Brands Tracked

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INTRODUCTION

Despite the reports in media about the declining viewership of Indian Premiere League, the 9th edition of IPL did not lose its

potential as a marketing playground. VIVO IPL 2016 on-air ad spends has garnered around Rs. 1,000 crore. IPL is still the hot-

bed for marketing.

80 sponsors, plus over 20 Hotstar advertisers, were riding on the marketing roller-coaster this season. Was simply having an

on-air ad spot, or brand presence on the jersey or ground sponsorship enough to cut above the noise?

#VIVOIPL alone had 10,297,541 tweets in total during the tournament. In fact, 70 per cent fans were using social media to share

their in stadia experiences. While companies did spend on TV ads, it was crucial to have a digital marketing strategy.

Now, when the tournament is over, it is time to reflect and find who was the brand of the tournament and who simply made a

cameo like Kevin Pietersen. This is our first IPL Digital Marketing Report to find how well the IPL sponsors and advertisers

supported their marketing campaigns on digital marketing channels.

Key Takeaways

Ÿ Creative and engaging content was rewarded with audience engagement regardless of paid promotion.

Ÿ Most brands struggled to maintain all three aspects of digital marketing.

Ÿ Display marketing was the most ignored aspect. Marketers did not even use the economical ways of display marketing like

buying ads on sports website or creating dedicated IPL website.

Pg 3

x1Social media Display marketing Content strategy

x2 x1x1

Green Cap

Brand who excelled in all 3 fields will be wearing the most enticing prize for an advertiser

Scoring & MethodologyWe tracked three aspects of digital marketing:

Ÿ Social Media

Ÿ Content Strategy

Ÿ Display Marketing

We used in-house tools to track the social media profiles—Facebook and Twitter—of brands who are either official IPL sponsor

or sponsor of IPL franchisees. On the content and display marketing side, we deployed our team to track the social media

content during the games and display ads on relevant websites and apps. We have tracked the companies in two parts

Ÿ From April 8, 2016 to April 28, 2016

Ÿ From April 29, 2016 to May 29, 2016

The results of the first part was published as a mid-IPL season report which you can download by . The final report clicking here

has the data and results compiled for throughout the season.

These three aspects of scoring have been further elaborated in each of its respective section

Pg 4

Here’s our Scoring methodolgy

x1

Some brands were so busy buying TV ad spots that they almost missed the opportunity on social media. On the other hand,

there were brands like Zeven who only used social media apart from being on Royal Challenger Bangalore’s jersey. The brands

who performed well on social media were likely to get the most of their sponsorship

Social Media

Evaluation criteria

Brand engagement Brand activity Replies to Users

x2 x1x1

Orange Cap

Brand who batted well in the social media crease

Winner

Pg 5

Ÿ Britannia5050 was the most engaging brand on social media followed by Vivo and Flipkart.

Ÿ Despite being the most active brand, Kingfisher could not top the social media chart. It shows how being active on social

media counts only if you’re getting brand engagement and social media conversations.

Ÿ Vodafone leads the chart in replies to users queries. But even then they could not make it to the top 5. It’s because

Vodafone’s social media conversations were more like customer care service while the ones in top 5 delighted users on

social media.

Orange Cap: Top 5

Social MediaPg 6

x1Brand engagementKey Brand activity Replies to customers

#1

#2#3

#4 #5

Britannia hit the accelerator on marketing campaign after the one third of the tournament was over. With a dedicated website

and campaign, they generated the highest engagement. While they stood at 10th spot in brand engagement #5050Fusion

during mid-way, at the end of IPL they stood in the 1st position.

Vivo made it to the 2nd position by performing well in the conversation chart, for they were quite behind in terms of applause

and amplification. The top two brands had one thing in common: a dedicated IPL website to engage users

Brand Engagement

Britannia5050

Vivo

Flipkart

Oppo

GoodDay Cookies

Myntra

YES Bank

Gionee

Intex

Make my Trip

RedFM

33,73,248

25,82,138

23,14,743

21,80,675

16,58,871

15,88,528

13,00,634

11,70,762

10,65,687

7,58,376

5,25,162

Top 11 Brands by Total Engagement

(likes + share + comments + favorites + retweets)

Social MediaPg 7

Engagements were also analyzed by specific engagement type. The three engagement types measured were:

Ÿ Applause, representing favorable responses and including metrics such as likes and favorites,

Ÿ Conversation, representing consumer responses and including metrics such as comments and replies,

