The Price Of Cricket

Under the white blaze of stadium lights, hours before the first ball of an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup clash was even bowled, the match was already alive in ways the crowd couldn’t see. Outside, satellite vans hummed like restless engines; inside, camera cranes glided through rehearsal arcs while commentators tested feeds. LED hoardings flickered through colour palettes, insurance blues, automobile reds, fintech greens– as technicians cued sponsor slates for overs and time-outs. And somewhere in a quiet broadcast room, a planner watched an inventory sell out, knowing that in India, cricket does not just fill stadiums, it fills brand calendars and living rooms all at once.
While this unfolded behind the scenes, the present moment tells its own story. With ICC matches back on screens, brands are not standing at the boundary they are walking straight onto the pitch. Media reports and industry trackers point to a clear spike in ad rates this cycle, yet demand has not slowed; if anything, it has grown louder. The cost of entry may be rising, but so is the faith in cricket’s reach.

Rohit Potphode, Managing Partner – Sports, Gaming, eSports & Live Experiences, dentsu India, sheds light on the situation: “Ad rates during the current ICC cycle have seen a sharp upward reset, driven largely by India-centric demand, limited premium inventory, and stronger broadcaster monetisation discipline.” According to estimates shared by Dentsu India, the cost of 10-second TV spots during India’s group-stage matches was about 30–50% higher than the previous ICC cycle, while the cost of slots at India-involved semi-finals/finals was up by 50–70%. Non-India matches saw a milder 10–20% increase, and digital/CTV CPMs (Cost Per Mile) grew faster by approximately 20–40%.

Yet, the surprise is not that prices are rising. It is that brands keep returning to the game. For marketers who have watched India’s media landscape fragment into thousands of channels and scrollable feeds, cricket still offers something rare: a singular moment when millions of eyes are glued to the scene on different screens.
“Cricket remains one of the few high-reach platforms that transcends demographic silos and geographic boundaries in India. Our data indicates that viewership for cricket remains incredibly resilient. The consistent performance of both our Men’s and Women’s National Teams ensures a compounding momentum rather than a diminishing return,” says Amit Syngle, MD & CEO, Asian Paints.

His point reflects why legacy brands treat cricket as a long-term brand asset rather than a seasonal buy. For Asian Paints, the strategy is to move beyond impressions toward deeper integrations. Asian Paints’ association with BCCI as their Official Colour Partner, enabled the brand to leverage proprietary marketing assets like ‘Asian Paints ColourCam’ and ‘Asian Paints Colour Countdown’, which linked match moments to colourful decor trends.

That promise of unified reach, the ability to speak to multiple Indias in a single moment, is exactly what media planners try to translate into economics. “Compared to the last ICC cycle, we have seen about a 10% increase in handheld and web inventory and nearly a 25% increase in CTV CPMs,” says Karthik M Bhat, Co-Founder, ITW iO. He adds that India match slots are around Rs 17 lakh for 10-second SD (Standard Definition) +HD (High Definition) spots, while CTV CPMs hover near Rs 600, but cost per reach improves when brands use efficient properties like non-India games.

What Bhat points to is not just rising rates but changing planning logic. Instead of concentrating budgets only on headline India fixtures, brands are distributing spends across platforms and match types, balancing reach and frequency to keep campaigns efficient while maintaining scale. When stitched carefully across TV and digital, such plans can still deliver measurable brand lifts while improving cost efficiency.

But efficiency in media buying only tells half the story; what ultimately determines returns is how well those placements are executed. Potphode notes that categories such as auto, BFSI, fintech and beverages continue to see strong returns from ICC properties when campaigns are paired with contextual creative, moment marketing and digital amplification rather than passive logo visibility.

Financial-services brands illustrate that shift clearly. “For a category like life insurance, which is built on long-term trust rather than impulse, an always-on cultural property like cricket works far better than short bursts of attention because it allows us to show up consistently in moments that matter to families,” says Ravindra Sharma, Chief – Brand, Corporate Communications and CSR, SBI Life Insurance. SBI Life’s use of ambassadors like Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, as characters of Jolly & Polly, reflects that thought process. Regional feeds and contextual creatives aim to reinforce trust over time rather than chase immediate conversion.

Research backs this perception. Cricket remains one of the strongest mediums to build trust. A Linear TV Cricket Audience Insights’ study commissioned by JioStar and conducted by Kantar found that 64% of LTV cricket viewers strongly agree that brands advertising on television are more trustworthy. With high ownership of large TVs, premium vehicles and strong credit spending, cricket audiences continue to attract premium advertisers despite rising rates.

The automobile sector is one such category, having maintained a steady presence around live cricket broadcasts for years. From title sponsorships and on-ground activations to consistent ad placements during live streaming and television coverage.

Hyundai, for example, extended ICC partnerships beyond screens into dealerships and fan zones, turning match-day attention into city-level engagement. As Virat Khullar, Head – Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Limited puts it, “Cricket in India is far more than a sport, it is an emotion that runs through the year, and that continuity is why Hyundai invests in multi-year partnerships and uses integrated experiences beyond traditional advertising.”

With such examples the implication is clear: cricket is no longer a blanket-buy property. Planning has become more selective and strategic. But those selections are not always simple. “With platform guidelines of media participation with minimum 5/10 matches and a consecutive sequence of matches to be followed, brands have limited flexibility to change their strategy around cricket. Those with serious campaigns invest across formats and moments, while others with smaller budgets opt for targeted media outside cricket,” explains Jinit Shah, VP – Media & Partnerships, PivotRoots – a Havas company.

