Chinese brands set to spend whopping INR 700 crore on ads for IPL 2020

Premier Chinese brands are all set to spend a heft amount on advertising during the Indian Premier League 2020. They are geared up to spend INR 700 crore on the ads. The IPL 2020 begins on 19th September in the UAE, with the BCCI deciding to maintain its main title sponsors.

Vivo had been paying INR 440 crores annually as IPL’s title sponsorship fee since 2018. It agreed with BCCI in 2018 for being the title sponsor of IPL for 5 years. Also, Vivo actively invests in television advertising and dealer engagement with around INR 150cr. for the two-month-long cash-rich league. Other Chinese smartphone brands are also expected to spend a lot of amount during the league.

I presume Chinese mobiles will advertise on IPL too: Sandeep Goyal

Sandeep Goyal, chairman, Mogae Media, a Mumbai-based marketing and communication agency highlighted the availability of Chinese brands in The Kapil Sharma Show and insisted on Chinese mobile’s active participation in the ads during the highly popular tournament.

“The Chinese brands were quite visible on The Kapil Sharma Show as it returned to the screen after the lockdown hiatus. I presume Chinese mobiles will advertise on IPL too. They account for a substantial chunk of the advertising revenues that Star is expecting. Their spending contributes about 20-25% of the total IPL revenues,” he said as quoted by Live Mint.

A huge cry for boycotting Chinese brands hasn’t resulted in the decline of the domination of Chinese smartphones in the Indian market. The result of this has been a huge hold of advertising on online and offline platforms. Months of lockdown made people realize the importance of technology. The work from home aspect of working garnered popularity during this time. The handset industry now claims that consumers will be more entitled to invest in such brands.

Biswajit Dhar, professor of trade, Jawaharlal Nehru University opined that the government must come out with a constructive long term view of the Chinese dependence in the strategic areas, “Decoupling from China has to be carefully done and it has to be a well thought out process and not a knee-jerk one. India’s economy right now is too dependent on China,” he said.

He insisted that the government is unclear on some of its policies like the sponsorship of IPL and taking loans from the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.