Tilt Brand Solutions on knowing the perfect moment to strike the IPL campaign

The race for IPL attention doesn’t start with the first ball; it begins much earlier. That’s because in a high-stakes arena where brands scramble for visibility weeks in advance, only a few manage to truly break through. Some lean on celebrity power, others ride the meme wave, but the campaigns that truly stand out tap into something deeper. They resonate with the cultural moment, feel perfectly timed, and leave behind more than just laughs or likes.

One such brand that has repeatedly managed to get it right is Dream11. According to the IPLomania study by Hansa Research, Dream11 doubled down on visibility, boosting brand recall from 39% in 2023 to 81% in 2024.

As per the report, this recall can be attributed to Dream11's engaging advertisements featuring celebrities and cricketers, effectively capturing audience attention.

While the star-studded cast might certainly help, the edge comes from the storytelling and the team crafting it behind the scenes. That team is Tilt Brand Solutions, Dream11’s creative partner since 2019. 

Over the years, Tilt has helped shape the brand’s tone, delivering campaigns like ‘Dimaag lagana hai toh Dream11 pe laga na’ and the latest ‘Aapki team mein kaun?’.

So what’s the real playbook behind this consistent success? As Adarsh Atal, Chief Creative Officer at Tilt Brand Solutions, tells us, it’s not just about punchlines or personalities. There’s a strategy at work. Their IPL campaigns don’t just drop. They land when the audience is ready, hungry, and primed.

As we delve into an insightful conversation with Atal, let’s uncover how the agency approaches IPL advertising and what it really takes to create work that cuts through the clutter.

Edited Excerpts:

TILT’s IPL campaigns for Dream11 have contributed to high visibility and recall. Could you walk us through the creative process behind these campaigns? How do you decide which cultural moments or internet behaviours to incorporate?

We've been working with Dream11 from the early days of Tilt. There’s nothing formulaic about our approach, apart from one key element: we start early. We begin working on the IPL campaign well in advance, giving it the time it deserves. We believe that time is one of the most important resources for the creative process.

We are a bit more studious in our approach. We’re meticulous about every detail. Of course, intuition plays a significant role in our ideas, but we expose them to a lot of scrutiny—both internally within the TILT team and externally with the Dream11 marketing team. 

The Dream11 team and the TILT team are highly internet-savvy. We spend a lot of time on the internet, to stay current with internet trends, especially within the cricket and meme communities. This helps make the writing more engaging and relevant. 

And most importantly, we always focus on the idea first. 

The brand’s campaigns have been bringing together cricketers and Bollywood stars. What’s the key to making these collaborations feel organic and engaging rather than just another celebrity endorsement?

At the end of the day, everything we do on Dream11 is rooted in a world where we focus on three key elements: engaging the fan, talking about the sport, and discussing the game itself. We aim to create a space where all three elements come together, and that’s where many of our ideas originate. It’s always about starting with the idea first. Once we have the concept, we then bring in the celebrities, like cricketers, who are core to our game. It only makes sense for us to create stories where cricketers have an interesting, meaningful role, rather than just acting as brand ambassadors. 

This approach also extends to Bollywood celebrities and internet personalities who have joined the mix. They, too, need to have a proper role in the narrative. For example, if you remember the campaign from three years ago, where '3 Idiots' characters came together to challenge cricketers—that was a case where everyone, the cricketers as well as the bollywood celebrities, had a specific reason to be part of the story, rather than just being there to promote the brand.

It also helps to tie in current conversations. For instance, in the '3 Idiots' campaign, the idea stemmed from a meta-narrative on the internet about cricketers doing too many ads and not focusing enough on the field. This gave us a platform to connect Bollywood and cricket in an engaging way. 

Similarly, in last year’s campaign, we explored how cricketers, after winning the World Cup and playing for the national team all year, were now part of different IPL teams. At that point, we focused on the shift in loyalties, from the national team to individual teams. This, again, was inspired by a real-life dynamic—a truth that we like to reflect on screen.

Ultimately, our goal is to create campaigns where there’s a strong connection to reality, and where every person we cast has a clear, meaningful role—not just as an endorser.

