While TV viewership soared for ESPN Star Sports, the official broadcasters of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, resulting in a 514% increase in the GRPs of sports channels in the last month, as indicated by aMap data, the Internet and social media kept buzzing with cricket updates and activities.
As India made to the coveted World Cup final, the hysteria among fans and viewers increased manifold on social networking sites like Facebook (FB), Twitter, and YouTube. Cricket portals like Yahoo! Cricket, Cricinfo and Cricketnext maximised the opportunities offered by the showpiece tournament, with exhaustive coverage through score updates, ball-by-ball commentary, videos, live feeds, cricket contests, expert columns and match summaries, inviting millions of hits on their platforms.
Yahoo! Cricket, the official website for the World Cup, was the one-stop online destination for tracking proceedings of the tournament. Users got information on teams, players, stats, match fixtures, stadiums, tickets, group standings and interesting trivia.
With India playing Sri Lanka in the final, the portal exploded with videos and images of India-Sri Lanka encounters, SWOT analysis of both teams, comments of captains, expert takes on the venue, pitch and players, and an ode to the twin legends of the game ? Sachin Tendulkar and Muttiah Muralitharan ? as they faced off for one last time on the international stage.
According to a Nielsen-McKinsey BuzzMetrics Report, official sponsors Pepsi, Castrol & Hero Honda and sports brands like Nike, Adidas and Reebok generated mosts buzz on social media sites, blogs, message boards and discussion forums.
While Pepsi obtained nearly 9.5 lakh fans on its FB page that ran cricket contests and games, Nike?s Bleed Blue campaign for Team India was a major hit on the site, with 6.7 million users showing off Bleed Blue badges on their profile pictures. The Bleed Blue Pledge also invited 60,450 hits on YouTube till Saturday.
Adidas had 7 lakh registered fans on their Fantasy Cricket page on FB. Tushar Gokuldas, sales & marketing director, Adidas India, says, ?During this World Cup, sports brands have seen tremendous growth in their brand and consumer engagement through social media.?
A report by Boston Consulting Group, Internet?s New Billion, reveals that India had nearly 100 million Internet users by the end of 2010, of which 14 million were on FB. Internet penetration is growing at a rate of 50%, while social media usage continues to grow multiple times. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative for marketers to leverage social networking sites during large-scale events like the World Cup, say experts.