PSL: the Pakistani Super Bowl for Advertisers

PSL: the Pakistani Super Bowl for Advertisers

During this year’s Super Bowl in America, Fox—which was the official host channel for the event—charged advertisers a lucrative sum of $5.6 million for a 30 second TVC to be aired during the event. Facebook, is one of the 11 new entrants into Super Bowl advertising world, it aired an interesting 30 second clip about ‘Facebook groups.’ Interestingly, Michael Bloomberg who is contesting America’s presidency in the 2020 elections, and the American president, Donald J. Trump ran 60 and 30 second spots respectively. Snack brands dominated with 9 spots booked followed by auto brands with 8 spots. Super Bowl viewership has declined since 2015 when it peaked at 114.4 million viewers. This year—2020—it was 99.5 million viewers, slightly above 2019.

Now come back to Pakistan where the Pakistan Super League is being held for the fifth time since its essence back in 2016 with the prayers of the ‘cricket crazy nation,’ willingness of  franchises, efforts of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), and to the luck of the advertisers.

PSL’s main goal was to bring cricket back to Pakistan after the deadly assaults on the Sri Lankan cricketers by terrorists in the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.

The problem was not yet solved because many foreign players refused to come to Pakistan due to security reasons. PSL’s first round was played entirely in United Arab Emirates (Dubai); after that few matches were played in Lahore in 2017 and in Karachi in 2019. The interesting thing about the fifth round, starting on 21^st February, is that this round is that it will be played entirely in Pakistan. Now people can actually call it Pakistan Super League.

Our point, however, concerns with what happens to the luck of advertisers with comeback of this event to the country. Industry experts think that PSL is destined to become the Super Bowl of Pakistan. So do I. First and foremost evidence to base this is the cricket fever in the Pakistani people across all age groups, occupations and genders. According to the Blitz Advertising, the official media rights partner of PSL, 160 million (78%) Pakistanis watched the PSL matches on their television. Overall 56% more people watched PSL IV than the number that did PSL III, making it the biggest event to date in the country. During the PSL matches, television viewership time was up 19%. This huge audience with little or no effort is a mouth-watering opportunity for the companies trying to advertise their brands.

Well ahead of the event, the PSL 2020 anthem has become the talk of the town. It has got 2.37 million views on YouTube, and became first on trending on the day it was posted; it is sixth as of 5^th February. Moreover, it triggered a lot of fun and excitement on the social media, especially Facebook. Events mean ‘memes’ and memes mean opportunities for engaging people with your content (brand).

Second, sports marketing is an important tool for marketers to leverage because it can capitalize on the passion for and emotional attachment to the event the consumers have. Studies have shown that engagement metrics are at their highest for the ads aired during sporting events.

Something parallel to Super Bowl’s mounting airtime costs was the Blitz Advertising’s bid for media rights to the event’s fourth edition in 2019 (for 3 years until 2022) at $36 million—359%  higher than the previous year’s bid. It means BA would now be selling the streaming rights to the channels and airtime to the companies advertising their brands through the event.

Moreover, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) has been the title partner with PCB and sponsor of the event. Hence the name HBL-PSL.

It is clear that the event has become an Icon that challenges India’s “Indian Premier League (IPL),” the same has the potential to become an advertising club as big as Super Bowl.