With advertising outlays around the Indian Premier League continuing to swell, media analytics firm Ormax Media is sharpening its pitch to marketers: measure impact while the tournament is still on, not after the trophy is lifted.

The Mumbai-headquartered company launched Ormax Trac20, a syndicated research product designed to track sponsorship and advertising effectiveness through IPL 2026. Positioned as the largest syndicated study focused on IPL ad and sponsorship performance, the tool aims to give brands weekly diagnostics and mid-season course-correction signals.

The shift from reach to results

For years, IPL has been India’s most coveted advertising property, delivering unmatched reach across television and digital. But scale has come with clutter. As categories pile into the tournament—spanning fintech, e-commerce, FMCG, auto, fantasy gaming and D2C brands—visibility alone is no longer enough.

Marketers are under growing pressure to justify returns on eight- and nine-figure campaign budgets. Internal dashboards now track not just impressions and GRPs, but recall, consideration and purchase intent shifts.

Ormax Trac20 attempts to plug into that demand. The framework combines a weekly ad-tracking study with what the firm calls a three-stage brand lift model—capturing shifts in key brand metrics before the season, mid-way through the tournament, and after it concludes. With a sample size of 16,500 across modules, the company says the product is built for benchmarking performance against competing brands within the same IPL environment.

The emphasis is on structured weekly reporting rather than post-season analysis. In practice, that could allow advertisers to recalibrate media weights, tweak creatives, or rework sponsorship activations while matches are still underway.

Rising scrutiny on marquee spends 

IPL sponsorship and advertising have evolved well beyond traditional spot buys. Brands now invest in franchise partnerships, thematic integrations, on-ground activations, influencer tie-ins and large free commercial time (FCT) blocks across linear and digital feeds.

The fragmentation of viewership—split between television and streaming—has further complicated attribution. As a result, boards and CFOs are demanding sharper accountability on whether the IPL bump translates into tangible brand movement.

Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of Ormax Media, said the cluttered and high-cost nature of IPL advertising necessitates more rigorous diagnostics. “Brands need more than visibility metrics to understand if their investments are delivering adequate value,” he said.

A broader analytics play

Founded in 2008, Ormax Media has carved a niche in media and entertainment analytics, spanning content testing, forecasting, audience measurement and brand equity research. The firm counts broadcasters, studios and streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Sony Pictures Networks India among its clients.

With Ormax Trac20, the company is moving more decisively into advertiser-focused effectiveness tracking tied to marquee live properties.

The timing is strategic. As marketing budgets face tighter scrutiny amid macroeconomic uncertainty, large-event spends are being evaluated with the same rigour as performance marketing investments. Real-time brand lift data could increasingly influence how chief marketing officers allocate—and reallocate—capital within a season.

If IPL remains the biggest advertising stage in India, measurement may well become its most competitive sub-plot.