TAM’s Anshu Yardi on consumer trends seen in IPL 2025 that could alter the future of marketing

The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) set a new viewership record, reaching over one billion viewers across TV and digital platforms, with a cumulative watch-time of 840 billion minutes, according to JioStar. The streaming platform reportedly clocked 23.1 billion views and 384.6 billion minutes while connected TV consumption jumped 49%. Additionally, Star Sports logged 456 billion minutes of TV watch-time and led in TV ratings across demographics. 

Despite the fragmented nature of viewership, ultra-short advertisements lasting less than 10 seconds dominated IPL 2025, accounting for 54% of all ad insertions during the tournament, as per TAM AdEx’s data. This shift signals a recalibration of how brands approach India's most-watched sporting event. 

Anshu Yardi, Vice President of Business Partnerships & Communication at TAM Media Research, sees this as just the beginning. "The trend toward ultra-short ads (under 10 seconds) will likely deepen, especially on digital platforms where attention spans are minimal. We may see even micro-formats (3–6 seconds) in future, reshaping the classic 30-second narrative."

Next IPL, this behavioural change could alter communication in the fragmented attention economy. Yardi continues that with hyper-focused messaging, strong visual branding, and flexible storytelling, deeper engagement is built through layered creatives or short, interesting stories rather than a single long ad. 

While the tournament achieved a 10.5% growth in overall ad volumes compared to the previous year, the real story lies in the diversification of advertisers. The season witnessed a 30% rise in advertisers and 29% increase in brands, along with the entry of 27 new categories and the simultaneous exit of 28 categories from IPL 2024. However, the diversification of advertisers has necessitated the need for a targeted approach with a focus beyond mere reach.

A battlefield of objectives

As advertisers take a more targeted approach when it comes to the tournament, Yardi notes, "IPL has also become less of a luxury brand play and more of a strategic acquisition + mass awareness engine, where ROI, data-backed targeting dominate decision-making." This likely explains why mouth fresheners consistently topped ad volumes throughout the season while traditional heavy-spending categories retreated to reassess their investment strategies.

The trends and consumer behaviour indicate an increase in mobile-first, digital consumer behaviour that resonates with IPL's demographic of 18 to 35-year-olds. Brands are increasingly looking at real-time visibility during live games. This reconfiguration has created competitive dynamics within the tournament. Legacy brands like Parle Biscuits leverage their IPL presence to cement leadership positions and drive mass recall, while newer entrants such as AMFI and Campa Cola use the platform's massive reach for rapid scale and visibility. 

According to TAM data, Parle Biscuits was the top advertiser in the first 57 matches of IPL 2025, with an 8.22% share of ad volumes.

Yardi describes this as "a battlefield of objectives," where established players reinforce their market narratives through continuity while disruptors attempt to gain ground through novelty and advertisements designed to resonate with younger generations.

The expansion to 28 broadcast channels from 24 in the previous year further facilitated this access. More channels meant more inventory at varying price points, allowing more advertisers to participate while enabling more granular targeting strategies. This channel expansion benefited regional advertisers and brands seeking to test IPL's effectiveness without committing to premium national slots, contributing to the overall increase in advertiser diversity.

Regionalised & data-driven approach

With over 100 brands advertising with both Hindi/English and regional feeds, IPL 2025 became a testing ground for hyper-local communication approaches within the 10-second creative compression. 

Yardi explains, “Media planning will increasingly prioritise hyper-regional customisation, with regional feeds becoming core to IPL strategy—not just as an add-on. Brands will craft vernacular-first creatives to boost relatability, while national campaigns may adopt cohesive messaging to align with regional sentiment.”

Brands must now create multiple versions of already compressed messages, each tailored to specific linguistic and cultural contexts while maintaining a consistent brand identity. 

The future trajectory of IPL advertising also depends on data integration and cross-platform coordination. As the tournament expands across more channels and digital platforms, brands are adopting what Yardi terms "synchronised cross-screen, multi-platform strategies—combining reach from Linear TV with enhanced interactivity via digital." 

Audiences consume IPL content across multiple touchpoints simultaneously, requiring advertisers to craft consistent yet platform-optimised messaging. The role of granular data analysis has become central to this coordination effort. 

Yardi emphasises, “Granular viewership data across demographics (age, region, device type, etc.) will fuel personalised messaging, maximising ROI through more targeted planning in the future.”

This will enable advertisers to move beyond broad demographic assumptions toward precise audience segments, allowing for more efficient budget allocation and creative optimisation.

Audience decides the endorser

Celebrity endorsement strategies also reflect this data-driven approach. Ananya Panday has emerged as a top endorser during IPL 2025, securing the top spot with a 9% share in ad volumes. This shows that brands are now selecting personalities based on audience engagement rather than traditional star power metrics. 

Yardi attributes Panday's success to her "youth appeal, strong social media presence, and high relatability among Gen Z audiences." Meanwhile, film actors continue to dominate endorsements, with a sharp drop in the number of sports celebrities.

Yardi notes this is because film stars offer pan-India visibility and non-contextual flexibility, while cricketers, despite IPL relevance and importance, are sometimes limited by team loyalties, form, or schedule.

The increasing sophistication of IPL advertising strategies is also driving more rigorous performance measurement requirements. Rising advertising costs are forcing brands, particularly newer entrants, to justify investments through comprehensive analytics. Yardi anticipates that advertisers will increasingly lean on attention metrics, market perception studies, and predictive attribution models to ensure ROI, leading to a rise in data-led creative planning, real-time market testing, and campaigns blending salience with measurable outcomes.

As media buying becomes more performance-driven and hybrid, combining traditional television reach with digital precision, which will encourage more programmatic IPL integrations, AR/VR-based fan activations, and interactive ad formats. With this, sports marketing is leaning toward fully integrated, data-responsive advertising platforms.

Sports marketing's future lies not in simple audience aggregation but in the ability to deliver measurable, personalised brand experiences across multiple touchpoints. For advertisers willing to embrace this complexity, IPL could offer a glimpse into an intelligence-driven future of integrated sports marketing.