Brand Analyst

JioStar 'The Winning Edge' playbook: new brands see up to 6.9x higher brand awareness on live cricket. March 27, 2026 JioStar released The Winning Edge, a first-of-its-kind advertising playbook designed to help brands and media buyers unlock the full potential of live cricket as a marketing platform. Drawing from billions of impression-level data points across marquee cricket properties and validated through Brand Lift Studies conducted by Kantar, the playbook moves beyond conventional wisdom to deliver data-backed, outcome-driven guidance for advertisers. The playbook establishes cricket on JioStar as an unmatched environment for brand growth. For new brands entering the market, advertising on live cricket on JioStar delivered up to 6.9x higher brand awareness and 10.8x higher purchase intent compared to Kantar norms. Established brands fared equally strongly, recording up to 4x higher brand awareness and up to 4.9x higher purchase intent - underscoring cricket's power as both a launchpad and a long-term growth engine. Multi-screen advantage. One of the playbook's most significant findings relates toplatform strategy. Brands that activated across Linear TV (LTV),Connected TV (CTV), and Mobile simultaneously recorded upto 7x higher purchase intent than those present on a single platform - with less than 10% audience overlap across screens, signalling strong incremental reach. Combining video and display formats further amplified impact, with brands running both seeing up to 7.4x higher brand awareness compared to video-only campaigns. Sponsorship outperforms inventory buys. The data makes a compelling case for sponsorship over standalone inventory purchases. Brands with formal sponsorships recorded up to 9x higher purchase intent and up to 8x higher ad awareness compared to those buying inventory alone. Additionally, brands that added PPL (Pre- Post-Live) studio programming to their live media mix saw an incremental up to 2.1x in aided awareness - demonstrating the value of extended brand presence around the live match. Capitalizing on high-impact match moments. The playbook identifies four key in-match moments that deliver disproportionate brand salience - Super 4s, Super 6s, DRS (Decision Review System), and Fall of Wickets (FOW). Brands that incorporated these moments into their asset mix recorded uplifts ranging from 4x to 9x in salience, 4x to 10x in awareness, and 4x to 7x in brand recall - making contextual, moment-led advertising a critical lever for maximising impact. Anup Govindan, Head of Sales, Sports, JioStar, said, "The Winning Edge, developed in partnership with Kantar, is built on rigorous, data-backed analysis of how real brands have performed on our platform across categories, objectives, budgets, formats, and tournament phases. "The study reaffirms that when it comes to driving real outcomes such as awareness, consideration, and purchase intent, nothing matches the intensity, scale, and impact of live cricket. The depth of attention and emotional engagement during live moments creates a multiplier effect that non-live environments simply cannot replicate," Govindan said. Soumya Mohanty, MD and Chief Client & Solutions Officer at Kantar South Asia, said, "Numerous Kantar Brand Lift Studies have demonstrated the incremental impact of Live Cricket Advertising, with results consistently ranking at the topend of Kantar's Brand Lift database. This playbook distils those insights into actionable media planning and creative recommendations to help advertisers drive stronger outcomes in Live Cricket environments." - With live cricket commanding the largest, most engaged audiences in Indian media, the opportunity for brands has never been greater. The Winning Edge sets a new standard for how advertisers approach sports marketing in India: not with assumptions, but with evidence; not with presence alone, but with intent.

Ceylinco Life voted Sri Lanka's most popular life insurer for 20th consecutive year. Thursday, 26 March 2026 00:00 - - 21 Senior representatives of Ceylinco Life's management and marketing team accept the Peoples Award on behalf of the company Ceylinco Life has been voted the 'Peoples Life Insurance Service Provider of the Year' for an unprecedented 20th consecutive year at the SLIM Kantar Peoples Awards, achieving a remarkable milestone of two decades as Sri Lanka's most popular life insurance company. This accomplishment reinforces the company's unique position as the only life insurer in the country to have secured this coveted consumer-driven accolade every year since the inception of the awards program, underscoring an enduring bond of trust with the Sri Lankan public. Presented by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) in association with Kantar, the globally renowned marketing data and analytics company, the Peoples Awards are based entirely on the results of an independent nationwide survey. Determined solely by consumer preference, the awards are widely regarded as the most authentic reflection of popular sentiment in the country. Ceylinco Life's 20-year unbroken run at the summit of public endorsement comes on the heels of another year of strong financial performance, in which the company consolidated its leadership of Sri Lanka's life insurance market for the 22nd consecutive year. For the year ending 31st December 2025, the company reported gross written premium income of Rs. 44.18 billion and total income of Rs. 72.43 billion, while its Life Fund surpassed the Rs. 200 billion milestone. The company also paid Rs. 31.07 billion in net claims and benefits to policyholders during the year, reflecting its continuing commitment to delivering on its promises. Commenting on this landmark achievement, Ceylinco Life Executive Chairman R. Renganathan said: "To be voted Sri Lanka's most popular life insurance company for 20 consecutive years is an honour of the highest order and a distinction we accept with deep humility and gratitude. This milestone is a tribute to the enduring trust placed in us by our policyholders, whose confidence inspires everything we do. We are profoundly grateful to our million-plus policyholders, our dedicated employees and advisors, our business partners, and all other stakeholders who have contributed to this extraordinary journey." He added: "Our success has always been anchored in a simple but powerful philosophy, to protect and de-risk the lives and aspirations of our customers through reliable, value-driven life insurance solutions. This recognition from the people of Sri Lanka reaffirms that our commitment to integrity, empathy and long-term value creation continues to resonate strongly." The Peoples Awards recognise brands and personalities that are closest to the hearts of Sri Lankans across multiple sectors. Based on spontaneous consumer recall, the awards are a hallmark event of SLIM and are widely respected for their credibility and independence. The segregation of life and general insurance categories in 2015 further highlights Ceylinco Life's dominance, with the company continuing its uninterrupted winning streak in the life insurance category since then, following a decade of wins by Ceylinco Insurance PLC prior to the industry's structural separation. With two decades of consistent public endorsement and a track record of financial strength, innovation and customer-centricity, Ceylinco Life continues to set the benchmark for excellence in Sri Lanka's life insurance industry. Recognised as the Best Life Insurer in Sri Lanka by World Finance for the 12th consecutive year in 2025, Ceylinco Life offers innovative insurance solutions that protect and de-risk the ambitions of policyholders. In 2025, the company was ranked the most valuable insurance brand in Sri Lanka and the 22nd most valuable brand overall by Brand Finance. The company has additionally been adjudged Sri Lanka's Brand of the Year twice within the past five years and has been recognised among the 10 Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka by the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).