And when planning is constrained by budgets, inventory or even platform rules, the real battle shifts to creativity. But when every hoarding glows with competing colours and every ‘over change’ ad carries another message, visibility alone cannot be the goal. The question becomes how a brand remains memorable when everyone else is speaking at once.

“Clutter is real, but clutter is not the enemy. Poor brand distinctiveness is,” says Amit Bhandare, Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications, Yes Securities. “In high-attention environments like cricket, emotionally invested viewers reward sharp, consistent creative and deeper integrations, so memorability—not sheer frequency—drives recall and long-term brand salience.” Bhandare adds that “In categories where salience drives purchase, cricket should not be judged only on short-term sales. Premium properties command premium pricing because they deliver premium outcomes,” he notes.

The constant pressure for distinctiveness and recall is pushing brands across categories to rethink cricket as a storytelling platform rather than just a media buy, using different tournaments and formats to tell different kinds of brand stories. “The IPL helps us reach mass audiences, but the WPL is where our storytelling deepens — letting us talk about identity, ambition and gender equality through cricket in ways that stay with people longer,” says Poulomi Roy, Chief Marketing Officer, Joy Personal Care. She explains that Joy treats different cricket properties as different storytelling stages, using IPL campaigns like #BeingEqual and WPL-led narratives such as #KhiladiHoonBeautifulBhi and #Behenhood to spark conversations around gender bias and self-worth.

But for categories with longer purchase cycles, the value of cricket lies not just in creativity but in certainty of reach. Raja Chakraborty, Chief Marketing Officer, Continental Coffee, says that in a fragmented media world, high-attention programmes like cricket give advertisers confidence that their message is actually being seen. “In this fragmented landscape, especially across digital and CTV, it makes sense to advertise on market programmes like cricket because you have confidence your brand is creating impact. Otherwise on social media or YouTube you are a drop in the ocean and don’t know who is watching or the quality of attention,” he says.

Chakraborty notes that cricket makes more sense for categories with high seasonality or non-everyday consumption. Durables, fintech and similar sectors can advertise during that period, achieve high reach, and then pause, while FMCG brands must weigh frequency more carefully within a broader plan.

But FMCG brands are also finding ways to align cricket with everyday consumption. “In India, cricket isn’t a seasonal spike, it lives inside everyday family routines, where matches bring people together to share snacks, cheer for players and celebrate moments of joy,” says, Zoher Kapuswala, Marketing Head, Ferrero India. He says Ferrero’s ‘Cheer to Win’ campaign for Kinder Schoko-Bons Crispy built on that insight by inviting families to create their own match cheers at home and win prizes, turning cricket-viewing into a shared celebration.

And as Chakraborty mentioned, seasonality plays a role for durables. Girish Hingorani, Vice President – Marketing & Corporate Communications, Blue Star Limited, says, “The biggest benefit advertisers get with cricket is the least fragmentation. Everybody watches it and the viewership it garners is phenomenal, higher than any other property. Yes it is expensive, but if you really want to be seen at that time there is no bigger property than cricket.” Hingorani adds that for summer-driven categories like air-conditioners– cricket synchronises naturally with purchase cycles. Even if ROI is difficult to measure precisely, he says, brand building during culturally relevant moments remains essential.

Pratik Gour, Co-Founder, Footpyrnt, says the difference between spending and return ultimately comes down to authenticity. “Cricket has a vast audience cutting across demographics, geography and income groups. Cricket is the only sport which sells in India. Just compare the broadcasting rights of IPL and compare that to PKL (Pro Kabaddi League)-the most popular non-cricketing league-and that of ISL (Indian Super League). Sponsoring alone is not enough, brands must stand out with innovative campaigns that resonate with what the brand stands for,” he says. Gour points to campaigns from Cred and Dream11 during IPL seasons that stood out despite heavy clutter, arguing that sustained storytelling around cricket can build better salience in ways fragmented advertising struggles to match.

So then, what’s next for cricket marketing? That will depend on how the media and audiences continue to evolve. Looking ahead, planners expect sharper targeting as connected TV penetration rises and regional feeds multiply. Campaigns will increasingly focus on geographies and cohorts rather than one national message.
Potphode believes the biggest change will be in how success is defined. As campaigns link broadcast exposure with search behaviour, engagement signals and brand-lift studies, cricket investments will be evaluated through business impact rather than visibility alone.

Gour on the other hand notes that while broadcasting rights or prices may appear inflated and even networks reconsider certain properties, cricket remains unmatched as a brand-building platform. A three-month tournament, he says, can often achieve what a year-long campaign cannot, provided brands prepare carefully before going live.
Taken together, these perspectives show how brands are learning to break clutter, not by shouting louder, but by planning deeper. Cricket still provides the stage, but ROI now depends on how clearly a brand’s idea travels across platforms and moments.

And yet, beneath all the analytics and optimisation, the sport’s real power remains unchanged. In India, cricket is still the evening ritual where families gather and strangers cheer together. Brands may chase metrics, but what they are really buying is a place inside people’s lives. That quiet truth keeps them returning, season after season, because, as Gour puts it, cricket is where “a daily wage worker and a CEO are united just for the love of the game.”