ICC Cricket World Cup Scores On The Streaming Sponsorship Front 

With the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 fever gripping the globe— particularly subcontinent audiences— as the group matches come thick and fast, let’s have a look at some of the major deals pushed by Disney+Hotstar, the official streaming partner of the 50-over tournament.

Disney+Hotstar, which has recently been in the news for losing subscribers in India, is banking on providing free streaming of all matches in an effort to salvage its game there.  

It also includes the special feature of a data saver, that will help viewers to stream the matches in the best quality without utilising much data.  The OTT platform also released a fresh ad campaign with Kapil Dev, India’s 1983 World Cup winning skipper, to raise awareness of its special offerings for the tourney.  

Thanks to the high anticipation of attracting eyeballs from the Indian subcontinent, the OTT platform has secured several big brands as streaming sponsors.

Digital Streaming Co-Powered by Sponsor: Mahindra SUVs and Tractors

Mahindra SUVs and Tractors, is  an arm of India’s leading automobile company, Mahindra and Mahindra. The entity was formed in 1945 as Mahindra & Mohammed, and later as Mahindra & Mahindra. The company produces vehicles like Bolero, Scorpio and Thar, as well as tractors. According to ASN data, Mahindra’s automobile arm (1.9%, ~US$18.8m) is just out of the Top 10 spenders for its category in the Asian sponsorship market since Q121, and it tends to focus solely on India. Major deals include Mahindra Formula E team (~US$12.3m) and Team India cricket internationals. 

Digital Streaming Associate Sponsors: 

Booking.com: The subsidiary of Amsterdam based Booking Holdings, is a popular online travel company across the globe, including India. The company’s mobile app was the most downloaded in the travel agency category in 2022. As of December 31, 2022, the website provided lodging reservation services for roughly 2.7 million properties, including 400,000 hotels, motels, and resorts, as well as 2.3 million houses and flats in over 220 countries and 40 languages. According to ASN data, Booking.com spends are the highest for its category (25.9%, slightly over US$23m) and has focused solely  on India’s cricket sponsorship market, including a blockbuster deal in the US$10.5m range with ICC. 

Surf Excel: The Unilever brand is a leading detergent choice in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. According to ASN data, Unilever—the FCMG giant behind Surf Excel—is unsurprisingly the highest spender for its category (38%, almost US$4m), however, it focuses on Indonesia (88.1%) and China (11.9%). The deals tend to focus on brand owned branded content and celebrity endorsements.     

Peter England: Coming from the house of the Aditya Birla Group, the brand founded in 1997 is a leading menswear brand in India that designs a wide range of stylish shirts, t-shirts, trousers, suits, blazers, accessories, and bags. According to ASN data, Peter England has a mere 0.3% share for its category, spending almost US$1.1m, on backing India’s Prime Volleyball League in 2021.    

Kingfisher Premium Packaged Drinking Water: The bottled drinking water brand is part of The United Breweries Group, and headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. According to ASN data, Kingfisher Water’s last sponsorship spend prior to this deal was a US$100k investment with Disney+Hotstar streaming of India vs England series in 2021. 

Thums Up:  The household fizzy drink brand was founded in the country in 1977 to replace The Coca-Cola Company after its departure. Coca-Cola eventually bought the brand later and rebranded it to compete with Pepsi. According to ASN data, Thums Up (1.4%, ~US$8.3m)  making it the 4^th largest spender in the Asian sponsorship market since Q121. The brand’s deals tend to be in cricket, celebrity endorsements and Summer Olympics broadcasts. 

Black & White: Introduced in 1879 by James Buchanan & Co Ltd, and having its roots in Scotland, Black & White is a blended Scotch whiskey currently produced by Diageo in Scotland. According to ASN data, Diageo—the parent company of Black & White—has a mere 0.1% (~US$19.1m) in the Asian sponsorship market since Q121. The brand’s biggest spend is still Johnnie Walker House at a sizeable US$10.7m+ while most other plays tend to be in the low six-figure range, and mainly focuses on music festivals. Celebrity endorsements are also part of the brand’s spends in South Korea and Taiwan. Meanwhile, its biggest current deal in India involves cricket (US$500k, Asia Cup)  and prior to that it had US$1m deal with the Indian version of Shark Tank.  

MRF: An Indian multinational tyre manufacturing firm and the country’s largest tyre maker. Its headquarters are located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and was founded in 1946. The company makes rubber items such as tyres, treads, tubes, and conveyor belts, as well as paints and toys. It also manages the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai and the MIDD – MRF Institute of Driver Development. According to ASN data, MRF (16.5%, ~US$30.3m) is the highest spender for its category in the Asian sponsorship market, however, all the spends are solely focused on India. Major deals include cricket deals, including an annual US$2m endorsement deal with Virat Kohli. 

Lendingkart: Founded in 2014, Lendingkart seeks to transform small company financing by making it easier for SMEs to get finance. To analyse the creditworthiness of small businesses quickly and accurately, the company uses technology and analytics tools that analyse thousands of data points from numerous data sources. According to ASN data, the brand has a mere 0.1% share (~US$300k) for its category in the Asian sponsorship market. The deal being an endorsement from Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao.  

According to ASN data, cricket is the biggest contributor (84.6%, US$1.52 billion) to the Indian sponsorship market since Q121. Despite seeing investment of almost US$94.1m in Q323, which was lower than the quarterly average of almost US$129.6m, cricket is primed for a more active Q423 with the run-up of the ICC World Cup and Diwali festive season.