One of India’s biggest e-sports and mobile gaming sites, the Mobile Premier League (MPL) has roped in YouTube influencer Amit Bhadana as its brand ambassador.
The company revealed the growth in a statement that “MPL is focusing on YouTube to increase its brand awareness as it recently crossed 1.2 million subscribers on its channel.” Bhadana happens to be one of the largest Youtube stars in India with nearly 22 million followers.
He has also been associated with MPL for a while, having featured the company on the video-sharing platform in many of his sketches.
MPL has also taken other YouTubers like Ashish Chanchlani and Elvish Yadav on board to launch marketing campaigns alongside Bhadana. MPL had previously partnered with Virat Kohli and actor Tamannaah Bhatia and is now looking to raise the presence of young digital influencers and expand the customer base.
“YouTube is a big focus area for our branding initiatives. A large part of our target group is active on YouTube, we have seen good traction on our app via the channel,” said Abhishek Madhavan, MPL’s senior VP, growth, and marketing.
India tops the list of the largest global markets for mobile game downloads in the first nine months of 2020, with Indians having downloaded 7.3 billion games, according to the data revealed by Sensor Tower – an application intelligence company. Nearly 17 percent of all global downloads account for this number.
New guidelines concerning the Indian gaming industry were released by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) advertisement industry body earlier this month. The new legislation notes that gaming advertising should not show individuals under the age of 18 playing online games for monetary prizes.
ASCI includes disclaimers for games of this kind, cautioning players about elements of financial risks and the general addictive nature of games; advertising using the audio-visual mix would have to match the disclaimers with both voice and text.
The guidelines, effective from 15 December, also add that the advertisements should not demonstrate that games with monetary incentives are an opportunity for jobs and serve as a replacement for professions.
Recently, Another fantasy gaming website Faboom has named Bhuvan Bam, India’s biggest YouTube star, as its brand ambassador.
With the digital revolution becoming bigger, we are seeing a certain shift in brand endorsements. Brands have moved ahead from movie stars, cricketers, and other celebrities, they are looking for familiar faces that will help them in growing their youth connect.
