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A love for numbers got Mr. Joseph Eapen into the world of sports market research. The Managing Director of YouGov Sport (India) was just 22 years old when he left India for the UAE in search of better opportunities.
“There was an ad in the newspaper saying they were looking for a telecom engineer in a TV measurement company,” Mr Eapen told Sportskeeda.com in an exclusive Zoom interaction. “I was curious, I applied.”
Soon, one thing led to another, and Mr. Eapen was sent to Switzerland and Italy to get trained on audience measurement and head PARC/AGB Gulf, the first metered audience measurement in the Gulf. 16 years later, he returned to India and became the CEO of aMap, another TV rating company.
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The last 7.5 years have seen Mr. Eapen with YouGov, a British market research and data analytics company that made its name through opinion polling during elections.
At YouGov Sports (India), Mr. Eapen oversees clients that include all IPL teams besides BCCI itself and FSDL (the entity behind ISL).
We caught up with Mr. Eapen to discuss YouGov’s latest IPL findings and emerging trends among the Indian sports audience. He also shared his insights on the state of sports market research in India, YouGov Sport’s current India revenue model, and future expansion plans.
Edited excerpts:
YouGov Sport's IPL Partnership
1) YouGov Sport works closely with IPL teams. Can you elaborate on the nature of these partnerships, and the key market research asks when it comes to a premium property like the IPL?
We work with all the teams. We have a signed contract with all of them except for Lucknow [with whom] it’s just a verbal [agreement] so far.
What we do for the leagues and the franchisees is that we first quantify the size of the market: how many people are watching IPL, what is the intensity of viewing, etc. That’s anyway available from BARC as well. So that’s not an extra set of data, it is just that we interpret the data cleverly to the target group they are looking at.
The second part is where we actually have a image recognition system called Magellan, which will identify all the logos. No matter what angle they are in or if it’s an unclear shot, it’ll still recognize the logo and tell you very simply that [the] logo on the front of the shirt was visible for ‘X’ number of times for ‘X’ duration. If you take that duration and that quality of exposure across 20 channels where IPL was broadcast and apply the media rates of those broadcasters, you will come up something called the Gross Value or the Advertising Value Equivalency of that exposure.
Then we apply five levels of discount on that [since] it’s a cluttered environment. [For example] whenever you are seeing the front of [the] shirt, maybe you are also seeing a logo on the perimeter board [and] you are also seeing a logo on the sleeve. So we reduce the value of that exposure from the advertising value to the sponsorship value.
We come up with a real net value [which] we give the League and the franchises. [Then] they could go to the market and say ‘for what you’ve paid me for front of shirt, I can tell you that related to ‘X’ number of seconds, [so] ‘X’ number of seconds on 20 channels at prime time based on the audience they got is worth this much.’
For the longest period, all our clients used to be very happy with the exposure value [but] now we are seeing that your entire objective was not just exposure. Your entire objective of any sponsorship [is] impact, [i.e.] what does the viewer do with that exposure?
We measure [impact] on 6-8 parameters [including]: did the recall of the brand go up? Before IPL, what is the recall of that brand? After [the conclusion of the] IPL [season], we see if that impact has gone up and was it because of the sponsorship. Then we correlate the exposure which we got to the increase in recall. Recall is just one [aspect] of it… Then there is consideration of using the brand, ‘intention to purchase,’ etc.
For example, CRED was IPL sponsor. CRED enjoyed amazing recall because before IPL, maybe a small percentage of people knew what CRED was. But seeing CRED all the time, they started getting curious, they started finding out what the brand is. So the recall helped in people saying that ‘I will download [the app] and see what it is.’
We quantify it [the exposure], qualify it and give you three things: size of your market, the exposure you got from the media and the impact you had on the viewers or your target groups. These are the three things we do for all the teams and for IPL.
2) This also leads me to a recent headline, which is the IPL media rights. Does the work of YouGov Sport tie in, in any way?
