CONSUMER SERVICES
Rahul Poral - June 16, 2026
Cricket will always be a huge source of attraction among brands in India. It provides scope, emotion and culture that is unmatched in any other media environment. Vikas Shah, Co-founder, BigCity Promotions, says that as marketing budgets continue to diminish and accountability increases, it is starting to dawn on the brands that attention is not equal to acquisition, engagement or revenue.
Cricket can only be profitable from an execution perspective in cases where the brands are able to put an intent-reward behaviour, and even in the process of retaining interest both in and out of the match window. Without such layers, even the most glaring cricket campaigns do not show ROI and real business impact.
Why one-size-fits-all cricket advertising fails at an execution level
Cricket has massive audiences, but they are operationally complex. The fans differ on geography, language, team loyalty, online behaviour and intention to buy — but in most cricketing campaigns, the same problem occurs: standardised advertisement that is developed with the main objective of exposure.
This poses two clear limitations with regards to implementation. Firstly, it decreases communication. A single advertisement could not be meaningful to fans attending a regional league game, national final or last over game. Second, it waters down measurement. When a campaign is designed to be perceived alone, performance is reduced to impressions, views and number of engagements, none of which would make any differentiation on who actually took action, who made a conversion and who can be re-engaged.
Practically this solution cannot succeed because of:
This is the reason why brands ought to participate-based campaigns in lieu of media exposure — campaigns in which fans can participate, recognise and take actions that they can monitor. This engagement is not an automatic one and should be activated. Reward-based campaigns are the best way of doing this in a high attention time-bound world like in the cricket field.
The foundation of cricket-led acquisition reasons rewards are the foundation of acquisition
Rewards give a feeling of immediacy and up-to-dateness in the most crucial moments of the match, and it is exactly at that moment that fans evidently possess a reason to move from the viewing to the participating stage. They work because they:
By properly-designed and scaled rewards, the brand can reposition the active engagement and acquisition of the brand with passive exposure. Above all, they allow repeat engagement to become a possibility – making cricket a one-off event as opposed to a loyalty-based system in which customers could be re-engaged many years after the match.
In this case, the capacity to perform matters. The adoption of incentive-based campaign of cricket should involve the variety of the incentives, direct gratification, discourage frauds, localisation, and more without interfering with experience.
The assessment of cricket campaigns in the current age and why that is a structural problem
The evaluation of campaigns, even though the investments in cricket are substantial, is still very far away when it comes to actual implementation.
Most brands still rely on:
The existence of these measures can be attributed to the fact that a majority of the cricket campaigns are not action oriented. Motivated engagement and distinguishable activity would allow the brands to be left with no other option but to report on exposure.
Execution-based evaluation is what is increasingly requested by brands:
When the campaigns are built keeping the measurement, rewards and loyalty functionality in mind, then cricket can only be blamed.
The Future of Marketing Budgets: How by 2026 Budgets will be used more prudently.
By 2026, brands too will spend a lot of money on cricket but it will be of an alternative structure. Pure media allocation will still be supported by investments in engagement infrastructure, reward ecosystems and layers of loyalty.
Budgets of Smart 2026 Cricket will focus on:
Designing participation journeys at scale and media purchases.
Basically, cricket budgets will no longer be evaluated separately, but rather as part of a larger expansion and retention plan.
How ROI of Cricket will be measured in reality in 2026.
As the execution model matures, the ROI measure of customer economics will decisively make the move. The brands will be better monitored:
Price per participating and rewarded user.
This measurement can only be done when campaigns are established such that they can reward, track, and retain users and not only reach out to them.
Future of Cricket Engagement: Where will winning brands be different?
The three future shifts in the engagement of the brands in cricket will be marked by:
Cricket does not only enhance instant marketing, but it also enhances customer engagement.
Not only instant marketing, but cricket also boosts customer engagement.
Undoubtedly, cricket is a big investment for brands and will continue to be so. Its success is largely dependent on reward-based connections, monitoring how customers behave, and turning temporary attention into long term profitability.
This is going to be the blueprint for all future campaigns for this great game.
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