BE BOLD: Riding the IPL Wave

Context

A leading global FMCG brand, and a category leader, faced a steady threat from fast-growing home-grown competitors. Alongside planned media investment through the year, the brand needed new ways to stay top of mind.

Solution

The Indian Premier League, or IPL, India's biggest cricket tournament and roughly comparable in scale and cultural weight to the English Premier League in the UK, had just started streaming online as internet access and connectivity grew. Advertisers typically wait before committing to a new media property, even an established one, until its digital version proves itself. I made the case to move early instead, to secure better rates and stronger deliverables while the inventory was still undervalued. We matched a specific product variant to the online-streaming audience, worked closely with the creative team to build assets tailored to the property, and timed the brand's message to appear every time a four was scored, one of the most-watched moments in the match, occurring roughly 25 to 40 times a game.

Results

The campaign delivered 5x the estimated impressions. Because buying wasn't on a CPM basis, higher live viewership and more fours meant the effective cost came in roughly 5x cheaper than planned, with reach and other metrics ahead of target too. The client's brand tracking also showed a positive lift, and the result gave them confidence to keep investing in the property in later years.

My role

I led the media property assessment, negotiation, client presentation, execution, reporting and evaluation, as the person responsible for media strategy, planning and buying on the account.

My take

This opened the door to treating properties like this as part of an integrated strategy rather than a one-off tactical buy. It's also a good reminder that being early on an unproven channel is a real strategic call, not just a media-buying decision.