Will Urban Company invest as big in IPL 2020 as last season?

Urban Company, formerly known as Urban Clap, is back at 85% of its pre-Covid business levels within a span of five months of the lockdown, says Tarun Menon, Director, Marketing. With the company being one of the big sponsors for IPL in 2019, this year they anticipate significant growth in demand as the tournament coincides with the festive season.

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During the previous IPL season, UC had launched an extensive campaign with actor Ayushmann Khurrana, highlighting its AC repair services, resulting in increased demand for the facility.

According to a Kantar report, the brand witnessed a 3X growth in the number of service orders on the back of IP sponsorship.

Tarun Menon

“IPL had typically occurred in April-May, which is when summer kicks in and the demand for AC service and repair rises. Year on year, we have seen a spike in demand during these months – and so marketing during IPL acts as a springboard for business growth,” Menon said.

UC has not signed any sponsorship deal for IPL 2020 yet. However, Menon has similar expectations from the upcoming IPL season that coincides with festivities.

He said, “This year, due to Covid-19, the IPL season has been delayed and is coinciding with the festive months. We envisage significant demand for some of our services, specifically cleaning and salon services (for men and women) through this period.”

Menon hinted that UC may not go as big as last year’s investment during IPL because the festive season has always escalated the demand for its services without any need for additional campaigns.

“Historically, we’ve seen traction in the festive season due to an upswing in demand for cleaning and beauty services at home. Demand has significantly outstripped supply for us. Therefore, we haven’t had to create any additional market pull-through campaigns in the last few years. We are actively working towards ensuring that the trend continues this year,” he added.

Asked about their strategy to further recover from the losses, he said, every company has been affected at some level and they are not viewing this as a profit-loss situation. “We would like to focus on the road ahead. Our primary objective is to deliver safe and hygienic services to our consumers while ensuring the safety of service professionals on the platform,” he added.

“While we have always focused on delivering safe and hygienic services, it is all the more important now. It is our foremost responsibility to ensure we take every step possible to ensure the safety of our customers and partners. Very early, we implemented an eight-step safety protocol for all our services,” he added.

“We see this pandemic as an opportunity to build trust, as opposed to a challenge. If we can win our customers' trust on the back of the quality and safety of our services, we will have built a brand that will sustain well beyond the pandemic. All our on-ground as well as marketing efforts have been reset to a new normal. Logistical challenges existed even before the pandemic, and will continue to exist. As a team, we have to take it in our stride and do what's right by our consumers,” he said.

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