IPL for trade, not just TV: Inside Joy Personal Care’s unconventional marketing playbook

New Delhi: The Indian Premier League is the undisputed king of India’s ad jungle. Nearly two decades in, the IPL isn’t just a cricket fest—it’s a slick, full-funnel marketing beast. In its dazzling realm, brands whip up glossy campaigns, snag A-list celeb endorsements, and forge epic partnerships to flex their branding and performance muscles.

While most brands cosy up to the IPL for media domination, one quirky player flipped the script. 

Playing a wild card in this high-octane game, Joy Personal Care, a homegrown skincare brand, used the IPL blitz most eccentrically. Joy has had a long-time bromance with the Kolkata Knight Riders (fourth consecutive year this season). 

When this association first saw the light of day, Joy was not chasing eyeballs or craving mass brand love. Nope. Their game plan was to leverage IPL’s sizzle as a trade strategy to charm their distributors. The brand love and awareness eventually came into the picture.  

Trade before TV

“It started off from a business challenge that we had,” said Poulomi Roy, Chief Marketing Officer, RSH Global - Joy Personal Care. Diving deeper into the conversation, Roy explained that Joy is an omnichannel brand. This means that the brand exists in the realm of general trade, modern trade, and e-commerce. 

Roy explained that general and modern trade operate very differently. “There are primary and secondary sales. For us, our primary customers are actually the dealers, distributors, and retailers. They need to be aware of our product and trust it enough to push it. Once it's on shelves, consumer awareness drives purchase. So it's a push-and-pull strategy,” Roy told BestMediaInfo.com. 

Roy observed that trade is largely a male-dominated industry. “And since men and cricket go hand in hand, IPL would immediately help us boost awareness and credibility with them. This will lead to faster acceptance and stronger support for our products,” Roy stated. And this is how the partnership between Joy Personal Care and KKR was born. 

The strategy worked on two levels. First, the brand used IPL to build legitimacy and desirability in a cluttered market. Second, it activated this association on the ground. There were dealer meets, family events, ticket-based contests, and product-centric activities that embedded the brand deeper into the lives of its distribution partners.

Roy pointed out that this same strategy is behind brands coming up with TV-centric plans. “When you look at other brands' TV plans, you'll notice they often include news channels. That's not just about consumer reach—it's a deliberate move to appeal to the trade fraternity. 

News channels help brands build credibility among dealers, distributors, and retailers. For us, IPL achieved that same objective on a much larger scale. It helped us secure strong patronage from the entire trade network, ensuring that our campaign had the right kind of impact where it mattered most,” Roy said. 

From push to pull

For Joy, every incremental layer of exposure mattered. Roy described that Joy Personal Care positions itself as a mass brand, focused on delivering good quality at affordable price points, not premium pricing.

“As a mass-market brand that focuses on affordability and reach, Joy’s profitability depends on volume, not premium pricing or high-margin SKUs,” she said. She added, “To grow our business, we needed platforms to reach more people, encouraging them to patronise our products while increasing brand awareness. As a skincare brand, we aimed to showcase the products we offered.” 

And IPL provided just the reach the brand needed. The scale of IPL gave Joy the volume lift it needed, both in terms of consumption and awareness. 

According to the data Roy referred to, 42% of viewership on IPL ad spots is female. This led Roy to deduce that the viewership in absolute terms amounted to 326 million households. 

“During those peak summer months, which were crucial for our face wash category, the top three to four general entertainment channels and the top five programs combined couldn’t match the reach that this platform provided,” Roy commented. For Roy, the IPL, with its “18 minutes of viewer stickiness, the highest of any platform,” was the perfect fit. 

Roy reminisced about B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharata, which the entire nation used to tune in together to watch. “This phenomenon hadn’t been replicated until the IPL emerged. Whether on TV, connected TV, or digital platforms, the IPL’s reach extended beyond homes to pubs and public spaces, where people gathered to watch. It wasn’t just a broadcast; it was a social phenomenon sweeping the country,” Roy told BestMediaInfo.com. 

She added, saying, “By being part of this collective viewing experience, we gained an immediate boost in brand awareness, showcasing who we were and what we offered. The numbers have since proven the success of this approach.” 

Big screens, bigger dreams

Till the time Joy Personal Care was a Rs 50 crore brand, “there was no advertisement required,” Roy shared. In 2014, when Roy joined the brand, the valuation stood at 75 crore, which has now inflated to a whopping Rs 750 crore. 

With plans to foray into the Rs 1000 crore club by 2026, Joy is keenly focused on their advertising and marketing vector. The homegrown skincare brand has increased its CTV spends threefold, with a major chunk still allocated to the IPL. 

Joy Personal Care is heavily investing in IPL for big screens, leaving mobile out of their campaigns. Explaining why, Roy said, “The IPL isn’t just pure cricket—it’s a vibrant, entertainment-driven spectacle that brings people together for a collective viewing experience. Our sharp insight is that fans prefer this cricket experience on a big screen when given the option.” 

“We identify three types of cricket viewers: purists who live for the sport, fans who only tune in when India plays, and IPL enthusiasts drawn to its social phenomenon. Our target is the latter group—those captivated by the IPL’s festive, communal energy. 

While they might check scores on apps like Cricbuzz, their actual viewing happens on larger screens for that shared experience. This understanding drives our choice to prioritise big-screen platforms over mobile for our IPL strategy,” Roy added.