To be very frank, we have not done the rights packaging for them. But they take an informed decision because what we are giving them is the valuation based on the sponsorship element of it. But [in] any sport, sponsorship is just one of the legs.
There are four elements which make a sport viable, one is the media rights, which is purely a function of how many people are watching for how long. Second is gate revenues which you get from the stadiums. Third is merchandise. And fourth is sponsorship. [But] not in that order. Sponsorship would be a very big component.
We would be able to very intelligently tell you that you should go and demand this price for sponsorship for the following five or six reasons. But to tell the broadcaster how much they should pay for the rights is purely a function of the broadcaster’s knowledge of how many advertisers are willing to pay how much for those eyeballs.
3) Coming to the IPL 2022 Season, eyebrows were raised around declining viewership. But YouGov’s research points out that this could be a misconception, as the reduced TV audience is actually indicative of a shift to OTT. Building from this insight, what additional IPL consumer trends can we expect in the future?
What we’ve noticed is that during lockdown, a lot of people went out and subscribed to an OTT connection. [In order] to make OTT conducive and viewable they also went and upgraded their broadband. So now, instead of a dish antenna or a cable network, they have good speed broadband coming to their homes. OTT grew by five times in the last two-and-a-half to three years.
We [also] looked at DTH subscriptions. For the first time, DTH subscriptions started going down. So the TV audiences did not go anywhere, some just went where OTT is.
Regarding consumer trends] the post-pandemic boom will make people travel out of their homes in the evening, so primetime viewing may get a little dent. But they are not going to stop viewing their favorite sport. They might be in a shopping mall or they would be in a place with their friends, but still, if there is an interesting match to watch, they will log in to the OTT channel on their phones [and] watch those deciding overs. So the consumption will not change; it will go from platform to platform. But bite-sized viewing will happen a lot.
Scope for ultra-short sporting formats
4) Building from your point about an increase in ‘bite-sized viewing’, do you think there’s scope for an even shorter form of cricket like T10?
Yes and no… I’ll tell you why. The format is good. Everything gets over in 90 minutes.
But like [what] T20 did to ODI, T10 did not do to T20… Because there’s a sweet spot. The sweet spot is that any event needs to be supported by advertisers.
If you don’t have a reasonable number of overs in a match then you will not have a lot of revenue coming in. What you will have to pay the players will [also] not drastically change just because your number of overs are less. You are not going to tell a cricketer that I am going to pay half the money of what you are worth because the overs are half.
The amount of revenue you can make in 90 minutes [compared] to the amount of revenue you can make in four hours is different. So T10 [becoming the] most favored format has not happened purely because the economics could fail.
5) But other sports like football and basketball, all operate in that two-hour window…
Correct. But then we have a history that cricket was five days, then it became one day. It’s not that linear that tomorrow if there’s a five-over match, you will say that it makes sense.
Probably T20 is a sweet spot… Anything else would be a diminishing return actually. I am not telling there’s no room for that, as we have successful T10 clients. But short answer: What T20 did to ODI, T10 will not do to T20.
6) Among YouGov’s activities in India, is there a growing emphasis on sports themed market research, relative to non-sports work?
If you look at India, sports is only 3% of India’s viewing. And this is shocking. Absolutely shocking. That means if a person is spending 1 hour, only 3% of that is spent on sports.
So it is wrong for me to say that the sport side is the bigger business. There’s a lot of money in it [sports] but it does not match the whole universe of advertising spend. So the business is proportional to the genre we are in.
YouGov was always invested in sports. But of late, what has happened is that there’s a synergy now. For example, if the consumer division or the consumer research company is talking to a brand and doing everything for them, it is now very easy to tell them that since you’ve invested in sports, we can also give you that [research].
YouGov's 250000-strong panel
7) Is there competition in the sports market research space in India, and if so, do you enjoy a massive first mover advantage?
What is research? What we are doing is that we have a series of questions we’re going to ask a consumer: ‘Have you seen this content? What do you feel?’ And we take a measure. This can be done by any company.
