In the run-up to a major cricket tournament, sport in India spills well beyond stadiums and television screens. Shopping malls host trophy displays, brands invite fans to participate in contests, and digital touchpoints extend match moments into everyday life. Sport is no longer a fixed broadcast experience. It has become something audiences step into and move through. A world they continue to inhabit long after the match has ended.
At the surface, this reflects a visible change in sports marketing—from logo-heavy sponsorships to experiential activations. But is it merely a change in format? Or does it reveal how brands have come to view sport itself?
For years, sponsorship success was measured by reach, frequency, and prominence. Jerseys, perimeter boards, and title integrations formed the backbone of value. Those assets have not disappeared, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. With ever-evolving fan behaviour, brands are now compelled to think beyond being seen—towards being felt.
Virat Khullar, Head of Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Limited, positions this shift within a broader lifestyle transformation, where sport sits alongside shared experiences rather than isolated media consumption. He explains, “At one point in time, marketers used to look at top-level reach by integrating brands into sport programming. But now, we find consumers living through experiences– concerts, drives, travels and so on. At Hyundai, we have launched a 360-degree programme that pushes past logo integration to create a surround experience, which further enables people to live what the brand stands for.”
Hyundai’s Trophy Connect programme puts this thinking into practice. As part of its global Premier Partnership with the International Cricket Council, Hyundai is taking the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 trophy on a multi-city showcase tour, giving fans a chance to view the trophy up close, participate in VR cricket games and themed fan-zone activities, and explore displayed Hyundai vehicles. Spread across malls, showrooms, connected TV households, radio, and social media, it treats the tournament as a multi-month, immersive fan-marketing engagement rather than a match-day moment. Khullar highlights that this has changed how the brand internally evaluates success, with KPIs tracked across the funnel—from reach and sentiment to test drives and dealership impact—underscoring the business accountability of experiential sponsorships.
While brands are designing richer experiences, what’s pushing them in this direction? The answer lies partly in how sport itself functions in India. Kaushik Chakraborty, Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications, Tata Capital, says logo-led presence feels insufficient for cricket for it is a shared cultural voice. “India is a cricketing nation. The game is worshipped, played in neighbourhoods, and viewed across geographies and formats, making it a powerful cultural connector. As the game evolves beyond stadiums, it has become imperative for brands to move beyond logo-led sponsorships towards partnerships that aid storytelling, fan experiences, and sustained engagement,” he expresses.
At Tata Capital, this thought has led to a continuous association with the TATA Women’s Premier League (WPL) and a partnership with Shubman Gill, topped up with fan-first activations like the Tata Capital Fan Box and interactive social media campaigns. Chakraborty, while referring to the campaigns, also explains that success for such activations and partnerships is not assessed through immediate reach anymore. It’s evaluated through cultural relevance and consistency across cycles—metrics that require marketing, media, and data teams to work in close alignment.
If the ‘why’ behind this shift is rooted in culture, the ‘how’ lies in the way sponsorships are now planned and sold behind the scenes. The evolution did not happen overnight.
Bhairav Shanth, Co-Founder, ITW Universe, traces the change back several years, “Over the last five years, there has been a big shift in what brands ask for as part of sponsorships, in addition to logo presence. Activations, content, and fan engagement are now planned even before pitches are made. While these rights always existed, their utilisation has gone up significantly, especially post-pandemic.”
Shanth explains that while headline sponsorships may still be asset-led, leverage spending has dramatically expanded. Brands, large or small, are allocating more budgets towards content, creator collaborations, and contextual integrations that allow them to organically appear within live sport. This reflects a broader shift from linear exposure to a fragmented, digital-first mediascape, where timing and relevance matter as much as scale.
The phenomenon was well illustrated in Kingfisher Premium Packaged Drinking Water’s ‘Good Times Hangout’ with JioHotstar during the TATA WPL. The initiative brought creators like Sahiba Bali, Gurleen Pannu, Aakash Gupta, and Harsh Gujral into a live-viewing feed alongside cricket experts. Blending match insights and cultural conversation with humour, it turned passive viewing into an interactive experience.
But, as sponsorships become more layered, their commercial structures have also begun to change. Transactions built around fixed assets are giving way to relationships built around outcomes. Manish Solanki, COO and Co-Founder, TheSmallBigIdea, describes how modern-day partnerships resemble long-term commitments rather than one-season exchanges. He explains, “The old model was transactional: pay X, get Y assets, renew or walk away. Today’s partnerships are built like long-term relationships. Investments are spread out and linked to performance milestones, with clear expectations around business impact, not just brand presence.” Solanki also notes that this has made budgets more flexible and demanding. Brands now expect sharper measurement frameworks, ROI dashboards, and deeper strategic involvement from agencies, forcing creativity and accountability to coexist over longer timelines.
This shift is most visible not where sports marketing is fully evolved, but where traditional playbooks no longer apply. Women’s sport, particularly cricket, has emerged as a space where brands are forced to abandon inherited playbooks and build partnerships from first principles. Unlike men’s properties, where legacy visibility still carries weight, women’s leagues are not weighed down by decades of asset-led valuation. That creates fertile ground for experimentation around narratives, metrics, and intent.
Chintan Shah, Senior Vice President, SI (formerly Sportz Interactive), argues that this is precisely why the WPL has become a proving ground for the industry. He says, “Brands are approaching the WPL not just as a media property, but as a cultural platform. Sponsorship spending has more than tripled in three years—from `40 crore in 2023 to `130 crore in 2026—but with that comes expectations around depth of interaction, measurable impact, and long-term commitment.” Shah says the real shift isn’t in bigger budgets, but in a new way of defining impact. Success is now measured by metrics such as time spent, engagement quality, and year-round interaction—treating the league as more than a three-week burst centred on match days.
For consumer brands operating in this space, that reset also demands greater internal conviction. Poulomi Roy, CMO– Joy Personal Care, RSH Global, notes that women’s sport leaves little room for superficial presence, forcing brands to be clearer about what they stand for. Explaining the shift, Roy says, “Audiences no longer respond only to media exposure; they respond to meaningful stories and values that reflect cultural moments. Moving from visibility-led sponsorships to narrative-driven partnerships means shifting focus from short-term exposure to beliefs that sustain a brand.” She clarifies that this requires patience and organisational alignment. The brand brought its vision to life with the ‘Behenhood’ campaign, featuring UP Warriorz players in playful, behind-the-scenes films that uphold teamwork and sisterhood.
However, what seems like a change shaped by fans and formats is essentially a shift in intent. Brands now step into sport with clear goals and questions. The real reset, hence, is happening at the level where sponsorships are being structured, evaluated, and approved internally.
Prachi Narayan, Managing Partner, Havas Play, points to this change as a move away from opportunistic buying, “Earlier, sponsorships were driven by assets first, with value figured out later. Today, brands enter partnerships with clearer intent. Budgets are now planned as a single investment across rights, content, and experiences, shifting the conversation from available assets to the brand’s role and achievable outcomes.” Narayan notes that clearer goals leave little room for surface-level visibility: activations are treated as central to partnerships, and sport must prove its value against other long-term marketing choices.
With partnerships shaped earlier and governed by clearer structures, the challenge is to balance sport’s emotional appeal with strategic rigour. Brands that stand out will treat sport not as a fleeting visibility win, but as a long-term ecosystem where relevance is patiently earned and every choice is accountable.
