Havas Sports & Entertainment, a sports & sponsorship specialized vertical from the Havas Media Group umbrella has partnered with YouGov, an international research & data analytics group, to launch HI-CRICKET, a proprietary study to understand the impact of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 in influencing brand health metrics across categories.

The study, led by the Havas Insight team, has respondents from key cities in India to get a deeper understanding of how a larger-than-life platform such as IPL helps influence mind measures. HI-CRICKET will also answer the role of premium media buys in impacting brand health, one of the most critical questions raised by advertisers today.

HI-CRICKET 2021 will help brands to further bolster their meaningful connections with consumers and will also identify the most meaningful campaigns during IPL this year. Havas’ Meaningful Brands framework constitutes of benefits brands offer across Functional (What does the product or service deliver?), Personal (How brands improve people's lives?) and Collective parameters (What’s their role in society?). Past learnings have shown that these benefits collectively drive brand performance.

The respondents, being interviewed over five phases from 1st April 2021 to 1st June 2021 during IPL 2021, will result in regular updates. Each phase will track the impact of the game on brand health and capture shifts along with attributes that drive Meaningfulness as the league progresses.

Some highlights from the pre-phase findings:

· 50% of the respondents watched all the matches last year and 70% said that they will definitely watch the game this year.

· Viewers in the age-group of 31-44 years make for the most engaged group with the game, not only in terms of viewership but also in terms of social media chatter, participating in contests and creating their own fantasy leagues based on IPL players.

· Viewers are multi-tasking while watching the game – from ordering food online, to playing their own fantasy leagues and engaging with match experts.

· Mix of both online & offline viewership for males, especially amongst 18-44-year olds. Older (44+ yrs) & female audiences are skewed to watching the game on TV.

· As for the favourite team, two-thirds of IPL viewers consider champions Mumbai Indians to be the best performing team. About a fifth consider Chennai Super Kings the best performing team.

· Match innings and Powerplay are the key segments watched by almost two-thirds of viewers.

· IPL influences consumer actions in a big way - from searching for a product/service after seeing an ad to downloading an app or buying a product.

Commenting on the study, Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Group India, said: “The research uses customised quantitative structured questionnaire and encompasses Tier 1 & 2 cities. Designed to constantly monitor brand trends on key brand health indicators, along with Meaningful attributes, this study will help advertisers understand the overall impact of their association with IPL. HI-CRICKET is the first initiative by Havas Insights and Havas Sports and Entertainment; we also intend to take the partnership into other sporting domains such as the Olympics, Hockey, Football and Kabaddi.”

Deepa Bhatia, General Manager, India, YouGov, said, “YouGov panel constitutes data of 2 lakh active panel respondents who have participated in various surveys. During the IPL season, YouGov will consistently reach out to people who watch IPL to set up the study. Using Havas’ Meaningful attributes, the customised HI-CRICKET study will help us understand what drives meaningfulness for brands and to what extent are campaigns able to drive perceptions for brands based on functional, personal and collective benefits.”