World Cup: L’Oreal , Reckitt & Dabur refuse to pitch in with ads as women prefer IPL

NEW DELHI: The country’s most glamorous sporting extravaganza, the Indian Premier League (IPL), seems to have stolen the show from the ICC World Cup, with big advertisers, mainly consumer goods companies that target women, opting for the homegrown tournament, giving the international sporting event a go-by. “The IPL is entertainment while the World Cup is cricket.

Both tournaments are back-to-back. Women-centric brands are choosing the IPL, which fits in more with the general entertainment genre,” R Gowthaman, South Asia leader of India’s largest media buying agency, Mindshare, said. The agency buys media for Hindustan Unilever, PepsiCo and GlaxoSmithKline. While top consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever (HUL), which heads the advertisement charts, is in discussions with ESPN STAR Sports, the official broadcaster of the World Cup, for advertisement spots, others like P&G, L’Oreal, Marico, Reckitt Benckiser and Dabur are giving it a miss altogether.

"Even if HUL decides to advertise in the World Cup, it would be minimal,'' said a person close to the development.
HUL declined to comment. L’Oreal, the maker of Maybelline lipstick and Garnier shampoo, said it had no advertisement plans for the World Cup. “But for the first time we will be associated with the IPL as an associate sponsor.

We are launching campaigns for both Garnier and L'Oreal Paris during the IPL because it has a guaranteed viewership, which is universal in terms of gender,” Vismay Sharma, director of L'Oreal India’s consumer products division , said. A spokeswoman for Reckitt Benckiser India said: “Since women are our core target audience, and cricket is an expensive buy, we are not planning anything special as of now.”

Advertising target met

Marico’s consumer products marketing head Sameer Satpathy said: “We are not advertising in World Cup because our brands target mainly women. But we will decide on whether or not to advertise on IPL closer to the tournament.” Data from viewership rating agency TAM India shows women accounted for 36% of those who watched the first two seasons of the IPL. And last year (season three), their share of the pie grew another 2%.

However, the absence of these names has not affected the advertisement target for ESPN. “We have sold out almost all our inventory and achieved our targets. The telecast of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 on ESPN STAR Sports network and DD has attracted close to 70 advertisers,'' a spokesman for ESPN STAR Sports said. The list of clients targeting female audiences included Cadburys, Whirlpool, Nestle and Kent RO, he added.

Other sponsors like ITC and Parle Products are advertising on Doordarshan, the national broadcaster, which will have to share 75% of its World Cup revenues with ESPN. For IPL, which kicks off in April, Godrej Consumer Products, L’Oreal and Cadbury have signed up as associate sponsors, while Johnson & Johnson, ITC and Parle have bought spots for the tournament.

“Women and youth are the two categories that have increased viewership for the IPL and a wide variety of brands have come in to reach out to such categories,” said Rohit Gupta, president of network sales at MSM India, the owner of IPL’s official broadcaster, SET Max. Media buying officials, however, say that many FMCG and women-centric brands end up advertising on Doordarshan (DD), even if they don't on satellite channels.

“Homes with access only to DD are usually single-channel households, so the entire family ends up watching the same channel. Besides, male influences on purchase of FMCG products is also higher in such homes,” Punitha Arumugam, group CEO of Madison Media, said. Sanjoy Chakrabarty, CEO of Dentsu Media, said the entertainment factor was attracting more family as well as women viewers.