73 percent of IPL 2023 viewers tuned in to cricket league digitally: Glance report

Currently, the brand is present across 120+ cities in India. Image: Shutterstock

The report 'The Cricket Playbook for Growth Marketers', jointly presented by mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust and a smart lock screen platforms, Glance, covers trends and insights on user behavior and content consumption during the cricket season and best practices for engaging with cricket enthusiasts especially on smart surfaces. It encourages growth marketers to embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate personalized content at scale, tailor user experiences, drive efficiencies and measure success. Employing device-based attribution models will improve accuracy, minimize ad fraud and maximize returns on campaign spends.

Vasuta Agarwal, chief business officer, InMobi Group, said, “Owing to soaring costs during this sporting tournament, mobile becomes a preferred, innovative and lucrative medium for advertisers compared to traditional platforms. In fact, 73 percent of IPL viewers tuned into the tournament digitally last year, and 30 percent prefer watching it solely on mobile. The advent of smart surfaces like the Glance smart lock screen that facilitate effortless app downloads with a single tap is a game changer. We are glad to share these insights with the marketing community in collaboration with an industry partner like Adjust.”

Cricket fans are diverse, tech-savvy and highly engaged on their mobile devices and use it as the second screen for live match updates, browsing, ordering and socialising. They consume content in various languages and formats and prefer it to be instant and seamless.

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Glance revealed smart lock screen insights based on the 128 million users that tuned in for periodic updates of India’s cricket tournament in 2023. The platform received 2.6x higher engagement on video with a distinct surge in activity in the second half of the day, and 35 percent of cricket content engagement came from vernacular languages. Seventy percent of cricket viewers were Gen Z and millennials, 65 percent were male, 30 percent were aged 45+ and 55 percent were from tier-I cities. While the highest cumulative engagement came from the South Indian region, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh were the most engaged states.

According to Adjust data, the country’s most popular sporting season drives higher app installs, session lengths and retention rates for various app categories, especially streaming, news, gaming, e-commerce, and food delivery. Compared to the overall 2023 daily install average during the IPL season, mobile apps overall and streaming apps witnessed 13 percent and 45 percent greater installs respectively. Streaming apps saw the longest session lengths, with the average session length having increased from 20.24 minutes to 32.48 minutes. The largest retention was in games, up three percentage points from 21 percent to 24 percent.

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“Adjust empowers marketers to navigate the dynamic landscape of mobile advertising with confidence and precision. Our robust measurement solutions enable marketers to seamlessly evaluate user quality across diverse acquisition channels, including innovative platforms like Glance. With Adjust’s comprehensive user lifecycle tracking and innovative products like incrementality, marketers can unlock the full potential of their campaigns, harnessing the power of tentpole sporting events to drive growth and maximize ROI. Together with Glance, we’re shaping the future of app marketing, delivering actionable insights and best practices to fuel success in the competitive mobile landscape,” added Ajit Pawar, director of partnerships – APAC, Adjust.

As per the report, marketers should consider the context and content of their campaigns to connect with cricket fans, strategising for before, during and after matches. They should also explore new formats and channels such as polls, quizzes, interactive units and smart lock screens to create immersive, interactive and engaging experiences.