As marketers rush to cash in on captive eyeballs during the ICC Cricket World Cup, they are stumped by many ad campaigns that fail to pass muster and face viewers’ ire on social media
By Saloni dutta
If there are 288 million eyeballs glued to a single event on Television, you don’t need another clue to guess that it would be an India-Pakistan clash in World Cup cricket. On February 15, 2015 the much awaited game between the two cricket crazy nations took place and yet again proved the supremacy of cricket over any other sport or event in the sub-continent. The ICC Cricket World Cup, 2015 is more than two weeks old and Team India’s superb performance has led fans to watch the matches with keen interest, hoping to make #won’tgiveitback come true, while advertisers rush to cash in on captive eyeballs and make the most of advertising on the platform.
But there’s a sub-plot here: The World Cup is comparable to the Super Bowl. But while marketers prepare for the Super Bowl and come out with the best creative ads to gain maximum eyeballs during the game, Indian marketers have done just the opposite. They are not going to remember this World Cup for the best marketing campaigns. Barring a few, most of the advertising campaigns aired are being rated below average and till now have failed to make a mark. For example, the Ranbir Kapoor Lay’s ad was dubbed ‘tasteless’, even as Dettol went one step ahead with its mindless jingle and trended for all the wrong reasons. The senseless jingle of ‘Dettol Dettol Ho’ and the timing of the ad during the final moments of the game was enough to kill it on Twitter.
THERE ARE SOME Match Winners too!
Not to start this mid-tournament campaign review with bad campaigns, let’s pick up the most talked about campaign of this World Cup – ‘Mauka Mauka’. The India-Pak match, which doesn’t really need promotion and would have generated big viewership in any case, the campaign to promote the India-Pakistan match, somewhat bullying Pakistan’s 0-5 scoreline in World Cups, went viral with over 17 million views online and the Pakistani fan featured in this particular ad is now being seen after every match, just waiting to see India lose any battle with any team.
Pidilite rose to the occasion and rolled out Fevikwik’s new campaign ‘Todo Nahi Jodo’ right when Star’s ‘Mauka’ campaign had disrupted the cricket fever, by attempting to symbolically present Fevikwik’s power to glue anything and everything together (read Indo-Pak relations). Ogilvy managed to make a mark with this ad. One more campaign in the list would be Nike’s digital ad with Tennis Superstar Roger Federer’s picture under #bleedblue, which went viral on social media.
Brands which opted to remain the ‘12th Man’
Pepsi, an associate sponsor for this year’s World Cup, has deliberately sidelined its presence, making a mockery of an estimated investment of Rs 35 crore for the tournament’s global sponsorship. It is letting go an opportunity to promote the brand and its products for the upcoming summer season. Probably, PepsiCo suffered creative constipation and the brand is not seen to be doing anything apart from serving drinks on the ground. Their snack brand Lay’s did try to break through with a campaign and an official snack partner tagline, which is hardly appreciated. Another prime advertiser during World Cups, Coca Cola, too has refrained from actively participating in this World Cup. Both these cola giants did remarkably well with their campaigns in the 2011 edition of the World Cup and experts believe that the reason why they are not active now may be because they are saving their funds for the Indian Premiere League (IPL) that begins just six days post the World Cup final. They also believe that the IPL falls in their season of spends when the Indian summer sets in.
Poor Homework can cause a showdown
While there were as many as 19 brands shouting in sync during the India-Pakistan match, they ended up not really registering, but just making noise. To name a few, Dettol’s ‘Dettol Dettol Ho’, Idea’s IIN campaign, Airtel’s My Plan, Saavn with Ranbir Kapoor, Yepme’s ad with Shah Rukh Khan, Lloyd AC ad with Shruti Hasan, etc., were just not good enough to break the clutter amidst so many other mediocre efforts. There is massive chatter on social media about how these campaigns were epic failures for the brands. For some brands, they failed to the extent that they nullify all the good or great advertising done by the brand in the past.
IF ROI BECOMES Rest in Peace (RIP)
The broadcaster Star Sports is looking at the ICC Cricket World Cup to bring in a lot of revenue through brand sponsorship. It has raised the bar of the tournament by broadcasting it in six languages and also raised the ad rates, according to media planners. Ad rates have increased by 50% since the last World Cup to an estimated Rs 5 lakh per 10 second spot. Even as ad rates are sky-rocketing, this year’s ads, so far, haven’t managed to create much of an impact.
Even though it seems too late for brands to plan up a fizzy campaign now, it may not surprise us if any brand rolls out a disruptive campaign towards the later half and much more thrilling part of the tournament. But as a mid-tournament report, the status is disheartening as far as marketing is concerned. So far, brands advertising during the World Cup broadcast have been spending between Rs 5 to Rs 25 lakh for a spot and most of them appear to just get lost in the crowd without impressing the audience outside the game of cricket. RB’s Dettol’s ad was an epic example of ‘what not to do’ during a tournament like World Cup and if you are wondering what was that ad, this is how it proved to be a sheer waste of expensive spots during CWC.
The World Cup has never looked so dull during the commercial breaks and is very likely to leave a sour taste when brands finally sit to review their efforts and investments in it.
ALL EYES ON DIGITAL REVENUES
Star Sports’ preparations to hook up the audience is paying off well and despite the tournament being held miles away in Australia, its odd timings are compensated well with multiple platforms to bring back the action as and when the viewer demands. For the first time, a mega sporting event is being broadcast in Hindi and six other regional channels and Star’s effort to bridge the interest of non-English speaking audience is paying well as the India-Pakistan game received 76% of the viewership from Hindi and regional feeds and the balance 24% from English, validating the multi-lingual strategy adopted this year. Star’s efforts to bring together match information in multiple languages and on multiple platforms was not just to be available for the audience, but also to generate revenue from each of these platforms, which is certainly living up to their expectations. However, the exact figures of the revenue generated will be out only after the end of the tournament and the newbie in the form of digital revenues generated certainly look to be at par with expectations. The India-Pakistan match created global history by recording more than 25 million views on Star’s digital platforms- the highest ever for a sports event on a single day across the world.
‘BELOW PAR ADVERTISING’
Nothing inspiring, in fact below par advertising in the World Cup. and if am permitted to say, some have been downright irritating. Interestingly, comments on social media platforms seem to suggest that viewers feel the same way. And strongly!
We don't even have to go outside the country to FIFA and Super Bowl to compare. We have in the past World Cups seen some great work. We had 'Change the Game' from Pepsi and the Nike commercial in the last World Cup along with the commercial done for ICC ('Tightrope)'to promote the World Cup itself.
The one I have loved this time around is the Star Sports India-Pak 'Mauka' and the continuing series of the same idea; jingoistic and engaging. I also liked Fevikwik, that used the aperture of India-Pak very well.
With so many other below average ads being played, that's a lot of marketers’ money down the drain and more importantly, what an opportunity lost to engage with millions!!!
Navin Talreja,
President, Mumbai & Kolkata, O&M Advertising
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
