Channels cash on cricket highs

They are calling it the South Asian Super Bowl match, as millions of consumers are expected to be glued - quite literally - to their TV screens when the titans collide today.
And why shouldn it be advertisers gold mine in terms of audience attention? The semi-final between India and Pakistan is the first-ever in the history of World Cups, with ad spending having risen in direct proportion to the World Cup performance of both the teams.
Some industry sources put the total ad spending number at Rs4 billion for the World Cup campaign with about 80 percent of the ad airing commitments already fulfilled till today. That number, however, appears overstated to Sarmad Ali, President
of International Advertising Associations Pakistan chapter.
Sarmad says the amount spent on ad campaigns around the World Cup is close to Rs2.25-2.3 billion for all mediums - TV, print, radio, web - with the majority shared enjoyed by Geo Super and PTV.
In absence of any official and timely data releases by the industry, Sarmads words carry more weight; but one still wonders why there is such a hush-hush about ratings, ad spending and so forth in the media industry in general. Talk about being champions of transparency!
Anyway, without digressing much, here is a short list of top few advertisers seen active in the World Cup season thus far: Mobilink, Warid, Telenor, in the telecom sector, HBL and UBL in the financial sector, Pepsi from the drinks market, Unilever from the FMCG segment, and other scattered players like Service Cheetah and the likes.
These players and many others locked their contracts long before the championship season started, leaving little or no room for late awakeners who, wooed by the fact that Pakistan has now reached the semis, might want to find advertisement spots. Apparently, its all booked - unless of course you want to pay exorbitant amount of rates.
For those unaware of how the industry works, rate determination is also an interesting factor. Conventional wisdom suggests that advertisement rates should climb if Pakistan progresses in the game, i.e. the rate for the finals should be higher if Pakistan makes it there, and relatively lower, if not. In India, for example, advertisement rates rose by 350 percent for the "dream India vs Pakistan semi-finals".
That, however, is not the situation in the domestic advertising market. Reportedly, buyers (advertisers) and sellers (TV channels) agree at a predefined rate whether Pakistan makes it to the last matches of the game or not. "This way the seller minimises the risk, whereas the buyer minimises the cost," one ad agency manager told BR Research.
Yet, while the advertisement rates for TV channels may not rise for the last few games, it will surely rise sharply for the post World Cup shows and other auxiliary galas if Pakistan wins the championship. A fortune will also await Pakistani cricketers, provided they win the cup.
Reportedly, the top players can easily fetch Rs40-50 million for an ad campaign season that may last up to a year. Imagine the kind of dough they could make.
In the case of a World Cup victory, the rates and booking ratio of the billboards on the airport road of the countrys major cities can also be expected to increase overnight.
However, if Pakistan loses, and that too miserably, "the advertisement spending will be pulled back for a considerable period because nobody would want to feature a losing team," says Sarmad.
Yet, for lack of ambassadors, the players would still be showcased, albeit at lower rates - say about Rs10 million - unless you are pathan, according to Gallup Pakistans latest appeal findings. Shahid Afridi seems to have lucrative brand ambassadorship offers with or without the World Cup.
One thing, however, is likely to be more constant: budgeted ad spending for the current year. "Ad spending is likely to squeeze for the remaining year," says Sarmad, adding that World Cup spending is not in addition to normal annual budgets, albeit subsequent increments may be seen in few cases.
But even if ad spending drops after the World Cup, the intended marketing impact would have already been achieved - regardless of whether Pakistan clinches the cup or not.
If it does, a lot of people might find themselves becoming an HBL customer, who drinks a lot of Pepsi, uses all the mobile SIMs, shampoos with Sunsilk, bathes with Lux and wears Cheetah - i.e. an overnight change of heart for the most advertised products.