In July 2009, Tour de France became the first sporting event to be streamed online in its entirety. The event helped online sports network Versus gather more than 26 million page views in the month it was streamed online.
Google India is hoping to collect at least 10 million unique viewers and around 40 million cumulative hits from the 60-match Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament set to kick off this Friday.
Marketeers in the country are stitching sponsorship deals with Google India for IPL’s third part. Besides Hewlett-Packard, the lead sponsor, Google has signed deals with five more brands — Samsung, HSBC, Royal Challenge, Airtel, and Coca Cola. The company is eyeing another four sponsors.
Narsimha Jaikumar, Business Head, Google India, said: “From the digital point of view IPL provides a perfect opportunity for marketeers as the event goes on for many days. IPL emerges as a game-changer for digital advertising in India as brands can reach out to a specific target audience. We have already surpassed the revenue targets we set.”
Media agencies indicate the deals are substantial considering the annual digital ad spends are low (but growing) in India. An analyst claims the lead sponsor would be spending close to Rs 5 crore for the 60-day property. Other sponsors may spend a little less.
{{/usCountry}}Media agencies indicate the deals are substantial considering the annual digital ad spends are low (but growing) in India. An analyst claims the lead sponsor would be spending close to Rs 5 crore for the 60-day property. Other sponsors may spend a little less.
{{/usCountry}}A spokesperson from Samsung India, the latest to sign up, said: “The activity is oriented to promote the colour television category specifically. The Youtube-IPL deal gives an opportunity to catch up with the viewer who missed the match on television or multiplex screenings.”
Anand Singh, Marketing Director (Colas), Coca-Cola India, said, “We are simply following last year’s Google statistics which claims cricket was the most searched terms. IPL is definitely a good window and an attractive and property to target our audience – the youth.”
Sponsors’ ads will appear throughout the 60-match tournament, across several ad formats, including pre-roll and mid-roll ads, YouTube homepage ads, and banner ads next to the live player and on video watch pages.
Royal Challenger’s IPL team will take the spotlight during the final match of the tournament, and HSBC India and HP India will cover the semi-finals. Ads from sponsors will appear in all countries where YouTube is available except the United Kingdom. Sponsors ads will also be featured on the IPL-branded Orkut community page, which will host team and player interviews, contests and match polls to engage fans and audiences.