IPL 2025 Sees Record ₹1,000 Crore in Influencer Marketing as Brands Bet Big on Digital Creators:

IPL has attracted big brands and multistarrer advertisements for a long time now. But, in 2025, digital influencers are stealing the show during ad breaks. Influencer marketing campaigns are dynamically participating in IPL marketing at every level, turning the season off the field into an amusement park.

Influencer Marketing Reaches ₹1,000 Crore

As per experts, influencer marketing seized 15-25% of IPL's total brand advertisement revenue, an increase from 10-12% in 2024. This year’s expenditure has also increased by 25-35%. Brands are estimated to spend upwards of ₹800-1,000 crore this year exclusively on influencer partnerships.

What Causes The Shift To Influencer Marketing?

Bala Kumaran from BrandStory points out three primary reasons:

The Rise of Regional Creators: associated with their respective regions gives local micro-influencers an advantage to outperform the big-shot celebs.

Sale Driven Targets: Brands now prefer spending for sales generated over superficial standards.

Trust and Relatability: Influencers are seen as more relatable than traditional advertisement figures, making them more trustworthy.

Real-Time Virality: From Fans to Brand Faces

The relatability and time-sensitivity of influencer content is making the segment flourish:

Aarayapriya Bhuyan, a CSK fan, went viral for her emotional outburst during the match amd has since gained 300K followers. Yes Madam and Swiggy did not waste time jumping in for collaborations.

Coca-Cola also hosted a number of influencer reels and live sessions during halftime in order to take advantage of the engagement around teh viral match moments.

How Much Are Influencers Earning?

Sahil Chopra from iCubesWire shared with us that their pay depends on the category -

Nano Influencers (1K–10K followers): ₹5,000–₹25,000 per campaign
Micro Influencers (10K–50K): ₹25,000–₹1 lakh
Macro Influencers (500K–1M): ₹1–₹5 lakh
Mega Influencers (1M+): ₹5–₹50 lakh+

As noted by Kumaran, micro-influencers tend to take around half of the budget which is reasonable due to their exceptional engagement rates and low cost-per-click.

Top performing categories for IPL Influencer Marketing

Increased engagement paired with an increased focus brand adoption across the following sectors:

Consumer tech and fintech (fintech payment apps specifically), lifestyle, grooming, food, quick service and fantasy gaming, and OOTD entertainment platforms.

As stated Rachit Sharma from Qoruz, Even non-sponsoring brands spend somewhere between 20 to 50 lakh rupees to capitalize on the IPL while top-tier sponsors fork out 1 crore to over 10 crore rupees.

Creator Spotlights: Faces Behind IPL 2025

Aditya Shetty is already signed to four brands this season.

Arsh Goyal campaigns for regional matches promotion and has 467K followers on Instagram.

Arjun Pandey’s reel on Rohit Sharma got over 70 million views; he has also partnered with Mumbai Indians and various other brands.

Apoorv Sood (@Trendulkar) has already partnered with 10 brands including 1 IPL sponsor, showcasing how non-cricket brands are eager to exploit the cricketer’s popularity.

What Kind of Content is Winning?

This season’s trend: unscripted, in-the-moment content.

Match day reactions

Shoutout and AR filter campaigns themed around cricket

Cricket watches with teams

Campaigns driven by memes

As Ujjwal reports, such content receives 1.5 to 2x more interactions than planned content. “It’s not about polished ads anymore—raw, authentic ads win,” adds Danish Malik, CEO of Boomlet.

The IPL 2025 will mark a turning point in advertisement.

With more brands shying away from costly TV slots and classic sponsorships, the IPL is proving it’s more than a fad when it comes to influencer-led marketing. For digital-first and D2C brands, influencer budgets during the IPL are estimated at 35-45% of IPL marketing spend.