Angel One’s Prabhakar Tiwari on winning the IPL ad game

A recent infographic by Synchronize India Marketing Services in collaboration with Unomer, analyzing the "Top 20 Most Visible and Recalled Brands of IPL 2024," ranked Angel One among the top 3.

“This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our incredible team and our agency partners. It's a significant milestone in our first year as an IPL sponsor with comparatively modest spends,” says Prabhakar Tiwari, chief growth officer, Angel One.

In an exclusive chat with Storyboard18, Tiwari discusses ad spends and digital investments for the IPL campaign, media platforms which yielded the best investment, and more.

What were Angel One's main objectives and strategies for the IPL campaign this year?

Over the years, we've cultivated a highly effective approach to customer acquisition. Transitioning to a discount broking model allowed us to leverage performance marketing for tight control of unit economics while scaling the business. Following the rebranding exercise in FY22, we implemented a measured brand marketing strategy to solidify our new identity. We built further on the new brand positioning with our Super App campaign in the last financial year.

The measurable success of our brand campaigns, evident in the organic business growth in addition to strong marketing metrics, solidified our confidence in this strategy around top funnel marketing spends. As a leader in our category, we recognized the opportunity to leverage this momentum and expand the category itself.

An impactful platform like the IPL provides a powerful platform to enhance brand recall and create positive brand associations through impactful visuals and storytelling. This strategic partnership aligns perfectly with our North Star of becoming the most trusted FinTech brand empowering 1 billion lives leveraging the power of data and technology.

Through our strategic partnership with the IPL, we anticipate reaching a massive audience of at least 500 million potential customers this season. This represents a significant step forward towards our North Star objective within a single year. By fostering brand awareness and building trust through engaging activations, we aim to cultivate a loyal user base who will choose our services in the future.

What aspects of the strategy proved successful?

This year, IPL had a tender bidding process for becoming its on-ground partner. Winning the partnership provided us with significant on-ground visibility. A lot of our initial assumptions regarding OG partnership have proven right and thing have worked in our favour.

On-ground has given us a big leverage because our planned media spends were not so heavy given the first year of experimentation. Within the media budget we have, we were very savvy about choosing the linear TV spends. When it comes to digital, we have over indexed heavily on CTV which has paid us great dividends. We have established a centralized analytics platform to conduct comprehensive incrementality testing across key metrics. Additionally, we track our performance through a variety of funnel parameters, providing a holistic view of spends effectiveness with clear attribution to OG, digital and TV. The Angel One ‘Super Six’ mention and match day awards also worked very effectively. Our brand has resonated strongly with sports enthusiasts and IPL fans nationwide.

Could you outline the ad spends and digital investments for the IPL campaign?

We implemented a flexible budget strategy in-line with our immediate business plans during the IPL period, allowing us to dynamically adjust our media investments based on real-time performance data with central IPL analytics and business KPIs. This data-driven approach ensured we maximized our short term return on investment (ROI) within the allocated budget of approximately Rs 130 crores combining On Ground and brand media spends during this IPL season.

What were the key areas of the marketing investments during the IPL season?

On-ground sponsorship was the biggest spend for us. We have paid around INR 82.5 crores for this IPL season. Further, we have invested in media including TV and digital especially connected TV. We have also leveraged educational segments and advertisements during IPL broadcast on social media.

Given that we wanted to be very sharp about our IPL investment, we have focused mostly on Star Sports and Jio Cinema - both in CTV and HH. Additionally, we conducted targeted experiments on YouTube, reaching finance/tech and sports-affinity audiences with high precision.

What were the results of the IPL campaign? How was the ROI measured?

In immediate terms, we have seen a significant jump in our web traffic and installs despite the overall category volume decline due to seasonality and election period. Also, we have seen a good percentage jump in conversion to lead %. Given that we have been doing good on our acquisition market share, we are quite satisfied that leading indicators are looking good and funnels will mature and improve further.

According to recently published research from a leading independent ad efficacy measurement agency, Angel One emerged as one of the top 3 most recalled and visible brands during the IPL 2024 season amidst a staggering array of over 200 brands vying for attention throughout the cricketing extravaganza. This accomplishment is particularly noteworthy considering it's our first year as an IPL partner and our brand was able to make a lasting impression in a fiercely competitive environment.

Which media platform has provided the best return on investment?

Our centralized analytics platform and rigorous incrementality studies have revealed that Connected TV (CTV) and on-ground sponsorships have demonstrably improved our performance across multiple KPIs when it comes to specific attribution.

With a long-term commitment to IPL, what is the brand's overarching game plan?

The IPL presents a unique opportunity to connect the category and brand proposition with a massive national audience. We've established a strategic partnership to ensure seamless integration, allowing us to engage fans across various touchpoints: on-ground activations, media outreach, and ultimately, enhancing the overall sports viewing experience with meaningful brand property integration.

The unparalleled visibility offered by the IPL is a powerful tool for our brand to solidify its leadership position within our target markets. Recognizing this, we've committed to a long-term partnership with the IPL for five years. Our approach will be strategically phased, with this year focusing on upper-funnel brand awareness initiatives. In collaboration with the IPL management and our media partners, we will progressively refine our strategy to achieve deeper engagement in subsequent years.

How does the brand plan to compete with the likes of Zerodha and Groww in the long run?

At Angel One, we prioritize a data-driven, customer-centric approach. This philosophy guides both our business strategies and the continued enhancement of our user-friendly Super App platform.

We believe in fostering financial inclusion and making investing accessible to a broader audience. Our past success in leveraging performance marketing to reach Tier II and Tier III cities exemplifies this commitment.

Our dedication to financial education empowers individuals across India by equipping them with the knowledge and confidence to navigate financial markets. User-centric campaigns further support this mission.

Building on our past achievements, we've strategically increased our investment with the IPL sponsorship. This partnership allows us to showcase our brand proposition to a massive audience, creating a potential quantum leap in our reach.

We are confident that the combination of our strong brand reputation, accessible Super App platform, and commitment to financial education will position us as the preferred choice for investors seeking an empowering investment & trading experience.