Star India signs up 35 advertisers for ICC World Cup, targets over Rs 1,000 crore in ad sales

MUMBAI: With less than a month to go for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, media rights holder Star India has signed 35 advertisers and sold almost 60% of the total ad inventory already.

Those who have come on board include PhonePe and Havells (co-presenting sponsors); Byju’s, MRF, policybazaar.com, paisabazaar.com, Amazon, Royal Stag, and Dream11 (associate sponsors); and Uber, Pernod Ricard, Mondelez, Acko General Insurance and Ceat Tyres, among others, across TV and digital platforms.

Sources in Star India told ET that the company is hopeful of selling 90% of the overall inventory by mid of this month and rest of it will be kept for last minute spot buyers.


“The momentum into World Cup is very positive and the market feedback is very good. One month in advance, we have 35 clients. This is going to be our biggest World Cup,” said a senior Star India executive, who did not wish to be named.

Star India will launch its marketing campaign for the World Cup on May 5, during the ongoing Indian Premier League, to build excitement. The broadcaster is also planning to launch Marathi sports channel ahead of the World Cup.

Some media experts feel that it is the power of cricket, which has helped Star India sell inventory much in advance in a difficult year.
They feel the broadcaster will be able to earn about Rs 1,000 crore in ad revenues from the tournament. Also, the fact that the tournament will have 50% more India matches, compared with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, has helped generate greater interest.

Moreover, most of the matches will be in the primetime, thanks to the time difference with the host country England.

Anand Chakravarthy, managing director at Essence India, a GroupM company, feels that the interest level among advertisers for the World Cup is high and there’s no question whether it is a great property for brands looking to create some impact.

“It’s a high impact property, which should be used by the brands for not just short term gains but build long term equity,” Chakravarthy said. “World Cup, a once in four year event, is the holy grail of cricket, and therefore one of the most mass entertainment opportunities in India. Cricket cuts across and is completely geo-agnostic.”

Scheduled to be played from May 30 to July 14, the World Cup will be hosted in England this year. The one-and-a-half month tournament will see 10 nations playing for the most coveted trophy in the world of cricket.

Also, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has changed the format of the World Cup to round robin after a gap of 27 years. And with round robin format, all the teams will be playing at least one match with each other, which will make India play a minimum of nine games, with a high probability of making it to the semifinals.