Big ticket sports events give food ordering and delivery apps an extra push

Would the delight of watching a movie be just the same if there weren’t any popcorns popping nearby? Wouldn’t a game of cricket lack something if there weren’t pizzas doing the rounds of the sofa? Wouldn’t sad stories be sadder if a tub of ice-cream wasn’t handy?

Food and entertainment have always been intricately related. Now, with technology making delicious food even more accessible (just a click away), that link seems to be getting stronger. Big ticket sports events are giving food ordering and delivery apps a major sales push.

Srivats TS

“Sports, entertainment and food go hand in hand and we believe it is the perfect opportunity for brands like Swiggy to engage with consumers in a seamless manner. Ordering food while watching and enjoying a sporting event of a user’s choice is something we believe will become intuitive and almost automatic,” said Srivats TS, VP, Marketing, Swiggy.

Rashmi Daga

Many of these brands are seeing a significant jump in the orders being placed through their app. According to Rashmi Daga, CEO, FreshMenu, they see a clear 20% spike in sales during big matches in the IPL season. Swiggy too has seen significant growth in sales in the last two years during the IPL season.

“In the last two years, we've seen significant growth in orders and new user acquisitions during the IPL season. We see extremely strong week on week and month on month growth as a norm, irrespective of the occasion or event. On days where there is an IPL match running, on top of the normal growth, there is an additional 5-7% growth due to IPL,” said Srivats.

Events like IPL are also a fertile ground for brands to ramp up their marketing game because of the sheer number of eyeballs a big match guarantees. In fact, this year, Hotstar set a new world record for online streaming by recording 8.26 million concurrent viewers for the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings.

While Daga said they treat sports events related marketing exercise like any other marketing outing and don’t spend a lot on them, Srivats mentioned that the marketing initiative that the brand launched this year for IPL is one of their biggest marketing bets for the year.

“Swiggy launched an integrated marketing campaign this year, including television, print, radio, digital platforms, as well as in restaurants. This would be one of our most significant campaigns in terms of ad spends this year, and an opportunity we believed was worth investing in,” said Srivats.

Apart from launching a full-fledged, 360 degree marketing campaign, these brands also come out with coupons and discounts during such sports extravaganza and also special menus to choose from. FreshMenu created a special menu called IFL (Indian Food League), ‘Bowled Over’, for this year’s IPL.

This year will be bigger for sports fans and brands alike because FIFA World Cup will commence in Russia from June 14.

Speaking about their FIFA World Cup plan, Daga said, “We hope to build a buzz during the FIFA World Cup by focusing on European specials, a FIFA campaign and maybe introduce midnight delivery.”

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