Humour plays a huge role in Dream11’s ads. What’s the key to making humour land well while ensuring it doesn’t overshadow the brand message?

I think of humour as the finishing touch—the seasoning, if you will—while the brand message is where everything starts. 

We never stray from stories that focus on the fan, the sport, and the game. We make sure the brand message is clear and defined before we even begin thinking about making it humorous. 

Humour is simply the way we package the brand message.

Beyond entertainment, what role does an IPL ad play in shaping brand perception and long-term engagement with audiences?

It's not just about IPL ads on TV; there’s much more to it. Dream11 has a long-standing relationship with cricket, not just the IPL, but every other tournament as well. Having said that, the IPL is incredibly important to us at Dream11 because it has essentially become a season in this country. It’s a long tournament, and when we say cricket and Dream11 go hand in hand, it’s because Dream11 enhances the cricket-watching experience. That’s why the IPL is a key event for us to reinforce this core belief: if you’re a fan of cricket and you’re watching the game, try Dream11. Playing Dream11 makes the cricket-watching experience a lot more fun. In that sense, the IPL plays a significant role in driving that message forward.

Brands often have to choose between short, attention-grabbing ads and longer, more narrative-driven spots. Based on your experience, what works best for IPL campaigns?

It really depends on what the brand wants to achieve. Personally, I think what we do at Dream11 is quite interesting because I don’t see many other brands doing the same. We’re aware that IPL ad durations are shorter, mainly because the media is in high demand and therefore quite expensive. As a result, we tend to focus on shorter ads during the IPL itself.

However, there’s something smart that the Dream11 team pointed out a few years ago. The key time is just before the tournament starts—the buildup, the excitement, and the anticipation as people prepare for the IPL. This period isn't often fully utilised by other brands. If you’ve noticed, over the past few years, we’ve been leveraging that time. During this period, we opt for longer duration films, since the media is relatively more affordable and the content can live online. We use this time to set the tone for the IPL season, and then we follow up with shorter ads once the tournament is underway. 

Is the 20-second limit restricting creativity in IPL ads?

Not really. It's not as if shorter ads haven’t worked for brands. In fact, there have been many stellar campaigns made on the IPL over the years. I think there's a constant need to find new storytelling methods that suit the shorter duration.

What often happens, though, is that people end up copying each other. Often, creatives see a successful campaign and tend to imitate it. I feel this is a slippery slope, because it leads to ads that all look and feel the same. The real magic, I believe, lies in finding new ways and creative storytelling devices that suit the 20-second format.

What are some common pitfalls that prevent IPL ads from standing out, and what’s your biggest ‘don’t’ when crafting a campaign for such a high-stakes tournament?

If something has worked for a brand and it’s been done before, don’t just try to follow the same formula and fit your idea into the same storytelling structure. A lot of ads feel similar because many people end up copying each other. It often results in the same grammar of storytelling.

I believe the more we experiment and think of newer ways and storytelling formats, the more success we can achieve. There’s definitely room for fresh, creative approaches in this space.

With AI, deepfake tech, and virtual experiences changing the game, how do you see technology influencing IPL advertising in the next few years?

I’m not sure the technology is fully there yet, but I feel once it advances, it could solve a lot of current challenges. Right now, when we work with any celebrity, we have a limited number of hours to shoot with them. This means we can’t always travel to outdoor locations or take advantage of other opportunities. My prediction is that, as technology evolves, it will help overcome these logistical challenges.

For example, we could partner with a celebrity or creator, but with AI, we won’t be constrained by the usual time and location limitations. If that happens, it could open up a whole new world of possibilities, allowing us to tell more interesting, wackier, and more brilliant stories.

If you had to distil the formula for a standout IPL ad into three non-negotiable elements, what would they be?

My biggest advice is this: just because something worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to find your own sweet spot. Identify the storytelling approach, the idea, and the pitch that best suits your brand and your message. 

For example, just because the Cred campaign was a success doesn’t mean everyone should try to ape that as a formula. The same goes for any other successful campaign—what worked for someone else may not necessarily work for you.

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