Ÿ Amplification, representing brand advocacy and including metrics such as shares and retweets

Top brands by Engagement type

Gionee

FreeCharge

Britannia 5050

Oppo

GoodDay Cookies

Ola Cabs

Flipkart

Vivo

Kingfisher

YES Bank

RedFM

95,889

94,791

71,965

56,589

46,578

45,335

32,314

32,057

31,030

22,153

21,190

Top 11 Brands by AmplificationTop 11 Brands by Appluase

(shares + retweets)

Top 11 Brands by Conversation

Vodafone

Intex

Freecharge

Daikin

RedFM

Flipkart

Vivo

GoodDay Cookies

Britannia50550

YES Bank

Oppo

59,613

49,367

33,423

30,504

19,794

16,160

11,535

10,474

9,343

8,400

8,334

(likes + favorites)

Brand EngagementSocial MediaPg 8

(comments + replies)

Britannia 5050

Vivo

Flipkart

Oppo

GoodDay Cookies

Myntra

YES Bank

Gionee

Intex

Make my Trip

Spykar

32,91,940

25,38,546

22,66,269

21,15,752

16,01,819

15,63,312

12,70,081

10,70,092

10,07,160

7,52,072

5,04,930

Kingfisher and Britannia5050 were the most active brands. For marketers, Twitter still stands as the preferred channel for

marketing. Not only most posts are shared on the micro-blogging website, 95% of the brand activity also came from Twitter .

Brand activity

Kingfisher

Britannia5050

DTDC

FreeCharge

OLA Cabs

Gionee

Zeven

Vodafone

Astral Pipes

HE Deo

YES Bank

30,025

5,230

2,163

2,136

2,033

1,857

1,535

1,220

1,176

976

824

Top 11 Brands by Tweet Activity

(Tweets)

30,101

6,013

2,760

2,236

2,194

2,079

2,009

1,658

1,483

1,460

1,349

Kingfisher

Britannia5050

FreeCharge

DTDC

Gionee

OLA Cabs

Zeven

GoodDay Cookies

HE Deo

RedFM

YES Bank

Top 11 Brands by Total activity

(Tweets + Fb posts)

Pg 9 Social Media

Many brands are using their official Twitter handle as customer care platform. While there are brands like FreeCharge who use

personal authentic responses to serve customers, brands like Videocon are using automatic generated messages to respond to

users. But the brands who topped the overall chart were those who engaged user around personal and authentic content

59,513

4,850

1,971

1,829

1,151

1,138

742

665

550

485

375

Vodafone

Videocond2h

Daikin

DTDC

Britannia5050

FreeCharge

Myntra

DHFL

OLA Cabs

GoodDay Cookies

YES Bank

Top 11 Brands by Replies to Customers

(No. of replies)

Replies to Users

Pg 10 Social Media

Without content, there would be no conversation, no story, no message...and consequently, no brand! While there are companies

who understand this, there are many who have not caught up with the idea.

Since our mid-IPL season report, many brands have improved their content strategy. Kingfisher has ruled the content landscape

throughout the IPL. And after the success in the first half, Finolex and Zeven have also kept up their content momentum.

Read on and find out how the other brands have played on the content pitch!

Content strategy

Purple Cap

Brands who bowled out their opponents with best economy rate

Conversation with users

Personal authentic responses

On air publicity of hashtag

Actively used hashtag with the game

Consistency

Engagement authenticity

Game related content

Real time responsive Content creation

Variety in content Creation

Branded content

Synergy of content with the game

Content Development Content distribution Strategy

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Winner

How we Scored?

#1#2

#3 #4#5

Key points

Ÿ All these brands have been consistent and authentic with their content and brand voice

Ÿ The king of good times, Kingfisher, has also been the king of great content, closely followed by Yes Bank.

Ÿ Content distribution strategy of Kingfisher, Yes Bank, and Freecharge was better than that of Vodafone

x1Engagement Authenticity Key Content Development Content Distribution Strategy

Purple Cap: Top 5

Pg 12 Content Strategy

Kingfisher

Kingfisher won the purple cap for a great content strategy. They

created almost all type of social content--videos, GIFs, and ad

banners. This is the only brand which focused well on videos and

GIFs. One of their Facebook videos received 3.5 million views.

Kingfisher used GIF in all sort of ways. They used GIF contests to

spark successful conversations. They used stand-up comedians for

reactionary GIFs. The content was witty, creative, and truly delighted

the audience. Audience response was equally creative... and it indeed

was good times for audience as well as for Kingfisher.

