IPL, the Indian Premier League is indeed one of the biggest assets that bestow the brands with the most effective and a large platform to build a connection with their consumers. IPL 2013, the biggest eye catcher of this year has numerous brands making the best of the IPL & the amazing connect of cricket on social media. The power of social media is reinstated with lot of companies and brands that hit the best on the various platforms across social media. From the title sponsor PepsiCo to telecom service provider Vodafone. To multi business Muthoot Group and the personal care maker Garner, advertisers leveraged the social media to connect with their audience.
In this sixth edition of the Indian Premier League, nearly crores of money is generated by corporate advertisers through advertising etc. leveraging social media to connect with their audiences is another great strategy on their list.
To make the Pepsi IPL 2013 stand out from the rest, Twitter is one of the most important part trying to make this complete event an interactive experience for the fans. Google+ also evolved doing Hangout sessions to generate post match conversations. YouTube on the other hand redefined the experience of watching and enjoying IPL through live chat making it more social and further integrating it with Google+.
IPL as a product has become extremely social just like the consumers. With Social Media buzz hitting the grand league, the IPL players are now visualized as striking a ‘tweet’ to a bowler’s ‘post’ which is then ‘Like’d by the fans.
The strongest element & connection of Social media is content and engagement which of course brands are trying to leverage.
Brand promotions through social media during IPL are therefore, strategically envisioned, designed, executed and managed across the platform.
Image courtesy: The Economic Times
These brand promotions on social media are conceptualized and then brought to effect through strategic tie-ups, web campaigns and virtual events. In order to draw in the organic traction and gain public reaction to their brands they also offer prizes, rewards and recognitions to their fans and consumers.
The campaigns implemented through social media platforms like YouTube, Google+, Facebook & Twitter are catching the eyes of people away from the idiot box. They are getting more and more involved with the social media events developed by numerous brands.
Social Media has ultimately become like a café by the friends abode where people meet, discuss and share their ideas & opinions on various topics and events. So, if it’s like “everything on social media” then why not “IPL”?
Check below an insight by Unmetric, the social media benchmarking company from New York that investigates how the eight IPL teams are igniting passions and rivalries in the run up to IPL 6 using social media.
Image Courtesy: Unmetric
Social media is unquestionably the best insight tool for brands to get a lot of information about their interactivity level with their consumers.
Read through how some of the well known brands have taken a step to build a social media connect with the IPL. Strategies, promotions, ideas, engagement and a lot more.
Pepsi, the title sponsor of the tournament and co-presenting sponsor on broadcaster SET Max, tied up with Twitter to allow the viewers to play cricket on the social media platform. They launched a Tweet20 tournament – a Twitter based application which allowed fans to play cricket on Twitter.
The mechanism is something like this: Pepsi India Twitter handle tweets a particular type of ball, maybe a short pitched bouncer on the middle stump, and the users will need to reply with the shot they think is apt for that ball. If one tweeted the correct shots they scored runs whereas, wrong shots costed them wickets. Special shots had bonus runs linked to them. Very interesting, this tweet tournament hit the maximum attraction level in terms of the engagement.
What next?
Well, the winner of this Tweet20 tournament gets to watch IPL from the Pepsi VIP box. A dream come true situation for any IPL fan who felt like on cloud nine during those two and a half hours match. Brand managers at Pepsi plan to utilize the social media platform to its great potential during IPL. They know the fact that youth today are increasingly engaging on this platform.
Click the image to view the ad
Vodafone revisited this year with their ZooZoos, with a new campaign that hit social media even before it hit the Television. ZooZoos this time come with an army. Their new army will target first-time users of mobile internet and sensitize them on what all they could do on the internet.
Click on the image to view the ad
On the other hand, Vodafone also launched a Super Fan Contest for the IPL 2013. It is a SuperFans contest that gives ‘money-can’t-buy’ experience where the winners of the contest would get special escort to the stadium, premium seating in the hospitality enclosure to get the best match viewing experience & an autographed ball from the winning captain.
In this contest 76 winners that means 76 lucky Vodafone customers would stand a chance to win an exclusive match ball autographed by the winning captain on Live TV during the 76 matches in the complete tournament. Vodafone has also partnered with IPL as the Official partner & on air co-presenting sponsor for the IPL for next 5 years.
Here, subscribers need to SMS Fan to 111 (toll free) to participate in the contest. This contest is available for Post-paid & Pre-paid Vodafone Customers with an active internet connection.
For each match, the Super Fan is selected centrally through a lucky draw, well in advance of the match date. (This is not applicable for customers in TN/Chennai). The contest is closing on May 20, 2013.