The beauty of our company and why we have sort of… An obscene advantage… Is purely because we have our own panel. We have a panel of people who have opted-in and said that ‘I am happy to fill 3-4 surveys in a month’, or whatever period they’ve selected.
Our panel in India… It’s more than a quarter million. It’s 250,000 people waiting to answer your question. We can you give you any slice of the data. So this gives us an advantage.
A traditional research company would have to first mount a sample. They will have to first do the quota then go interview people and say that ‘we are going to ask you 10 questions, are you willing to answer it?’ So the recruitment of a sample and then asking them the questions and coming up with the result would take eight weeks! And [imagine] the cost. Imagine me stopping you on a road and asking you [a] few questions or knocking [on] your door… See the amount of money involved in that.
Second easiest part is that in our [client] conversation, I can talk sports evaluation and research at the same time. When I give you [the client] the report, you have the first 10 pages on sponsorship evaluation, which is the quantity value [i.e.] what is the ROI you got… And the next seven pages is the impact of sponsorship [i.e.], what people feel about the sponsorship. It becomes very easy. It’s one package. So that helps us.
8) In the recent YouGov global study on socially conscious sports fan, a finding which stood out is that 53% of adult urban Indians prefer watching women’s sports. As this finding was restricted to the urban audience, is there also a conscious effort now to expand to Tier 2, 3 cities and towns?
Yes. Now why anybody does urban first is because if you look at the brand mix, a lot of brands are urban focused. Once you do that, then you know that there are brands who are now rural-focused as well. So the next expansion would be to Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
Secondly, I am not surprised when 53% said they’re keen to watch women’s sports over men. Look at the numbers. First of all, 50% [of the sample size] is male [and] 50% is female. Correct? So [the] chances are that 50% who said that ‘I like to watch women sports’ are actually females. There’s no science there right? But [yes] it is slightly higher than the global average.
The global [average] was 34 [%] and we were at 53 [%]. This is very interesting. As I might have sent you a response, look at the last [2016] Olympics. The only two medals we got were both women.
Historically, we Indians have this tendency to know that right from PT Usha to Sindhu… Our women have made us proud abroad in Olympics and other international events. So our affinity to see results [in women’s sports] is not shockingly new.
YouGov Sport's clientele and future roadmap
9) What can you disclose about the evolution of YouGov Sport India’s client partnerships?
If I have to look at the revenue we make… A serious amount comes from the rights holders, i.e., the BCCI or FSDL. [This is because] they (the rights holders) leave nothing to chance. They want to know what sponsorship brings them, what media rights bring them, what merchandise brings them… Everything. So they are the first set. But they are not the biggest chunk because when BCCI subscribes, even though they give you a serious amount of revenue, the sum of revenue I get from each [IPL] team… 10 teams… Is still a huge number.
So I would say my serious revenues comes from the rights holder… A huge chunk comes from the franchisee, then comes a smaller chunk from sponsors.
A very highly evolved sponsor will come to us saying that ‘fine I will get some numbers from the rights holder … But I want granular details… I want to look at it from a qualitative point. I want you to see that if my logo colour looks different, will it change something?’ So that’s the third level of revenue I get.
Then the broadcaster comes saying, ‘Fine, you have done the ground evaluation [and] sponsorship evaluation, but we have broadcast partners who are not visible on ground. They are only visible on screen. But we still want to do ROI for them.’ So then the broadcaster comes to us. These are the four [client categories].
10) Do you anticipate new categories of clients within the sports space?
Yes… A lot of data-driven companies would come as clients saying, ‘We want to know if a person hits a six… Does that sponsorship differ from the same real estate being visible on a four or a wicket going out?’
So the qualitative aspect of that exposure [is something] a lot of data companies will start studying because then they can rate card them. They will need the data saying that ‘in an IPL, there are 2400 boundaries. In 2400 boundaries this happens, so I can take that component and sell it… Package it differently.’
