Digital Brands Advocate the Power of Sports on TV at e4m’s Pitch CMO Summit

The e4m Pitch CMO Summit-South saw an insightful session chaired by Yatin Balyan, Managing Partner, National Head of Media Investment, Omnicom Media Group India. The panel comprised Avi Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, IGP.com; Siddhesh Joglekar, Vice President, Marketing, BYJU’S; Sneha John, Director, Brand & Social, Swiggy; Tanveer Khan, GM, Brand Marketing, Dunzo; and Vinit Karnik, Head Sports, Esports and Entertainment, GroupM South Asia.

Balyan deep-dived into the discussion by asking Siddhesh Joglekar about his views on whether consuming content on large-screen results in better mind measures. “Absolutely. If you think of education as a category, the consumer is different from the customer. My consumer is the child and my customer is the parent. There are few occasions when the family comes together to enjoy something together and sports is one of them. So having a large screen, and family being together creates those conversations and moments for discovery that lead to trials, and engagement and that has been one of the drivers for BYJU’S for sure.”

Talking about how TV helps brands build categories and regimes of quick commerce, Tanveer Khan shared, “The first time we went national, we chose IPL as a medium for advertising on TV. When the family has to come together, sports is the only channel that every member of the family enjoys on the TV and the amount of reach it gives at a cost of impression is humongous. One of the most trusted mediums in India today is TV, and it also impacts your other campaigns holistically. Your other channels start giving you better conversion when people view your content on TV. Beyond short term uplifts and brand recall which sports on TV delivers, I think the medium drives a lot of brand conversations which is something brands are looking for.”

When asked about his experience associating with television from a business standpoint, Avi Kumar added, “We’ve been a regular at spending on TV and within TV, specifically sports. So far, sports has really worked for us. When you are seen on sports broadcast, there is a brand recall and brand love that starts to get created. Consumers start to search more for your brand. We are a digital-first brand, and you can almost measure on a ball-to-ball basis. There is a direct correlation in terms of the ad playing on TV and the traffic on the website, and that’s the proof of the pudding.”

On the mention of a YouGov Study, which shows 83% of people prefer Sports on a large screen TV and how advertisers look to leverage sports on TV, Vinit Karnik said, “It’s a no brainer, right? The experience of sports or any large format is best on TV. Brand objectives today are being aligned with an eye on sporting properties. As a brand if you’re looking at scale and consumer mind measures, cricket or sports on TV is the impact property for you.”

Bringing in a perspective from an industry which is quite different, Sneha John shed light on how Swiggy seamlessly integrated with IPL on TV. “For us, cricket was a serendipitous discovery back in 2017 and since then we’ve been on IPL every season. The most important observation I have about the success of the association with IPL on TV is the consistency and the long-term vision. Most of the brands that you do remember are brands that you’ve probably been seeing on IPL or on cricket, so consistency is the single most important factor.”