Click on the image to view the ad
Vodafone has over 10 million fans on Facebook, and with this new campaign, it expects to add to that number significantly. They strongly consider IPL the platform to create a buzz around their campaign.
Goibibo
Goibibo Launched Their IPL Promotion Called ‘Travel Premier League’ (something that is again very common among most brands). However, the way they implemented their campaign is more interesting than the name actually. Basically, the idea of this campaign is that:
“Every time your city team wins an IPL match, you will get discounts on Goibibo. As and when your team keeps winning throughout the series, your discounts will increase.” If Chennai is playing with Mumbai, then there will be a discount on flights between these two cities on that day.
Click here to view the details of TPL by Goibibo
Initial discount for all teams is Rs. 200, but as IPL steps forward, the discount amount is bound to rise higher for the cities that end up in the finals. If a city loses a match, the discount will reduce by 10 rupees & increase by 10 rupees if the city wins. This is how the scorecard looks right now. Well, it cannot be predicted how successful this campaign would be in generating sales, but it comes with a great amount of fun element for those who support this and are frequent travelers. Goibibo TPL is aimed at engaging with the consumers and leveraging Social Media completely.
Cadbury Gems
Cadbury Gems has always come up with something innovative and colourful. This IPL it was a great attempt by Cadbury Gems to come up with this amazing video that not only gives you a flavor of this league but speaks about the brand Cadbury Gems too.
Check this video for a colourful visual treat of IPL by Cadbury Gems:
Click here to view this amazing attempt by Cadbury Gems.
One of the official sponsors of IPL, YES Bank came up with ‘YES BANK MAXIMUM’.
Basically, “Sixes” are the biggest excitement point in Pepsi IPL matches & in all 76 matches of the Pepsi IPL, “sixes” hit will be called “YES BANK-MAXIMUM”. This is complementary to YES BANK’s value-proposition of offering the maximum returns on Savings Accounts.
Click the image to view.
Another section includes ‘Play and Win’:
Everybody is crazy about IPL! So, YES BANK branches planned to host a lot of games & activities during the league.
One could also win Pepsi IPL merchandise and tickets just by logging in to Facebook and Twitter.
MakeMyTrip launched three different campaigns:
Aaj Ka Raja which translates to Today’s King!
Users and audiences will have to book a hotel or a flight with the deal code ‘AAJKARAJA’.
A winner will be chosen everyday who will receive goodies.
Goodies would be: Return flight ticket to Hyderabad, a corporate pass to watch sunrises Hyderabad match, airport transfer, luxury hotel stay and a lot more.
Be the Umpire
In the campaign Be the Umpire, MakeMyTrip would post a picture everyday from the match & ask the fans to answer. “Tell us what happened next”!
They want to engage with the audience, get their content shared and improve the edge rank of Facebook. It is therefore, a complete win-win for IPL, MakeMyTrip and fans.
Ebay
Ebay gave its fans on Facebook a chance to take part in ‘Battle of the Fans’ this IPL. One is supposed to choose a team, predict the winner and invite their friends to be a part of it too. Everyone who takes part and wins would be entitled to amazing prizes and goodies!
Muthoot Group
Muthoot Group launched CSR campaign during the IPL. They planned to leverage the association with Delhi Daredevils through this campaign.
The campaign is all about people willing to support the cause by playing ‘book cricket’ on Muthoot Group Facebook page and further compete with each other to earn Delhi daredevils merchandise followed by a golden opportunity to meet their players. The other campaign is the one through which slum children of Delhi will get a chance to become ball boys & ball girls for Delhi’s home matches.
Twitter Magic Mirror
There is this Twitter Magic Mirror introduced during the IPL this year. This application will be used worldwide throughout the IPL tournament. This mirror will basically, in select celebratory settings allow the cricketers and celebrities to tweet out candid pictures through the @IPL account.
The page includes a rolling ticker of tweets, curated especially by the Twitter India account, on the upper right of the page.
The Mirror will travel across the country and offer its fans a classic view of the IPL.
The IPL website is also all set to have a strong Twitter connect. When scrolled down to the end of the homepage, one will find a special section dedicated to Twitter based activities. The hashtag being promoted is #PepsiIPL & the website prompts you to choose your favourite team & tweet out a message in support for it.
One can very well say that IPL is indeed the biggest cricket festival. Everyone here is on the go to own the best bite of the IPL pie. IPL definitely is the most beneficial options as far as marketing of the sports sector is concerned. According to you is IPL one of the significant factors to magnetize the consumers to a brand? Do you think a well planned strategy to engage audiences through IPL will prove to be credible enough on a brand’s part?