IPL 2025 viewers were hit with the same 2–3 ads over 40 times per match — Dream11, Parle Marie, and Kamla Pasand.
This wasn’t a tech limitation — it was a breakdown in delivery decisions, platform priorities, and campaign structure.
The viewer experience suffered. The brands looked bad. And no one seemed to care.
But there’s a smarter playbook — and we break it down.
🔹 1. Bigger, Louder, Worse: IPL or Viewer’s Experience?
2025’s IPL isn’t just bigger — it’s louder, flashier, more data-rich, and more expensive than ever before.
But when it comes to advertising? It’s never felt cheaper.
Across JioCinema and Hotstar, IPL viewers were served the same ads more than 40 times per match. Same music. Same cut. Same CTA. Every over, wicket, or time-out, viewers are hit with the same three ads — Dream11, Parle Marie (alone accounting for 28% of ad volumes from the first 13 matches), Kamla Pasand — on an endless, unavoidable loop. The commentary changes. The match moves forward. The ads don’t.
“Aaja mere circle mein aaja…” & “Kisne maari, Parle Marie…”
...weren’t a CTA anymore. They were an earworm nobody asked for.
This isn’t about “too many ads.” It’s about bad delivery.
The worst part? This isn’t new.
In 2023, both IPL and the Cricket World Cup were flooded with Kamla Pasand ads. Unchanged. Unrotated. Unbearable.
Social media called it out, but did anyone reflect?
Now, in 2025, we’re watching the exact same mistake play out, just with new brand names.
That’s not a trend. That’s a habit.
It is lazy repetition at scale — bad for brands, for platforms, and for the credibility of digital advertising in India.
🔹 2. Likely Behind the Scenes
This wasn’t a programmatic issue.
In fact, if it was run through a DSP, this would be a textbook example of how not to do programmatic — which should concern the entire ecosystem.
But more likely, these were direct-sold deals:
Locked impression volumes
Predictable income
Minimal optimization once live
Volume-Driven Pricing
In such deals, the platform controls thedelivery of the media in its entirety.
So if JioCinema or Hotstar had even basic tooling enabled, this outcome was avoidable. What are those basic tools? Keep reading until the end.
🔹 3. Why Advertisers Should Be Worried Too
It wasn’t just a bad user experience. It was a bad ad strategy.
Overexposure leads to brand fatigue
Repetitive jingles and creative loops can become memes — for the wrong reasons
Campaigns that go viral for the wrong reasons risk long-term equity damage
And then there’s the regulatory elephant in the room.
Dream11 is a gambling app.
Kamla Pasand and Vimal are tobacco-linked brands.
Their ad presence alone is contentious.
That they dominated the IPL ad stream adds another layer — but that’s a conversation for another day.
🔍 Like where this is going? For more such posts - short, sharp and no jargon 👇
🔹 4. Global Platforms: What Smart Delivery Actually Looks Like
The idea that “big events always bring bad ad experiences” is a myth — and global platforms have already proved it.
Here are three standout examples:
🏅 NBC Universal + Peacock: The First Programmatic Olympics
While most broadcasters saw the Olympics as a linear TV ad bonanza, Peacock and NBCUniversal did something smarter:
They ran the first-ever fully programmatic ad campaign during a global event — the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Advertisers bought slots in real time during live sports
Advanced targeting allowed new brands to break into Olympic inventory
Personalized creative was served without disrupting the stream
