HP first to stitch deal with YouTube for IPL

HP first to stitch deal with YouTube for IPL

MUMBAI: HP has become the first company to stitch a sponsorship deal with Google for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 3.0.

All matches of the IPL will stream live on the Google-owned video-sharing site, YouTube.

Google is looking at getting 10 partners as main and associate sponsors. These sponsors will consume around 75 per cent of inventory, a media buyer notes.

YouTube-IPL deal, he explains, offers brands a chance to increase their incremental reach. "It allows you to reach a specific kind of audience. You can target younger males and do a specific kind of communication that this medium allows," he says. 
 
Elaborating further, the buyer avers that it also makes sense for global brands to get on board. The IPL will be streamed live globaly apart from the US where there will be a delay. So the likes of Pepsi, Coca-Cola, LG, Hyundai would be interested. "This is because in addition to having customers globally some of them also target the youth," he says. 
 
While not divulging names, Google India head Parminder Singh says that the company is in advanced talks with companies from several sectors including telecom, auto, education, IT and financial services. Google is looking at 10 commercial partners.

"Clients will have spots across the event. That is a part of it. Advertisers will also get to own what we call Spotlight Matches. On that day, if he is advertising for that match, he gets the entire IPL experience across the day. He will have a presence on the YouTube homepage. When the match is going on, his ads will appear on the top, right and bottom. This will offer an immersive experience for our client," Singh informs.

“The advertiser’s brand has to get noticed in the right context. We expect 80 million eyeballs and 10 million unique users to come to YouTube during the event,” he adds. 
 
When asked about how this would affect TV viewing on Max, he notes that one of the findings of research done is that people watch online video concurrently with television. So while they will watch the IPL on Max, they will also go to YouTube for value adds.

In terms of IPR, he says that YouTube gives content owners the right to play and manage the content. There is technology that allows content owners to go through the entire repository of videos on YouTube, Singh says.