IPL 17 sees record 59% increase in ad categories, fuelling fierce brand competition

The Indian Premier League (IPL) remains a pivotal period for advertisers, as evidenced by recent data from TAM Sports for the first 31 matches of the season.

This year, IPL 17 experienced a significant 59% increase in the number of advertising categories compared to the previous season, with matches held between March 24 and April 16, 2024. The count of individual advertisers also rose by 38%, indicating intense competition among brands to capture viewer attention and engagement.

According to the report, television advertising during IPL 17 saw a 9% increase in ad volumes per channel compared to IPL 16. E-commerce gaming continued to dominate among the top five advertising categories with an 18% share, although this was slightly down by 1% from last year. Pan Masala saw a decrease of 5%, dropping to 10% and moving to third place behind ‘range of food products’ which captured an 11% share. Cell phones-smartphones and perfumes/deodorants each held a 4% share. Collectively, the top five categories represented 48% of this year’s ad volumes, down 10% from last year's 58%.

In terms of individual advertisers, Parle Products, debuting in the IPL this year, held the top spot for 15 matches with an 11% share. Sporta Technologies (Dream 11) led in the remaining 16 matches, accounting for 10% of the ad share. Together, the top five advertisers made up 37% of total ad volumes during the period.

Newcomers Parle Food Products, Grow, Fogg, Airtel Stream Fibre, and Upstox were among the top five new entrants. Sporta Technologies, Vishnu Packaging, and K P Pan Foods remained common top advertisers from both IPL 16 and IPL 17.

The season introduced 37 new categories and 94 new brands across the 31 matches. Among the top five new segments, e-com financial services and com-wallets were notable entries from the e-commerce sector.

Categories such as biscuits, cellular phone service, luggage, and moisturising lotions and creams, which were in the top five last year, did not appear in this year’s list.