Mobile apps leverage smartphone OEMs during IPL to advertise

Ashwin Shekhar

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the most famous T20 formats in the sport of cricket across the globe. A March 2022 study by Glance found that 61% of IPL viewers watch matches on their smartphones, and 70% of total viewers regularly check their phones for match updates, social media interactions, comments, etc.

Let’s take stock of the Indian smartphone market for a moment. In March 2022, Xiaomi led this market with 26.42% market share, followed by Samsung occupying 17.49% market share (source-Statcounter). Other smartphone OEMs like Vivo (the former title sponsor of IPL), Oppo, Realme, OnePlus and Huawei have also dominated the Indian smartphone market, bridging the Indian population with its digital divide.

According to AppsFlyer’s latest IPL app marketing report, the top industry focus for mobile marketers at this sporting event is Education, Entertainment, Finance, Food & Beverage and gaming applications. Bidding on IPL ad space within the live stream of the event as a proactive strategy may not be the best choice for mobile app advertisers, especially in early stages of user acquisition, while mobile OEMs can provide a great alternative to achieve marketers’ campaign goals. .

Decryption of the scenario for advertisers of mobile applications

The number of matches played in IPL 2022 has increased by 20%. Interestingly, this year’s IPL ad sales have already topped $530 million, with streaming platforms like Disney+Hotstar increasing ad revenue by nearly 25%. During the IPL season, there is a massive increase in the launch and promotion of apps specifically falling under the sports and gaming category. Considered two of the top advertisers in the sports app category, MPL and Dream11, among other players, are already leveraging the IPL 2022 season for brand promotional activities and user acquisition campaigns. With such market saturation, it means more time and work for app developers to bet on advertising their mobile apps in such noisy markets.

Mobile OEMs have proven to be the perfect partners for sports apps to get the most out of the IPL season. Let’s understand how!

App advertisers can leverage a combination of alternative channels to boost their brand campaigns with mobile OEMs such as Vivo, which won title sponsorship of IPL from 2016 to 2019 and again in 2021. IPL is the most important event for mobile applications, especially in the sports and games category, to reach a large audience and gain traffic. However, they need look no further to reach millions of people while keeping their budget in mind. Smartphone OEMs are dominating the Indian market with untapped inventory where advertisers can leverage their advertisements during peak IPL season which is completely brand safe and fraud free.

OEMs provide significant untapped inventory with over 1.5 billion daily active users allowing advertisers to acquire new users interested in downloading their mobile app or similar apps in the sports category.

Sports app advertisers take advantage of smartphone OEMs during IPL

The speed and relevance of advertising and marketing campaigns have become increasingly important. Smartphones have connected users to sports apps so much that it is imperative that apps in this category run their ad campaigns and make the most of those campaigns to achieve campaign goals. Take Gamezy, a fantasy and multi-game cricket app as an example. It has taken a step forward by placing its bet on smartphone OEMs to reach the greatest masses. Standing out from the crowd during this busy season is a big challenge, but with the help of app growth marketing companies and their mobile OEM partnerships, Gamezy was able to tap into new users across the country.

It’s time for mobile marketers to understand the benefits that can be reaped if they plan to advertise their sports apps to OEMs during the remainder of the IPL 2022 season.

  • With OEM in-app advertising, they can take advantage of an exclusive app store that offers ads per day and on specific dates with multiple ad formats such as video ads, reward ads, native ads and banner ads with unique ad placements.
  • They can get exclusive screen shots with splash ads and show off the best of their sports app across the entire smartphone screen in a video format to create instant brand awareness and drive interest users.
  • This strategy can give way to appographic targeting to help marketers promote their app to users with similar interests beyond category and ownership to increase their app install rates.
  • OEMs are offering personalized push notifications to target high-value users during IPL season to enable app discovery, as there is a 72.71% YoY growth for gaming apps (source – AppsFlyer ).
  • Marketers can explore PMP offers on Private Marketplaces (PMPs) with OEMs where they can bid on suggested inventory for a specific time period, such as IPL peak season, to get the most out of their campaigns user acquisition.

Smartphone OEMs are offering a mix of various outstanding alternatives to live commercials during IPL cricket matches, which industry estimates can cost upwards of Rs 1 crore for a 30-second slot to really hit the mark. goal of ROAS marketers. With OEMs, sports app advertisers can create and cater to diverse audiences that have more reach and improve their chances of visibility and gaining users. Therefore, smartphone OEMs should be on every mobile marketer’s radar and considered an integral part of their mobile marketing strategy.

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Casey J. Nelson