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ith the 2023 Cricket World Cup qualification process underway, advertisers and agencies across the country prepare themselves with campaigns that align directly or indirectly with the tournament at large. Speaking with Profit under the condition of anonymity, seasoned brand marketers have expressed apprehension about over-investing in the ICC games, citing mixed feelings based on the performance of the Pakistan cricket and Kantar-MediaLogic data pertaining to viewership fluctuations whenever the Pakistan cricket team loses and is no longer a contender. “Cricket audiences in Pakistan are really interested when Pakistani players are playing in any match or tournament,” said Ahmed Hanif, CEO of Cricwick & Cricingif. “If we compare the numbers of digital viewers in ODI World Cup 2019 and PSL 2020, which were just six months apart, we see a huge difference of interest. In World Cup 2019 we got around 200K unique viewers, while during PSL 2020, around 569K unique visitors came to our platform to
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watch the live stream and for cricket updates.” According to data from MediaLogic, the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 had an average rating of 1.5 on Ten Sports and 3.3 on PTV Sports. Meanwhile, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup has an average rating of 2.3 on Ten Sports and 3.2 on PTV Sports. The cumulative rating between the games was 4.8 to 5.5 respectively. Across Ten Sports, PTV Sports, and Geo Super, the first Pakistan Super League (PSL) games had an average rating of 0.7, 3.4, and 0.7, while the second PSL games had an average rating of 1.0, 5.2, and 1.8, and the third PSL games had an average rating of 1.7, 4.7, and 2.0 - with the cumulative ratings between the first and third PSL doubling across three channels. “The culture of local cricket viewership makes an interesting case study as it informs us from where does the fan drive stems,” said Rubab Hasan, the marketing and communications director for The IPG Group. “We believe that the passion to watch cricket—local or international—is demonstrated best when teams represent a community or a city to which the viewer relates his or her identity.” Even without Ten Sports airing the
“Under [Ehsan Mani], the Pakistan cricket team lost five of the ten test matches from 2018 to 2019, lost seven of the ten one-day series during the same period. Even with [Ramiz] Raja in charge and nepotismbased team selection abundantly clear, no chance I am risking precious budgets on a losing team” A brand marketer with a prominent beverage company
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