Celebrity-backed ads made up 61% of IPL 2025 live match advertising, with film stars driving visibility and sports icons close behind.
Mumbai: TAM Sports has released its latest report analyzing celebrity endorsements during the first 37 matches of IPL 2025 (IPL Season 18). The findings reveal that Ananya Panday was the most visible celebrity endorser, commanding a 9% share of total ad volumes. Among sports personalities, MS Dhoni took the lead with a 15.1% share of athlete-driven ads.
Celebrity-endorsed ads accounted for 61% of all advertising during live match telecasts—on par with IPL 2024. However, the overall volume of such ads increased by 2%, highlighting advertisers’ continued preference for celebrity influence.
Film actors maintained dominance with 41% of the celebrity endorsement share, followed by sports personalities at 35%, and film actresses at 24%. Despite the increase in ad volume, the number of unique endorsers saw a drop—from over 65 in IPL 2024 to 45 this season. The count of sports celebrities also declined from more than 25 last year to 15 in IPL 2025.
Shah Rukh Khan remained a consistent presence, appearing in the top five endorsers for the second consecutive year. Other prominent names this season included Laksh Lalwani (8%), Salman Khan (5%), and new entrants like Mohammed Siraj and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
In the category of top sports celebrity endorsers, Dhoni was followed closely by Siraj, Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, and Ruturaj Gaikwad—each capturing between 8% and 10% of ad volume share.
Food and beverage brands remained the biggest backers of celebrity endorsements, with two of the top five endorsed categories being biscuits and pan masala. Other leading categories included e-commerce gaming, paints, and face wash, together making up over 70% of celebrity-led ad volumes.
The top advertisers leveraging celebrity power were Sporta Technologies (Dream11), Playgames24x7, Parle Biscuits, Vishnu Packaging, and K P Pan Foods.
The report focused solely on live match broadcasts and excluded all pre, mid, and post-program segments, promos, and broadcaster ads aired across Star Network’s 25 channels.
