Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, could be a game-changer for social media advertising, with advertising revenue expected between ₹6,000 crore and ₹7,000 crore, said the Integral Ad Science media measurement platform in a recent report.
Noting the huge spends expected for IPL this year, particularly in the case of digital ad revenues, the report anticipates more competition among advertisers to deliver their messages effectively on media like social media and CTV. To drive better results for brands during sporting events, the report asked advertisers to execute on a successful sports media strategy.
For example, it asked companies to avoid Made for Advertising (MFA) websites that allow publishers to buy cheap traffic and aggressively monetise page views. According to an ANA report published in 2024, as much as 6.2 per cent of ad spend went to MFA sites. In 2024, IAS noted that Invalid Traffic Rates (ITR) increased 93 per cent in India from February to March, leading up to the IPL cricket games.
“These low quality sites deliver poor performance for advertisers, and it’s important to avoid wasting impressions on MFA sites during major sporting events,” said the IAS.
There was also a 60 per cent increase in brand risk in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region surrounding the 2024 IPL cricket final. Retail, entertainment, wellness-healthy living, were some of the top sports related contextual segments in the APAC region during last year’s IPL cricket games.
The report also noted that Indian sports enthusiasts spend 20 per cent more time consuming non-live sports content than live matches. As such, it asked advertisers to be strategic with mediums like CTV. 74 per cent of marketers believe buying CTV ads in conjunction with live sports is more impactful than a classic sports sponsorship, said the report.
“Between streaming connected TV, scrolling social media, playing mobile games, and flipping through linear TV channels, your audience is everywhere. During major sporting events, CTV impressions may not always appear where buyers expect, with as much as 17% of impressions serving with the TV off,” said the report.
