Mukesh Ambani Uses "Brain Mapping" To Attract Advertisers To IPL

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is now targeting small businesses and implementing neuroscience (photo: x @indianweb2) studies.

JAKARTA - After reaching a $8.5 billion media merger deal with Walt Disney, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is now targeting small businesses and implementing unconventional neuroscience studies. This is done to increase revenue from the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world's most valuable cricket league.

IPL's broadcasting rights and other cricket tournaments cost nearly $10 billion to Disney and Reliance in recent years have become a huge burden for a combined company that is now India's largest entertainment giant.

Preparing to face competition with Netflix and Amazon on a $28 billion market, Reliance held a closed seminar in seven cities in India for one month to attract small companies to advertise on IPL. The company is offering ad packages at prices ranging from $17,000 or around IDR 266 million.

In its internal document, Reliance states that ads are an integral part of IPL shows. The company targets 40 million smart televisions and 420 million mobile devices for IPL shows which will last for 60 days starting March 22.

Reliance has secretly presented research results of "brain mapping" to advertising agencies. The study claims to have analyzed participant neurons and shows that ads broadcast on the Reliance streaming platform have a higher level of engagement than Google.

Strategy To Boost Ad Revenue

Five media executives and sources from Reliance, as well as two company presentations, revealed that Reliance is now focusing on attracting small advertisers by expanding its digital ad inventory. The move aims to increase streaming revenue.

"We have to make money," said one company executive who understands this strategy.

Reliance also plans to monetize small spaces on the score screen in mobile apps after deciding to stop IPL's free streaming service on the JioHotstar platform starting this year. This move signals the company's revenue pressure.

A wellness startup owner who attended a Reliance seminar in Bengaluru, Anita Devraj, revealed that although the IPL ad package is cheaper than before, he still feels more efficient advertising on Instagram and YouTube.

Invest In Expensive Broad Rights

Prior to the merger, Reliance and Disney spent about $3 billion each to gain IPL broadcasting rights through 2027. In addition, they also poured billions of dollars into the broadcast rights of the ICC and other cricket leagues.

However, this large investment is a burden for Disney India, which briefly described the ICC's broadcasting rights as "loading" with an estimated loss of USD 1.42 billion.

On the other hand, Reliance sees IPL as the main attraction for advertisers and viewers. The company hopes that consumers interested in IPL will also subscribe to other content such as Bollywood films and HBO shows.

In order for this merger to be approved by India's antitrust authorities, Reliance and Disney have promised not to impose an unreasonable ad rate. However, this year, Reliance has continued to increase its IPL streaming ad rates by 25%.

Media Ant, one of India's media agencies, said that they bought large amounts of ads from Reliance and resell them to clients at lower prices. The Media Ant website offers IPL ad packages starting from 500,000 rupees (IDR 94.8 million), while YouTube ads can start from just 10,000 rupees (IDR 1.8 million).

Reliance Challenges US Tech Giants

Reliance is increasingly challenging the dominance of Google and Meta in digital advertising in India. Companies use user data to target ads based on age, income, and location, while increasing their advertising rates.

Pitch deck Reliance even includes images of participants wearing headsets and heart rate monitors in a "brain mapping" study to compare IPL ad engagement rates with competing platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.

Reliance claims that their focus, engagement, and memory of their ads is up to four times higher than advertising on Meta and Google. However, a streaming analyst from Informa Tech Target, Daoud Jackson, doubts the Reliance strategy that relies on neuroscience research.

"You won't win the market just by showing brain scans in a board meeting next year," Jackson said. "What's more important is the profit and loss chart.