BENGALURU: The Indian cricketing economy continues to remain recession proof. Post the ban on real money gaming, it was looking at a hole but it’s on course to pass its first big test — ad rates for the group-stage encounter between India and Pakistan on Sunday as well as selling all available ad slots for the said game.
Over the last few years, advertisements around live coverage of cricket’s marquee properties were fronted by real money gaming firms. But their exit hasn’t affected the market. Media planners have told this daily that the broadcaster, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), has sold ‘all ad inventory for the India-Pakistan match’.
Ad inventory is basically the total space made available by the broadcaster to the advertisers to purchase. It’s expected that ad rates for the Sunday encounter has been sold for well over Rs 12 lakh for a 10 second slot. With there being the potential of two more matches between the rivals, the interest may only rise.
It also kind of paints a picture as there has been intermittent calls of boycotting the game (some Indian brands did actively become part of this post the Pahalgam tragedy in April). But that hasn’t translated into reality as some big companies have come on board.
“It’s all a question of visibility,” says Prahlad Kakkar, an advertising guru, whose commercials came to dominate the cricketing ad space in the nineties and naughts.
“It’s worth to pay Rs 20 lakh for a 10 second slot for a game between India and Pakistan because everybody is watching it,” he says. “Even your personal cabbie will take time off to watch it. People watch it because it becomes more than a game in their eyes.” Kakkar is of the opinion that this particular game has become bigger than the game because ‘of the sentiment involved’.