The power of soft PR: IPL 2025 shows the way

The Indian Premiere League (IPL) has become one of the world’s largest marketing ecosystems. According to data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), it attracted more than 25.50 crore TV viewers during the season's opening weekend.

Moreover, Media Partners Asia estimated that ad revenues reached $600 million, showing a 50% growth from the previous year, through consolidated media rights and deeper brand integration. With that kind of scale, noise is expected—blockbuster spends, hyper-curated influencer rollouts, and every brand elbowing for space.

But look closer, and you will see something else at play this season—IPL teams are showing us that not every win needs a hard sell. The soft approach is working harder than ever.

Soft PR isn’t about headlines or hashtags. It is the art of earning trust through emotional relevance, cultural fluency, and storytelling that feels personal rather than promotional.

While soft PR is not a novel concept, its presence further gets lost amid the current marketing landscape that favours virality and high volume. It is not about visibility at all costs but shaping perception without dominating timelines. It involves creating emotional real estate spaces.

These spaces allow fans to feel heard while being appreciated and acknowledged. While the majority of the brands are struggling to do that consistently, IPL teams have managed to establish this standard quietly.

Building memory over momentum

Look at the Rajasthan Royals (RR). Its strategy this season has been quieter than usual—no flash-and-dash product launches. Where most brands typically dominate timelines with scripted content, RR showed a quieter approach that featured fan-made videos and AI-driven personalised content alongside behind-the-scenes stories that appeared unscripted. Its storytelling approach focuses on creating lasting memories instead of going viral, and that’s how soft PR gets it right.

Its approach transformed fan involvement into genuine ownership by making fans active participants in content creation instead of passive spectators. The message is clear: to earn sustained brand love, you need to stop pushing narratives. Start building them together.

Letting culture lead the communication

Great soft PR does not always require loud or quirky elements. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) during its ‘Unbox 2025’ event, partnered with regional artists and creators. It shifted its focus from celebrity endorsements to highlighting fan-created chants and street art along with hyperlocal digital narratives. The campaign integrated traditional folk music with the RCB anthem through local musicians, which achieved widespread popularity across different regions.

The campaign never felt like a publicity stunt or PR gimmick; rather, it felt like a cultural nod. In a country where hyper-regional fandom is growing stronger, this was less about marketing and more about mutual respect. This showed that the team’s involvement with Bengaluru extended beyond playing for the city.

Focusing on design moments—not marketing

Also, consider the success of the superhero-style installations for Mumbai Indians (MI). The element that made these installations successful wasn’t their scale or the presence of a well-known figure. It was the setting.

Fans are not anticipating any campaign to meet their stars when they arrive at the airport. The experience becomes something special when it happens without the noise of ‘offers or hashtags’. It becomes a moment.

Soft PR leans into those in-between spaces—the non-campaign campaigns. The unexpected touchpoints don’t push any products but still create lasting emotional experiences. People continue to post about and discuss these moments long after the advertisement has vanished from their social media feeds.

Relatability overreach

This season’s influencer mix is telling. High-profile names persist in the industry, yet raw and unpolished content by creators now produces the most impactful content.

These creators are authentic and genuine while being deeply integrated into fan communities. And they are not amplifying a message—they are the message.

Fans recognise content when they see a vlogger traveling with their team across multiple cities or a comedian making humorous comments about match-day mistakes. There is no corporate sheen.

Because of that, it works. Brands chasing reach need to understand that relatability represents today’s most valuable source of influence.

Behind the silence

Here is where the best soft PR gets right: not everything needs a press release. Not every campaign needs to be announced. The best communication earns attention through its purposeful design, not a megaphone.

With their unique approach, IPL teams are demonstrating that they are ahead of the current trends. They are building brand equity through methods that do not depend on high output volumes. Their narratives feature fans as central characters instead of positioning them as products. Their strategies demonstrate that you can maintain strategic focus without excessive noise.

At the same time, they can convey emotion without manipulation alongside commercial efforts that respect cultural sensitivities.

If there is one lesson for communicators watching this IPL season unfold, it is this: Hijacking a moment isn’t necessary to establish its ownership. People take notice when stories maintain honesty and genuine emotions and when the brand doesn’t dominate but simply shows up—people notice.

Soft PR is the foundation and should not be the backup plan. It builds brand love when the campaigns have ended, when the scores are forgotten, and when the only thing left is how you made someone feel.

— Santosh Chandrashekar, senior account director, Star Squared PR.