IPL 2020: Here are Tata Motors’ marketing plans for the upcoming season

• Tata Motors has been associated with IPL for the past three years.
• This year too, despite the matches being played behind closed doors, the brand has a lot of plans to engage with audiences.
• Vivek Srivatsa, Head - Marketing, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors walks us through the brand's marketing plans for this year.

Gautam Thakar, CEO of Star Sports recently said that soon-to-start edition of Indian Premier League will be the biggest in terms of both viewership and revenues. While the Covid-induced lockdown led to the postponement of the league and the political tensions between India and China led to Vivo pulling out as its title sponsor, things have caught pace in the last few weeks.

With Dream11 on board as the new title sponsor, the league already has many sponsors on board, which goes on to show that advertisers are as excited about the tournament as are people who are waiting for it to distract them from the gloom that the rest of the year has brought with it.

While the experience of the league will be very different this year, with no audiences in the stadiums, brands are already coming up with innovative solutions to ensure that their money brings them back good ROI.

We spoke to Tata Motors that has been associating with IPL for the past three years.

Vivek Srivatsa, Head - Marketing, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors spoke to us about what the auto company has in store for the upcoming season of IPL. Talking about what their marketing plan will look like this year, Srivatsa said, “This year, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is expected to be the biggest ever as the audience will be witnessing a live cricket match after 6-7 months. As IPL is nothing short of a festival for Indians, it is also expected to become a big sentiment booster, bringing in a positive ray of light in today’s scenario. This will be our third year of association and we are happy to have our recently launched premium hatchback the Tata Altroz as the official partner for the Dream11 IPL 2020. Launched earlier this year, the Altroz has been appreciated by both customers and experts by becoming the #GoldStandard of the premium hatchback segment. Altroz is also the only car with a 5-star Global NCAP safety rating in its category, making it India’s safest hatchback.”

As the Official Partner, the brand will showcase the Altroz in the stadium, across all 3 venues, located in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. Throwing light on how they plan to engage with audiences, Srivatsa added, “We are looking at multiple engagement opportunities with the audience and players across mediums. Like the previous years, we continue to award the Super Striker Trophy to the batsman with the best strike rate in every match. The best striker of the tournament will also drive home the Altroz. On the digital platform, we will engage with customers via interesting contests that will be announced closer to the tournament’s start date.”

Apart from the excitement of the match, IPL is also loved because of the fanfare it brings with itself. However, this year things will be different. The matches will be played behind closed doors and without any audiences. While there was some initial reservation about how this changed format could impact advertising, as well as the overall experience, brands are pretty enthusiastic.

“This IPL will be played behind closed doors and will not have any audience in the stadiums to begin with. Most people will watch the matches on TV from the comfort of their homes and on digital platforms. Hence, TV and digital will be our biggest bet. TV should help us with a wide reach amongst the audience and digital medium will help us in engaging with the customers by giving them an innovative and immersive experience,” shared Srivatsa.

With no on-ground activations, will consumer engagement be challenging? Srivatsa didn’t seem to think so, considering the brand will still have a strong on-ground presence. “Apart from ensuring a strong on-ground presence during matches, we have also planned a lot of activities in the showrooms. Across India, Tata Motors showrooms will be decorated in the IPL theme. Our dealerships will be the place where customers can also soak in the IPL ambience. Additionally, we will also be organizing interesting contests for customers on social media platforms, which will be announced close to the start of IPL.”