With increasing tension and worsening political ties between India and Pakistan earlier this year, there is a great level of hype and excitement surrounding Sunday’s world cup match between India and Pakistan. The fact that both teams don’t play bilateral cricket matches makes their ICC event game a huge event.
Star Sports, the official broadcaster for the World Cup has prepared itself to mint maximum advertisement revenue out of the much-awaited encounter. According to media buyers, the broadcaster has inflated its 10-second advertisement costs to around 25 lakhs, up from the 16-18 lakh per 10-second figure that it is charging for bundled packages (including television and Hotstar) for other matches involving India.
Star has previously been very aggressive in gaining Broadcaster rights for both IPL games and BCCI matches. The broadcaster is enjoying a clear monopoly in terms of cricket coverage in the country. With an inventory of about 5500 seconds, Star is hoping to earn a revenue of about Rs.100 crore from the India – Pakistan game alone, according to two media buyers requesting anonymity.
Star has signed up contracts with many big brands for World Cup advertisements such as PhonePe, OnePlus, Havells, Amazon, Dream11, MRF Tyres, Coca-Cola, Uber and Mondelez.
“The inventory on World Cup was being sold as packages, which included all matches (India and non-India) customized as per brand requirements/outlays available. There may not be a whole lot of inventory available to be sold on India-Pakistan matches and whatever little unsold inventory that is left may go at 40- 50% hike on the current rates,” said Vinita Pachisia, senior vice-president at Carat India, a Dentsu Aegis Network-owned media agency.
Both countries have come up aggressive advertisements in the buildup of the big match. Star has carried on their viral ‘mauka-mauka’ campaign from the 2015 world cup, and has chosen to take a dig at Pakistan with an in your face Father’s day theme, referring to India as the father. Pakistan, isn’t much behind on building up to the game, their channel Jazz TV has used a character impersonation of Indian wing-commander Abhinandan in their ad proclaiming that the world cup is Pakistan’s this time. Both sides are have grasped the opportunity of targeting people’s sentiments and using the political tension between the two countries to their advantage in the lead up to the match.
“While there will definitely be more eyeballs and more impact for this match compared to the other matches, the RoI (return on investment) may not be as effective as the rates are much higher than the usual rates on any India series,” added Carat’s Pachisia.
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