ICC World Cup 2015: A contest between top brands
As with many top sporting events, the
Cricket World Cup is an opportunity for top brands to fight their way to key
exposure. With over 1 billion viewers, it is no wonder that the Cricket World
Cup is a top target for advertisers, brands and media groups. If you are
wondering whether 1 billion viewers is a lot relative to other sporting events,
remember that the Super Bowl typically has around 115 million viewers.
A recent article in the Australian reminded
us that this phenomenon is not as new as we would think. In fact, back in 1996, Marqusee commented on what he described as the “subsuming
of individuals into corporate identities”. Marxist comments aside, 10 years later,
corporations are still fighting to align themselves with the world’s top
cricket players.
Who is winning the battle of the
sponsorship this year? Well Nike wins the battle of the brands in every domain
when it comes to sports. Back in 2005 they chose to sponsor the Indian team
exclusively. 10 years later, they have stuck to their guns and the iconic Nike
swoosh continues to be exposed proudly on their kit. As Forbes put it, even though India may not be
the favourite this year, they are still a brilliant choice because “no nation
is more cricket-crazy than India, making the team a veritable goldmine of
exposure for any associated brand”. This goes to show that the battle of the
brands is not solely based on the sporting abilities of the team; other factors
come into play such as the popularity of the sports in that country. In other
news, Adidas snapped up England and South Africa, whilst favourite, Australia,
was nabbed by Asics.
Beyond sponsorship, although brands have
been capitalizing on cricket since the 90’s, what Marqusee did not foresee is
the dominance of digital media. Indeed, this year, Facebook has added a
specific ad-targeting option so that advertisers can pay to reach an
audience of world cup cricket fans. This allows brands to tailor their messages
to more precisely than ever before. The Twitter hash tag CWC15 also allows
advertising to regroup conversations happening globally in order to better
understand what cricket fans want.
Despite the rise of social media
however, TV advertising continues to be a very important player. An Indian tech
publication valued the advertising slots during matches at around RS1200 to RS
1500 crore. They have predicted that these prices will rise even further for
the semi-final and final. This definitely goes to show that these are precious
slot on Indian TV and brands are willing to pay millions of rupees to captivate
the large audience watching.
Yet, another dimension of
battle of the brands is the fight between TV channels to cover the event or
gain exclusivity over a specific match. There was a lot of coverage around the
UK struggle between BT Sport and Sky Sports over the rights for the ICC’s major
tournaments. In the end, Sky Sports came out victor. For the exorbitant price
of approx $2.5 billion they were able to secure the rights to 18 major ICC
events between 2015 and 2023 (including the 2016 Cricket World Cup). This goes
to show that big TV outlets are projecting themselves years in advance when it
comes to budgeting for cricket coverage. This type of deal truly proves the
prestige and weight of the cricketing industry on a global level.
Lastly, it is no surprise that the Cricket World cup provides a very
important commercial platform for betting websites or any associated betting advice forums. At this time of the
year, top betting brands like William Hill, Ladbrokes and Betfair are all
competing to provide their members with the very best odds, deals and options.
Whilst bets on the outcome of each match are offered all year around, large
tournaments give more scope to niche wagers. For instance, bets can be placed
on the best bowlers or batters, the worst teams or the best team within each
group.
All in all, the Cricket World Cup 2015 provides a period of tremendous
opportunity for sports brands, social media platforms, TV outlets and betting
brands alike.
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South Africa lost the match first time against the Pakistan in World Cup. Hope they will performed better in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2015. The next interesting match is Australia VS Sri Lanka Match Prediction
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