Sangam Nayal, Associate Director, Dentsu Creative is a believer in CTV. “Why pay for HD channels when a better interactive experience can be done with digital streaming platforms?” he says. According to Nayal, in just the first weekend, the number of views for IPL on JioCinema has surpassed the total views for the entire IPL season on Disney+ Hotstar and the ICC World Cup 2022. In a chat with Storyboard18, Nayal talks about effectiveness of connected TV advertising during the IPL, reduction in wastage of ad spend and how watching Thala (his favourite) is way easier on digital platforms.
Excerpts
What has been the focus of digital adex during this IPL season?
IPL contributes over 80 percent to the AdEx in the cricket segment. With digital, the focus is on CTV for premium audiences and an incremental reach with handheld devices. The key difference in any premium brands’ budget split is 70 percent on CTV and 30 percent on targeted handheld.
Are advertisers seeing a good return on investment from their digital ad campaigns during the IPL?
Video views in the first weekend alone have eclipsed entire IPL season views on Disney+ Hotstar and ICC world cup 2022. Incremental reach was the selling point of JioCinema’s offering and brands have experienced that. For key matches, average concurrency has gone to 24 million (RCB vs CSK match). With semis and finals, reach numbers will further increase.
Have you seen a reduction in wastage of ad spend on digital platforms during the IPL?
With Hotstar, CTV buying was available with CPM and JioCinema is offering it on spot basis. As per our internal reports, CPM billed to us is 45 percent less as compared to the last IPL and ICC World Cup ’22 CTV buying. For handheld, targeting options to tap into premium audiences is better thus a less spill-over of impressions and monies.
As per market intel, declining viewership of IPL on HD TV has been a concern for many brands and most of it is shifting to CTV as consumers are upgrading to connected TVs to consume content as per their leisure, digitally.
Has the move towards free streaming of the IPL worked out for both advertisers and viewers?
As an advertiser, reach numbers are important while curating plans. For mass brands, the untargeted campaign has delivered incremental reach. For premium brands, reaching the CTV audience with 4K experience is 2.4X of the last big cricket tournament. As a viewer and Thala fan, I can switch to see helicopter shots even without a concern of being paid subscription or not on anyone’s device. Imagine you are at your friend’s place and Thala comes to bat, just switch on CTV and watch free 4K streaming without checking if the user has a subscription or not.
What are your views on the effectiveness of connected TV advertising during the IPL?
As of 26th April, 47.1 miilion viewers tuned in to watch IPL on JioCinema on CTV for first 2 weeks with an average time spent of 55-60 minutes. Numbers are 2.4x+ as compared to CTV numbers on Hotstar. For our client, TATA Passenger Electric Mobility, we recognized the importance of tapping into a large and affluent audience, which JioCinema’s CTV offering enabled us to do at a competitive cost. Early reports suggest that JioCinema has exceeded our viewership targets, which is an encouraging sign for our campaign’s effective reach. Moreover, CTV also offers innovations like shoppable ads, QR code ads and more that provide ways to measure consumer intent and potentially track the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
Do you believe that linear TV will remain as relevant in the coming years?
Digital is targetable, interactive with features. Success metrics of a campaign on digital is not based on sample sizing of small sets, it is measured with exact numbers. What HD or Linear TV can offer (Better Experience) is depleted by CTV offerings. As per market intel, declining viewership of IPL on HD TV has been a concern for many brands and most of it is shifting to CTV as consumers are upgrading to connected TVs to consume content as per their leisure, digitally. Thus, it’s a no-brainer that IPL will keep growing onto the digital medium with the shift happening from TV’s pie.