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#SSIPLWatch: Philip Xia on how TCL is leveraging IPL to push their TV range

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Shamita Islur
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TCL’s marketing strategy


Electronics brand, TCL is partaking in IPL through their partnership with Sunrisers Hyderabad for the fourth consecutive year with their campaign #PitchPerfectView. As we assess how TCL’s marketing strategy helps them witness visible growth, Philip Xia chimes in with his observations on this partnership. 

Betting on the massive attraction enjoyed by IPL, electronics company TCL India has continued their multi-year partnership with the Indian Premier League team Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as their Official Sponsor. 

Sponsoring a team during a major event brings along better brand visibility, builds trust among the customers, and overall widens the reach of the brand. Philip Xia, CEO, TCL India says, “With this partnership, we aim to maximize our sales, widen our consumer base, and cement a leadership position in the market. SRH team has a huge fan following, and partnering with them will help us bank on this opportunity.”

Globally, TCL stands in second place with a market share that saw a growth at 11.7 per cent in 2022, up from 11.5 per cent in 2021. While TV viewership has gone down during the tournament due to digital streaming, the company’s yearly partnership with the IPL team appears to have boosted growth as per Xia. 

“It has certainly helped us in enhancing our brand visibility and also in maximizing our sales. We have specifically grown 2X in the big size and QLED segment.” 

Leveraging Team SRH

Xia mentioned that having seen sizeable growth in the big size and QLED TV, the company has rolled out this year’s marketing campaign called #PitchPerfectView to promote their television sets. 

The campaign will give TCL customers a chance to win Ultra-Luxury Car worth INR 40Lakhs* and additional prizes worth INR 4 crores on selected Flagship Mini-LED and Big Size TV. 

The promotions for the same are ongoing via different channels. “Our media investment strategy is to reach out to the consumer via the right platform at the right time to create a stronger brand recall. With contextual marketing across connected TV, OTT, publishers and social media channels, we intend to woo our audiences by showing them relevant and intriguing ads,” says Xia.

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In the past four years of their partnership, the company’s marketing course of action has taken shape with multiple engagement activities from contests, challenges, trivia and more that includes prizes to catch consumer attention. 

This includes getting followers to jump in on a dance challenge on the Sunrisers anthem, asking them to spot the TCL logo during live matches, sharing what inspires them in their lives, match predictions and more. 

This year, TCL has leveraged social media channels through creatives, AR filters, digital videos, and quiz contests to bring cricket fans to the table and increase the visibility of the brand.

Their creatives are full of wordplay with cricket terms mixed with the promotions of their offerings including TV, Air conditioners and more. 

As part of the #PitchPerfectView campaign, the brand has also leveraged the value brought on SRH players and have organised a ‘Meet and Greet’ with cricketers Aiden Markram, Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, and Glen Phillip. The event aimed at creating a platform where the audiences could meet players while being acquainted with TCL.

In previous years, they were pretty active on social media and YouTube with behind-the-scenes footage and fun banter coming from the team.

Integration Of Technology 

With technology being one of the key mediums for brand promotions this year, TCL has been keeping up with the trend. 

Xia elaborates, “We lay great focus on improvising technology to meet the demands of our patrons. With time, we have also started incorporating technology to our marketing strategy to reach a larger audience. This year too, as a part of our marketing strategy, we are integrating augmented reality to build a phenomenal gaming experience for our audience.”

TCL has built an e-gaming experience for their audience using augmented reality (AR) and that has been made available to cricket fans on both online and offline media vehicles with prizes.

Additionally, they have created an AR-based filter on Instagram where people can take a selfie with their favourite players and use it on their social media profiles. 

TCL has reached out to over 12 million people, engaging over 3 million cricket fans till now with 25 million impressions to date and is continuing to attract more cricket fans by the end of the campaign.

Alongside IPL, summer has been a major part of the electronic companies with a larger focus on AC sales. The AC industry, which recorded sales of about 8.25 million units in 2022, is continuing its double-digit growth journey this season as well. 

“We at TCL are building a strong market for the AC segment and last season we sold about 60,000 units. This year too we anticipate 1.5X growth in the AC category and also plan to come up with some exciting products for our customers.” Xia continues. 

Overall, IPL has been a strategic decision on TCL’s part since consumer retention is higher towards the Cricket season, from Xia’s past observations. This is why the company’s larger focus is on the IPL to launch new technology to Indian Consumers. 

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