advertisers. Unlike TV, where a brand might be airing the commercial, it might be the nth commercial in the break. In between the breaks or during the strategic timeout, when the break duration is longer, if there are eight or 10 commercials and one is sandwiched in between, then what would happen is that the brand loses out on views. They lose out on viewership because people tend to take a break at that time or so.
Now, that doesn’t happen with digital. Digital, one is only going to pay if he or she is watching it.
Could you touch upon the charges of Jio Cinema for running ads of Parle Products?
We cannot disclose that. But it’s a good rate. Compared to television, it’s far more cost-effective to work with digital. I would put it that way.
How has digital media profited Parle Products as compared to mainstream media like television or print in terms of reach?
It has made our media buying far more efficient. As I shared earlier, it gives capabilities of micro-targeting… The biggest capability of digital is to target. You can target people in terms of geographies, affluence and demographics, etc.
Digital also gives capability to ensure that money is not wasted. When brands are spending it, they know how many people are watching it or how many people will watch their ads.
Digital also takes away the uncertainty or probability that a certain number of views one is paying is not worth it. So, all those things put together, the scales tilt in favour of digital and it turns out to be better for us to be on the digital platform then.
How different is the target audience of digital media as compared to television?
There is a good amount of overlap. There are people who watch on the go on digital and when they are at home, they watch it on TV. But of late, what has been seen is that the scales are tilting in favour of digital because one is also on digital while they are watching it on a big screen.
Given the ad rates on TV, it makes no sense to be really targeting TV. If you compare CPRPs (cost-per-reach-points) that you will get, it turns out to be much cheaper to be present on regular programmes on TV than to watch IPL. There is just no comparison between the two of them.
Is television still a lucrative advertising medium for Parle Products?
Yes, it is. It depends on what cost you are buying it at. It would not be right to buy ad space on TV just for the sake of it at any price. One needs to look at CPRP or what is the cost one is paying for a rating point. The CPRP of IPL is at least 5x to 6x of what one would probably pay on a regular programme.
Could you touch upon the new campaign to be rolled out for IPL 2024?
We are keeping it under wraps. We want a certain amount of surprise elements around it. We want people to experience it without having any bias or without talking about it beforehand.
Currently, the campaign that we are talking about largely is going on IPL and then it will be followed by being streamed on other platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. It will even be on other content platforms like DailyHunt or ShareChat or on OTT platforms like Zee5.
Parle Products boasts varieties in its portfolio. Are there any new launches in place?
We launched quite a few brands in the last few months when we got into different categories. We’ve got into staples, where we came up with Parle-G atta. We’ve got into the cereal category where Hide & Seek Fills were launched recently. We launched quite a few variants of Parle-G right from oats and berries and cinnamon to the latest one being Parle-G Dark.
How have the target audience of Parle Products and their preferences evolved over the years?
Consumers are far more progressive today, far more discerning in terms of what they want. With the kind of media exposure that consumers have got today, you probably know the kind of globetrotting that’s happening.
The kind of experiences they are expecting are not the regular ones they want to have. Something new they want to have, something different they want to have and something that’s as good as any other good international product that’s available in the global market.
So, they have changed a lot over the last two decades with more consumers moving around the globe, being very well-travelled and having experienced great products globally. I think the expectation from them is to get similar offerings from Indian brands as well.
Which quarters are considered peak for advertising for Parle Products?
Last year, immediately after the IPL, it was the World Cup. If there are events like that, that particular quarter gets you a significant amount of investment or spending. Since we have 50-odd brands and some of the other brands are always active, there’s no specific skew towards a particular quarter where we would spend more.
However, when there are certain events like this and if you are present on it, then you will see a certain amount of skew. Then you know that typically happens to be the first or the second quarter of the financial year. Hence, April, May, June or July, August, September.
I want to understand more about premiumisation in the dictionary of Parle Products…
For the past almost 10 years, Parle Products has come up with quite a few premium products. Long back, we started with Hide & Seek but it started gathering pace from 2007-2008, when we launched Milano. Post that, we got into the health category. In 2017, we had all our premium products grouped together and we rebranded them as Parle Platina.
Today, Parle Platina is a large range where you will find products which are not just premium but global.
Who is the target audience of Parle Platina?
When we launched it, we thought it would be higher socioeconomic classes, given the aspirations of suburban and even the rural Indian consumers. So, if you’re talking about aspirations of rural consumers, they’re not very different from that of urban consumers, given that they are exposed to similar kinds of things.
The exposure has gone up significantly. So, the only difference there is probably is the pack size. For example, if an urban consumer can afford a 100 rupee pack or 150 rupee pack, a rural consumer may not go for that big ticket item and he may probably buy the same thing. Hence, aspirations remain the same.
Parle-G biscuit is the IP of Parle Products. Since IPL is approaching, how important is this product for advertising during such a season?
It is very crucial. When you talk about IPL, it’s a big property which has become more like the Super Bowl of India. You plan things around IPL and come up with campaigns that are typically targeted at consumers using such a kind of a platform. Or you try to time out your new offerings or new launches or even new campaigns which you think may be really very big around big impact properties like IPL.
Read More: Parle-G: 85 years of being every Indians favourite chai-time snack