Indian Premier League – Cricket, Entertainment or Business?

Abstract

The Indian Premier League has changed the mindset of the people towards cricket. It is considered as one of the most sought after extravaganza which is a combination of entertainment, nailbiting cricket, world-famous cricketers, corporate houses, and Bollywood stars with a massive global viewership. Many corporate houses have considered IPL as the best platform to market their products and services. This paper starts with a brief outline of the history of IPL followed by measuring the influence of demographic variables on cricket and IPL watching preference of the respondents. It also tries to understand the influence of advertisements aired during IPL on viewers' purchase behaviour. The paper compares the opinions of Mumbai and Bangalore viewers. The paper used the combination of literature review and multiple-choice based questionnaire to understand the use of advertisements during IPL and the perception of respondents about the marquee event. The paper will help organizations to understand the general preference of the audience towards cricket and brands endorsed. The findings reveal that brands have to innovate better to capture the attention of the audience watching through television during breaks. The research will help future researchers to take variables into consideration for more detailed study which will pave way for interesting observations which can be used by companies for brand development.