11) What are YouGov Sport’s India roadmap and business goals over the next 5-10 years?
We are in a very comfortable space. We are now doing sports evaluation…Sponsorship evaluation to be very specific. We are also doing the impact of sponsorship… So this is exactly what any sponsor would want. We are doing rights packaging for major rights holders. I just did one for a Mexican football club.
But we want to go a step further. In fact we’ve started doing that.
We would like a brand to come to us in saying that ‘I have a budget of X. With this budget I want to be in sports. Now first can you give me a rationale why I should be in sports?’
First, we will give him reasons why sports is a brilliant investment. Second, he will tell us ‘if I have five crores, should I be in IPL or should I be in football or kabaddi?’ So for that given budget, we will tell him where his maximum traction is: Does he want to be a sticker on a helmet or to be on a jersey front? We will be able to give the optimum media or sports mix to that client based on the budget and objective he/she has. [This is] purely because we are sitting on a wealth of ROI information.
That is the space we want to be in, [where] we are consulting you [the client]. We are taking you from giving an informed decision on investing in sports, to what type of investment and for what magnitude, where it will start giving results.
State of Sports Market Research in India
12) ‘Sports market research in India is still at a nascent stage.’ Do you agree with this statement?
I would say it’s not nascent [but] it appears like that. It’s purely because as I told you, [only] 3% of our viewing is sports. But everybody who’s in that 3% is doing enough and more in terms of research.
I’ve yet to see a client who has not asked me the profile of the audience who viewed his brand and made a decision based on what he’s seen.
You take even the new brands like Ather… They would do everything possible to understand their audience, their fans.
We did a study for FC Goa. They went to extreme detail to see what an FC Goa fan is… What the pen portrait of an FC [Goa fan] is. So I would say that we are not at that nascent [stage]. It is just proportional to the size of viewing.
13) Are there areas within sports market research that remain neglected and should be prioritized in the medium or long term?
I would not comment on that but I’ll tell you one thing: [that] looking at TV ratings and trying to judge what is a success of a sport is absolutely wrong. If that was the case, golf would never be a business.
Looking [at] everything from the eye of a TV rating or a TRP is doing injustice to the sport, because it’s not just eyeballs, it’s the quality of the eyeballs and the entire marriage of a brand’s value and the value of the discipline.
Also, in India we are a large population. So even if you look at the ratings of football and say ‘this is only .2 or .26 or .3’… Is it a small number? It is not. It is a huge number. That itself means that 160 million people are watching it and that is three to six times the population of some major football countries.
[While] looking at numbers, we need to be little more careful and not quickly arrive at a [conclusion] and say that it’s small.
We should divide our universe as cricket watching universe, football watching universe [or] golf watching universe…and take the rating as the base of that universe.
So in a country of 1.3 billion people… Having slices of that country saying that the golf-viewing population of India is 60 million, and this event has to be looked at from that base… Not the base of 1.3 billion.
Career in Sports Market Reseach
14) Finally, do you have any message to youngsters looking to work in sports market research? Are there qualifications they need to have? Any backgrounds that are preferred?
I’ve looked around and noticed that it [exposure] was slightly less in the beginning.
If a person wants to make a career in sports, not as a sportsman but in the marketing side of things, then where do you go? Which college will teach you what?
There are few institutes recently that are doing very well. I also came across this company, in fact it’s Sreeni’s… Sporjo. Those are companies that’ll take you from scratch, saying, ‘Which part of the sports industry would you like to be? Would you like to be in sales? Would you like to be in marketing? Would you like to be in managing a team? Would you like to bring in sponsorship?’
Looking at the area you are interested in, they will be able to give you curriculum and training. So there are companies that have come up, and Sreeni has experience across IPL, ISL and all other sports. He is doing a good job. [Earlier], information and where you go [to] train yourself was less, but [now] it’s increasing day by day, and you have these companies that are very specialized in giving you the right direction.
