How Flipkart hit a six with Rs 1-crore Namibia deal

While most brands chase the Indian cricket jersey for maximum visibility, Flipkart took a different route. The Walmart-owned e-commerce major became the ‘most talked about brand’ online, garnered over 250 million views and a lot more all by paying just Rs 1 crore.

Bengaluru-based Flipkart announced it is the title sponsor of the Namibia men's cricket team during the ongoing T20 World Cup, a deal which cost the company just Rs 1 crore, or just about 0.17 percent of what a company would pay to sponsor the Indian men’s cricket team.

World Cup play

Despite paying just a fraction of the cost, Flipkart is hoping to secure considerable screen time. The trick is to capture eyeballs during India fixtures or other similar matches. The Indian cricket team and Namibia being part of the same group – Group A – during the ongoing T20 World Cup also helps Flipkart’s case.

For context: Apollo Tyres bagged the title sponsorship deal with Team India by paying a whopping Rs 579 crore.

However, for Flipkart, this is less about Namibia as a market and more about smart global visibility at a low cost, Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions, said.

"Front-of-jersey visibility for top teams during a World Cup would typically cost multiples of what Flipkart has spent. Flipkart has effectively hacked the sponsorship economy – getting disproportionate visibility without paying premium rates," he added.

It’s a classic case of buying attention smartly rather than buying scale blindly, especially in a cluttered cricket sponsorship environment, as per Hamidani.

Namibia will be visible at least across four matches during the tournament. The number of appearances may increase if the Namibia team qualifies for more matches during the course of the tournament. Namibia is in the Group A along with India, USA, Netherlands and Pakistan.

“What we also realised is that we also get decent viewership in India for any game Pakistan plays. So even the Pakistan-Netherlands game, for that matter, got decent viewership every year – which helps our case,” Pratik Arun Shetty, Vice President, Growth & Marketing at Flipkart, told Moneycontrol.

Cracker of a deal

Flipkart also got a cracker of a deal because this is an off-season period for e-commerce companies.

“For us, this isn’t a big sales season. It’s not a massive shopping period either. So it doesn’t make sense to go in with very heavy investments just for the sake of visibility,” Shetty said.

In essence, Flipkart was aiming for maximum visibility during one of cricket’s most high-profile clashes — the India-Namibia match – but without committing to a blockbuster budget.

“Every brand wants to be the most visible and the most talked about during a tournament like this. That is exactly what we did,” Shetty of Flipkart added.

He refused to divulge investment details of the sponsorship agreement.

"If you look at conversations online, we are the most talked about brand for this World Cup. And among all the sponsors, all the advertisers during the tournament, we might have spent the least amount of money," Shetty said.

Prime time play

Flipkart’s posts announcing the Namibia sponsorship deal have recorded a total of 14 million views organically. "People actually saw the Namibia jersey on TV on February 12 and suddenly now people are posting how they spotted the Flipkart logo," he said.

The Flipkart-Namibia campaign has recorded over 250 million views on social media with an engagement rate of 2.5 percent as of February 13, 2026, as per influencer marketing platform Qoruz, data.

As many as 5,500 creators and meme pages have organically posted content around this, the data showed.

Flipkart's move is now prompting marketing watchers to ask whether Flipkart has pulled off one of the smartest ROI plays of the tournament.

Flipkart however did not delve much on the ROI of such a deal.

Smart money move

The move is similar to what Nandini – a popular dairy brand in Karnataka – did some time in 2024. Nandini became the sponsor of the Scotland and Ireland cricket teams by paying just Rs 2.5 crore each.

Media Care’s Hamidani doesn't expect the sponsorship deal to drive direct conversions in such cases. But it can deliver a 5–10% uplift in brand search interest and app activity during match days, especially when Namibia plays high-profile teams.

"The real value lies in recall and brand salience. When combined with tactical digital campaigns, it can meaningfully improve consideration rather than immediate sales," Hamidani said.

Anirudh Sridharan, Co-Founder of HashFame, Creator-Marketers Networking Platform finds this deal with Namibia absurd as Flipkart is getting national broadcast exposure, premium live sports attention, India’s highest-intensity audience, without paying India’s premium sponsorship tax.

"It’s the same reason brands sponsor the 'official hydration partner of the referees', the undercard fighter before the main event, the F1 midfield team that still gets camera time. Or even Amul and Nandini doing it earlier with Ireland and other teams. You buy where it’s cheap," he added.

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