The fact that India is a cricket crazy country is quite well-known. Indians’ love for cricket transcends all casts, borders, languages and induces a spirit of unity. The popularity of the sport, especially with respect to Indians, cannot be emphasized enough. The fact that the live coverage of ICC World Cup 2019 will be broadcasted to more than 1.5 billion people across the world is a testimony to the cricket’s strong audience pull. Cricket is like a lodestone that strongly attracts viewers’ attention – a scarce commodity for which brands compete. Thus, every brand looks forward to cricket tournaments in order to leverage its pull. Events like the ICC World Cup are, unquestionably, one of the most awaited advertising opportunities for brands.
Now, the best way to catch the eye of the audience is to reach them on the platforms they frequent the most. Traditionally, this criterion was best met by mediums like Television and Radio. But, with the technological advancements that have now made entertainment available on-the-go, digital mediums like video streaming platforms, OTTs, and cricket portals. have overtaken these traditional mediums, especially among the young viewers. Moreover, India’s increasing internet and mobile penetration have acted as a catalyst in shifting the viewers to digital viewing platforms.
As per a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar IMRB, India had about 500 million internet users, as of 2018. This trend is observed even in rural areas, where the number of internet users is 186 million. Even the millennials across tier II and III cities are watching the matches online over digital platforms. Thus, there is a steady rise in traffic and viewing times of sports inventories. The fact that Team India’s recent Australian tour was viewed for a total viewing time of more than 7 billion minutes, by a staggering 50 million viewers on SonyLIV. What can be a better opportunity for advertisers to fulfill their advertising objectives like increasing their brand visibility on the Internet?
However, the question is how will they reach the right TG? The audience is a mixed bag of viewers coming from various demographics, with linguistic diversity, different preferences and varied interests. It can be a challenge to pick out the right audience from this assortment of viewers flocking these digital platforms.These may include platforms like video streaming platforms, OTTs, and cricket portals. But the good news is, there exists a perfect solution for this – Programmatic advertising.
It is the right way for advertisers to reach only the relevant audience among the hordes of audiences that flock the video streaming apps and platforms. Programmatic advertising uses smart technologies to find the right target audiences for brands. Brands can leverage the advanced data-crunching capabilities of Data Management Platforms (DMPs) that analyze and process the data about these audiences to target the ones interested in sports, and especially in cricket. They also help in deciding the right channels and mediums that will work best for a specific audience segment. This way, programmatic advertising enables brands to reach out to the right viewers the right way and at the right time.
What’s more? It facilitates an omnichannel approach. This approach helps advertisers to reach out to their prospects present on multiple platforms. Use of cross-device targeting helps brands to reach out to the viewers that are using multiple devices to consume the cricket content. It also provides advertisers with granular campaign reports. This helps them to evaluate the performance data and they can further optimize their campaign strategy to get the maximum performance outputs.
Also, programmatic advertising facilitates displaying personalized ad copies for targeting and retargeting purposes. This helps in increasing CTR% and in better accomplishing the advertising KPIs. The programmatic technique of geo-targeting can be used to reach out to NRI cricket fans in countries that Indian brands would prefer to target. Brands can then effectively engage them and convey their brand messages by delivering communication relevant to these countries. Programmatic advertising is highly cost-effective and efficient. It enables advertisers to target only the relevant audience segments and thereby avoid burning their precious ad monies on unyielding ad impressions. This increases the effectiveness of the ad spends.
However, brands must be careful while selecting their programmatic platform in order to avoid problems like brand-safety and ad frauds. These problems can be hazardous for brands. A platform that provides complete transparency and has ad fraud detection and prevention mechanisms is a good choice to partner with.
Authored Article by Ashish Shah, Founder and CEO, Vertoz
