Experts Speak: Digital spends double during Cricket World Cup 2023, surpassing estimates

The third quarter of 2023 has seen a double dhamaka. The festive season collided with India’s other big festival – the Cricket World Cup (CWC). The ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 saw India winning 10 matches, and according to the ICC, the tournament set a new record with over 1.25 million fans attending the matches in stadiums. 

Ashish Bhasin, Founder of The Bhasin Consulting Group, said, “Festive season is an important period for India. 40 to 45% of the annual spends happens between Ganpati and New Year in India. And then having the World Cup also fall into that period was fantastic and it's done well for most mediums.”

Navin Kathuria, Executive VP of Integrated Media, DDB Mudra Group, said, “Festive is a time when consumer spending sentiments are high, and because this year World Cup knocked heads with the season, ad spends have seen a growth of 20-15%. Additionally, the World Cup contributed to around 12-15% of this festive [period].”

According to Karan Taurani, Sr. VP of Elara Capital, CWC 2023 has led to a boost in consumption, as the tournament created a world record of 59 million concurrent viewers on the Disney+ Hotstar platform during the finals between Australia and India. Additionally, India matches garnered 29 million concurrent viewers, surpassing any other tournament on digital, witnessing 5x more viewers than non-India matches. 

He said, “As CWC 2023 had a larger target audience on top of India’s spectacular performance and the content being offered on OTT platforms, India matches on Disney+Hotstar were able to attract the highest CPM (cost per mile) ever at ~400-450, which is a 20-25% more than IPL.” 

Digital wins the media match

This year, brands heavily relied on digital channels to communicate with the audience. Social Media had a big role to play with moment marketing and topical spots dominating the World Cup advertising tactics. Brands like Zomato, Swiggy and Myntra took to social media to share topical brand creatives to weave a story this WCW season. This shift wasn’t just visible to consumers, but experts shared the same viewpoint. 

Comparing 2023 with 2019, Taurani said that CWC ad spends on digital doubled this year while TV saw a rise of 25%. He said, “The tournament in total has been able to garner ad spend of INR 22-23bn (TV and digital), slightly ahead of our estimates of INR 20-22bn. India’s ad expenditure will see a positive impact of ~2.5% in CY23, led by strong spend on the back of CWC 2023.”

Bhasin saw CWC media patterns panning out in line with his expectations. Bhasin mentioned he expected digital witnessing the maximum growth. He said, “Digital viewership was the highest it has ever been during this World Cup season.” 

Although digital saw high growth this year, some experts believe that TV and other mediums still took the lion’s share. Kathuria said, “As far as the growth rate is concerned, digital saw the biggest jump. But in terms of absolute ad revenue, TV stole the show and gained the maximum.”

On-ground activations played a huge part in conversing with the regional audience and attracting larger crowds to TV/mobile screens and stadiums. 

Bhasin thinks that in India, it is never just TV or digital, but TV and digital. He said, “It's not just the TV and the digital spend that goes up, print, and OOH benefit during this season as well. There's a lot of on-ground promotion which actually doesn't get captured and the overall larger picture of the advertising industry is missed in the reported media.”

According to Taurani, CWC 2023 also has been able to boost consumption in the food delivery segment. Due to the positive impact of CWC and the festive season, the food delivery app Zomato has set a 25-30% YoY growth in GOV for the food delivery business in Q3FY24. The delivery app also saw a ~8-10% higher growth in Q3 on the back of CWC and a surge in delivery orders, during India matches.

Zomato was one of the most active new-age brands on the marketing front during CWC 2023. Its campaign resonated with consumers and experts, standing out in the clutter. 

This World Cup also saw 40+ new categories and 150+ new brands advertising in the first 15 matches, according to a TAM report. Perfumes/Deodorant, Cars, E-commerce Gaming, Aerated Soft drinks and E-commerce wallets were the top five categories taking a total of 33% shares in ads. 

Compared to a slow and underwhelming H1, a fruitful festive and World Cup season has sparked optimism among experts in the advertising industry. Kutharia concluded by saying, “Cricket World Cup is a celebration for the country. Broadcasters this year saw an increase in footfalls. Similarly, ad revenues for the entire industry increased. Thus, I would say The World Cup was a win-win situation for broadcasters, advertisers and audiences alike.”