IPL 2018: One of top ad spenders of IPL to be absent in the upcoming edition

The 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League is only a couple of months away. With the biggest T20 carnival of the world of cricket nearing its commencement, the build up and the hype to the tournament has already begun. The ad sponsors and the advertisements have started to spring up in the media. Over the years, top mobile brands – like Oppo, Vivo, and Gionee – have used IPL as a platform to market their brands.

For most of the international businesses, the IPL serves as the ideal place to strategise their business in the Indian markets.  This is evident from the fact that Vivo is the title sponsor of the tournament and shelled out a huge amount of money in bagging the sponsorship rights. Similarly, Oppo has also shown great interest in investing in the IPL.

However, in the 2018 edition of the IPL, one of the top such ad investors is not in a mood to continue their expenditure on the tournament. As per the recent reports in the InsideSport.co, brand Gionee will not be making any marketing investment on IPL this year unless there is a last-minute shift in its stand. Interestingly, Gionee has had a very deep connection with the tournament.

They have been the title sponsors of the Kolkata Knight Riders since the 2015 edition of the tournament. Also, they had their logo sported on the jersey of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. These twin deals had made Gionee the biggest investor on team sponsorships in IPL 2017. One of the sources from the company confirmed that they have not discussed the prospect of investing in the IPL as yet.

“We (the company) have not even discussed IPL this year. There are no budgets and there are no provisions. The company is going through a restructuring process (at the top management level). We don’t see any major financial decisions happening soon,” the source quoted.

Also, their association with Virat Kohli seems to be going through a rough time. Kohli was named as the brand ambassador of Gionee last year. However, there have been no new commercials featuring Kohli in the recent times.

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