Why Snapchat wants to be the ‘banter layer’ of IPL advertising: Yagnesh Ravi explains

The Indian Premier League’s centre of gravity has shifted over the years. In the 2025 season, digital platforms surpassed television in viewership for the first time, drawing 652 million viewers compared to 537 million on TV, according to a joint report by JioStar and Media Partners Asia. 

Overall, the tournament reached more than one billion viewers across TV and digital, underscoring how the league now unfolds across multiple screens rather than a single broadcast channel. 

For advertisers, this shift has fundamentally changed the IPL playbook. The challenge is no longer simply buying broadcast spots, it is capturing attention in an ecosystem where fans are simultaneously watching the match, chatting with friends and reacting in real time on their phones.

In this evolving media environment, platforms are trying to define their role in the live sports experience. While streaming platforms and social media compete for second-screen engagement, Snapchat intends to position itself differently, not as another content feed, but as a space where cricket conversations unfold in real time.

The conversation comes as Snapchat launches “Cricket in a Snap,” a cricket-season advertising offering designed to help brands engage fans during major tournaments like the IPL.

According to Yagnesh Ravi, Ad Solutions Lead at Snap Inc., the platform’s role during events like IPL lies in amplifying the social element of sports viewing.

“Snap is the place where real-time chatter around cricket happens. We bring the banter to the broadcast,” he says.

Much of that conversation, Ravi shares, is driven by younger audiences.

Cricket’s Gen Z moment

Any conversation about sports marketing in India today inevitably circles back to Gen Z. With an estimated 370 million Gen Z consumers in the country, they represent the largest demographic cohort and an increasingly influential audience for advertisers.

Ravi points out that cricket continues to hold strong cultural relevance among younger audiences.

“About 85% of Gen Z in India actively follows cricket. In many ways, this generation is driving cricket culture today,” he says.

Snapchat’s own user base overlaps significantly with this demographic. The platform has over 250 million users in India, with the majority under the age of 32.

For brands looking to engage younger audiences during IPL, Ravi shares that this demographic alignment makes the platform attractive.

The second-screen reality

Second-screen behaviour has become a highlight feature of modern sports consumption. Fans frequently switch between devices while watching matches, often scrolling through social media feeds during breaks in play.

However, Snap’s internal research suggests that this behaviour is less about passive browsing and more about social interaction. The research shows more than 90% of its users second-screen during live cricket matches, often messaging friends while watching the game.

Instead of competing with the broadcast for attention, the platform positions itself as a parallel layer of conversation around the match.

Live sports, Ravi shares, are meant to be social experiences. Messaging platforms, in that sense, help recreate the shared excitement that once came from watching games in groups.

“When someone takes a great catch or hits a big six, people want to react instantly, ‘What a shot!’ or ‘That was unbelievable.’ Those spontaneous reactions happen on Snap,” Ravi says.

From impressions to attention

For advertisers navigating the IPL’s cluttered environment, the challenge is not just reach but engagement.

Traditional campaign metrics have long focused on impressions or video completion rates. But as digital advertising evolves, attention metrics are increasingly being used to measure effectiveness.

Ravi says research conducted with Lumen and WPP suggests that attention may have a stronger link to brand outcomes.

“Attention has four times higher correlation with brand recall compared to metrics like video completion rate,” he says.

This shift is influencing how brands plan campaigns on the platform. Instead of relying solely on passive video formats, Snap encourages advertisers to explore interactive formats such as augmented reality (AR) and messaging integrations.

“Our formats are built for lean-in behaviour. People opt in to engage with AR or chat, which means the attention is active rather than passive,” Ravi explains.

Through formats such as branded lenses, live score integrations and creator collaborations, the platform is encouraging advertisers to experiment with more interactive campaigns.

A crowded IPL advertising field

During the IPL seasons, brands from multiple sectors compete aggressively for visibility. Historically, categories such as FMCG, fintech, e-commerce and consumer tech have dominated advertising during the tournament.

Snap’s experience suggests that interest in the platform spans similar sectors.

“It’s not skewed towards one or two categories. We’re seeing interest from e-commerce, FMCG, tech and several others,” he adds.

The common thread, he shares, is the growing recognition that Gen Z consumption now drives a significant share of the market.

This shift has also changed how brands approach fan culture during tournaments like the IPL.

Giving in to fan culture

Another layer of IPL marketing involves creators and influencers, who often translate sporting moments into internet culture.

On Snapchat, the relationship between creators and sports content is evolving in multiple ways.

A growing number of young Indian cricketers like Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh themselves are active on the platform, reflecting the generational shift within the sport.

Beyond that, Snap is experimenting with scaled creator collaborations where multiple creators participate in a single brand challenge.

“A brand can share a hashtag and a brief, and we can have dozens of creators interpret it in their own style. That gives the campaign reach but also keeps it authentic,” Ravi says.

Such formats allow brands to tap into a broader network of creators rather than relying on a handful of influencers.

Looking ahead, he shares that the relationship between sports broadcasting and digital platforms is likely to evolve further.

While television and streaming remain central to live sports, the surrounding ecosystem, commentary, memes, conversations and reactions, increasingly unfolds across social and messaging platforms.

Snapchat believes that this surrounding conversation will become as important as the broadcast itself.