Cricket as a sport means a lot to the people of South Asia
Lahore (Pakistan Point News - 15th Oct, 2021) Cricket as a sport means a lot to the people of South Asia. Especially the sentiments and emotions attached to the sport, holistically speaking. Cricketers hailing from this region almost have a celebrity-like status and their die-hard fan-followings are only to be marveled at. However, this is exactly what gets marketers to put their thinking caps on and brainstorm their branding and marketing strategies around this sport in this day and age more than ever before.
The year 2020 witnessed a commendable amount of investment going into advertisements revolving around cricket. In India, research shows 12% of the spending for television ads being dedicated to cricket events alone.
Indian Premier League, Big Bash, and Pakistan Super League are the big names that come to mind when talking about some of the most known cricket events of this region. All of them are heavily sponsored by big brand names such as Pepsi, Ford, Nike, Coca-Cola, HBL, OPPO, and the likes.
Traditionally, we have seen great benefits for these brands in terms of in-stadium branding and sponsorships with targeted advertising but now we must evaluate the digital aspect of these sponsorships as well.
Due to the dynamic nature of the digital marketing landscape and the increased influence, it has in today’s world, numerous opportunities for sports sponsorships have sprung up for these brands to take hold of through social media platforms and more.
These live mega sports events are the highlights of the year for most people who are heavily and emotionally invested in the sport. Thus, they bring exceptional attention and audience to these brands to cash in on. The lengths to which fans will go to support their favorite teams is an opportunity that is bound to benefit brands if utilized correctly.
Due to Covid-19, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be witnessing a more restricted spectator turn-out due to the strict social distancing rules that need to be followed. But this is the exact reason why more digital platforms have started investing in rights for T20 Live Streaming and with this boost in streaming services for the consumption of entertainment and sports, comes an even bigger audience for these brands to take a hold of in the wider digital space.
While brands took time to adjust to this new playing field, they’re now realizing that with the latest technology in hand, monitoring and quantifying their reach and branding results have become even more feasible. Now that they are able to track and measure their impact, this gives brands even more insight into where they should allocate their spending and investments.
Due to increased digital activity post-lockdown, the amount of media and digital content that is uploaded onto the internet has picked up an even faster pace. But tracking user engagement has become easier and has shown to be greatly beneficial for all brands concerned. In order to facilitate the need for providing evidence of ROI as a follow-up and supporting argument for your branding strategies, the need of data and its tracking has proved to become even more relevant.
However, this doesn’t take away from the need to understand your audience both geographically and demographically along with evaluating their other attributes even in a space such as this one. In today’s social media environment where pay-to-play strategies are prevalent, this still remains as relevant as always.
Primarily, the brand focuses on getting its name out there and being seen with as many people from the relevant audience as possible while being associated with all the right nuances and notions. Advertising, marketing, sponsorships; that is all the brand is about.
Now that the ICC T20 World Cup is fast approaching, all brands have their eyes on the event thinking of ways they can effectively target the enthusiastic fans of the sport. By associating the brand with the values and emotions the South Asian cricket fan experience comes with, this is a great opportunity to shape the consumer’s perception and brand optimism.
The biggest challenge that these brands will surely be facing is how their strategies revolving around these cricket events can bring the value they’re looking for.
A splendid example of this would be how Daraz (Alibaba Group) has recently benefitted from the sports marketing tactic and joined the industry, garnering sports sponsorships that will help it to effectively bring together its users on its platform.
Another great example of when the brand took the opportunity of such an event previously was during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as part of Alibaba Group’s worldwide partnership. Through this partnership, they aimed to deliver the dreams of local Olympians in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
A more recent event would pertain to when Daraz Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh strategically partnered with their respective local cricket boards to step into the world of sports branding. To further solidify that step, Daraz Pakistan is now the exclusive live cricket streaming partner for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for this 2021 edition.
The tournament is going to run from the 17th of October until the 14th of November and will feature a whopping total of 45 matches. The event this year will be hosted by the two co-hosts Oman and the UAE.
The matches will all be live-streamed on the Daraz App. During this livestreaming event, advertisers in Pakistan can benefit from the opportunity and will be able to advertise during the livestream. On the app, people can also view complete T20 WC 2021 schedule along with news about T20 World Cup 2021.
With the biggest online and digital audience in Pakistan, all advertisers have the chance to expose their brands to millions of people in ways they haven’t before.
