The Indian Premier League is starting in a week and Hotstar, the video streaming service of Star India has launched a self-service ad tool called Hotstar AdServe. This service has been designed to offer small and medium-sized advertisers with shallow funds to use expensive platforms such as live sports accurately in order to reach their target audience. This will be done by making use of targeting facilities and interactive ad formats. The service is specially crafted to allow regional companies of advertising their product or services across the country at reasonable prices.
Several ad formats are at the disposition of those willing to advertise on the platform such as Billboard (photo/video/carousel), native images for install or content ads and video ad formats like Bumper, mid rolls, carousel and lead-gen.
Star India are the proud digital and television rights holders of the IPL globally after signing a 5 years contract last year for a colossal Rs 6,247.5 crore bid. The cricket tournament is scheduled to begin on 7th April and will be broadcasted in six languages, namely Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi and English. This diversity of languages is an initiative from Hotstar to reach over 700 Mn viewers across digital and television platform during this year’s 6 month broadcast of the tournament.
The company announced that the trial version of the upcoming ad service will permit advertisers to promote their services and products via in-stream video ads on Vivo IPL 2018. They are also planning to expand their services gradually and introduce entertainment programmes as well to their service in the coming weeks.
“Hotstar AdServe effectively democratizes the gigantic canvas of cricket, opening it up for all advertisers, large or small. The price of admission can now be as large or as small as the advertiser’s budget. The service’s targeting options ensures that each rupee delivers its worth with the right audience,” state a spokesperson from Hotstar.
Star India are targeting generating Rs 2,000 crore of revenues from the IPL which will only be possible if they can wagon a huge amount of advertisers. Worryingly, Star India was only able to raise Rs 800 crore from their advertising inventory so far, which means they are currently trailing their target amount by huge lengths. This is surely the reason why they are coming forward with more affordable advertising facilities.
“We have a total of 34 clients signed on, out of which there are some high-value deals with Vivo, Coca Cola, Asian Paints, Ceat Tyres, and MakeMyTrip,” Anil Jayaraj, EVP and head of ad sales for Star Sports