Mumbai: India is today the world’s biggest fantasy sports market with a user base of over 13 crore, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) in collaboration with Deloitte. And with the Indian Premier League (IPL) on in full swing, fantasy sports stakeholders are wagering on the popular T20 league to multiply their user bases during this cricketing season.
Amid the fervour in the lead up to the 15th edition of the cricket tournament, Fantasy Akhada - one of the players in the fantasy sports arena rolled out a 360-degree campaign #KhelTumharaAkhadaHumara starring Harsha Bhogle and actor Ali Fazal. The campaign, since its teaser launch on 24 March on Instagram has seen the brand unveiling three short films at regular intervals keeping the narrative going and the audience hooked.
The brand is all set to launch the finale in the series which has managed to rake in tremendous interest among fans.
Shedding more light on their marketing campaign, Fantasy Akhada's founder Sumit Jha tells IndianTelevision.com, “The idea was simple – in the extremely cluttered fantasy sports space, we wished to stand out and position ourselves as the ultimate platform for fantasy sports users across the country.”
Conceptualised by Pippip Media and executed in tandem with Wirality Media, the first film of the campaign showcases the apparent abduction of cricket presenter Harsha Bhogle by a desperate cricket fanatic, played by Ali Fazal, in his attempt to emerge victor in his local gaming community. The subsequent two films have kept the narrative going, igniting vewers’ curiosity and building up buzz, aided in part by the fresh, dynamic combo of Bhogle and Fazal and their crackling chemistry onscreen.
Harsha Bhogle is a familiar face in our living rooms through his engaging cricket commentary. Audiences are used to seeing his on-screen representation in the commentary box or television studio, imparting words of wisdom on the game’s nuances in all seriousness. But that’s about it. So, how was it getting Bhogle to act, given the hilarious setup of his ‘apharan’ by a goon wanting gyan on the game, we want to know.
“Given the vast experience that Bhogle has in front of the camera doing live telecasts, the ease with which he pulled off this was expected. Also having someone like Ali Fazal, who is not only a great actor but a big fan of Harsha, really helped making the entire shoot a great and enjoyable experience for all involved,” Jha answers.
ALSO SEE | Ali Fazal & goons abduct Harsha Bhogle in Fantasy Akhada’s new IPL campaign
The films have Bhogle in his trademark ‘suit-boot’ urbanised avatar while Fazal brings in the rustic flavour, playing the local bully. “We tried to integrate the urban and rural populace (users) and bring them to a common platform,” Jha explains the reasoning behind the campaign. “As per the Deloitte-FIFS report published in March, 50 per cent of the users in the Fantasy Sports industry come from tier 2 and 3 cities.”
The brand’s core TG is the Indian male population aged 18-35 with a strong representation from states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, among others, says Jha. “The brand’s IPL association had a two-fold approach: primarily to target the current audience who enjoys daily fantasy sports; and secondly to target the larger TG for brand awareness and to introduce them to the concept of skill-based real money gaming.”
“The idea was to focus on the build-up and the IPL broadcast during Phase one of the campaign. We were certain that with the presence of two extremely popular faces in the commercials, the TVC would have a strong organic reach.” He further adds, “And the initial reactions make us more confident to achieve our target of more than 100 per cent growth in terms of revenue/ users on the back of this IPL.”
The brand has already released three ad films of the campaign on TV and digital, and have plans to bring the series to an end with the fourth ad going live on digital platforms. “We have a strong plan that includes influencer marketing to sustain the impact of these creatives over a longer duration of the league,” signs off Jha.
For the unversed, Fantasy Sports are online prediction games where one puts together a virtual team of real sports players, and earn points based on real life statistics. The better your player or team performs in real life, the higher your fantasy points.
What’s the hype about, you ask? Take a look at these numbers. India's fantasy sports market is projected to grow from Rs 34,600 crore in FY21 to an estimated Rs 1,65,000 crore by FY25, clocking a CAGR of 38 per cent, as per the Deloitte report.
The total revenue attributable to the fantasy sports industry is Rs 10,700 crore, including Rs 5,500 crore indirect revenue in FY21 through its vendors and service providers, the Deloitte report estimates.
Its not a surprise that in a cricket-crazed country like ours, the sport remains the dominant force on fantasy sports platforms (FSP). And with the IPL being one of the biggest cricketing properties in the country and also the biggest generator of revenue, it is hardly surprising fantasy sport operators want a share of the IPL pie. Consider this, IPL contributed over 20 lakh users to the addition of users in the fantasy sports space, in just the first phase of the league’s 2021 edition.