Pg 13 Content Strategy

Zeven

A startup with marketing budget not much as Amazon,

Flipkart, Vodafone, and VIVO. What would you do?

Develop a good content strategy and back it with social

media.

Zeven perfectly knew how to do this. They actively use

hashtag with the game, were consistent with #LivetoPlay

their content, and were able to engage audience. The only

thing they missed on was variety. Video content and real-

time responsive content for the game could have helped the

RCB sponsor to jump to the 2nd position.

Pg 14 Content Strategy

YES bank

India did say Yes! to Yes Bank’s call but it took time. In the

first half of the campaign, the clarity and consistency in Yes

Bank’s content strategy was absent. But as IPL picked up

momentum, so did Yes Bank.

They performed amazing in the second half of the campaign.

They actively used company’s hashtag with the game,

offered engaging banners, and GIFs and were among the few

companies successful in embedding brand voice with match

updates.

DHFL

The courier service company couldn’t make it to the

top 11. But they surely were creative with their

content. They were also able to engage their audience.

As Kingfisher and Amazon used stand-up comedians

for social media content, DHFL built a Facebook app

for play and win contest. They only lagged in strategic

use of hashtag, personal authentic responses, and

content type.

CEAT Tyres

The content strategy of strategic time-out partner was a big turn

off. They did create a dedicated and their cricket rating website

social media accounts were replete with followers. But they failed

to make the most of it.

There were also hardly an improvement in the second half of the

campaign when many brands shifted to top gears. They also were

silent on social conversations side and offered a very little in terms

of content.

Lava mobile

The Indian mobile manufacturer’s campaign ‘Never let

you down’ started when almost one third of the

tournament was over. Dhoni focused ad-campaign was

really creative but they were silent about IPL in their

campaign.

But it seems their content and social media team lacked

creativity when congratulating their brand ambassador

on biggest last over chase in IPL history. This didn’t use

relevant match hashtags to increase the reach of the

post.

Pg 15 Content Strategy

As we mentioned in the mid-IPL season report, display advertising is a broad arena. And if not strategically used, you might

miss many relevant corners of the display field. We covered desktop, mobile, static banners, and engagement ads to find the

top performers in display advertising. We found that the most of the e-commerce companies’ focus is on display marketing and

they really excel in this segment.

Display Marketing

Website for the game

Relevance of the website with the game

Website is hosted on the brand domain

Web traffic on the game related landing page

Purchased premium spots on sports website

Ads are related to the TV/digital campaign

On-air ad spot on TV/HOTSTAR

Official campaign website display in the commercial

Web Engagement Real time AD buys

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Winner

Blue Cap

Brand who fielded well in Display Marketing

How we Scored?

Ÿ Freecharge outperformed all others in top 5 mainly due to its flawless game related platform and traffic they were able to

divert to their landing page.

Ÿ However, in real-time ad buys, FreeCharge and Ola Cabs simply stole the show

Pg 17 Display Marketing

x1Web EngagementKey Real time Ad buys

Blue Cap: Top 5

#1

#2

#3 #4 #5

Freecharge

From the first day of the campaign, FreeCharge was as active

on display advertising as it was on TV ads. Since their

targeted audience are smartphone users, the display

advertising was seen regularly on mobile apps. They

purchased real-time ads on espncricinfo app and maintained

visibility throughout the campaign.

OLA Cabs

Like FreeCharge, Ola Cabs understand the importance of display ads. But the most intelligent move from the on-demand cab

service was to buy ad-spots on Hotstar.

They also bought ad-spots on Sony along with the features on their app. Had they also purchased ad spots on other #matchday

sports websites, they could have easily top the chart. Overall, Ola Cabs was really innovative with their display ad campaign.

Vivo

The title sponsor of IPL started out loud with a dedicated

website for the game It is a game website where users can

predict and win prizes. Unfortunately, the website did not

garner much traffic. It did seem that the website will be

promoted by VIVO with the progress of IPL but as it turned

out they didn’t!

Pg 18 Display Marketing

Pg 19 Display Marketing

Kingfisher

Unlike its performance in content,

Kingfisher fared poorly in display

marketing. The had no section website

for IPL 2016 despite their strong presence

on TV ads and social media. The sports

section of the website had almost

negligible mention of IPL considering

their efforts on content and social media.

Yes Bank was silent on TV. They did not

show any commercial throughout IPL. But

they did made their brand visible smartly

on-air with ads appearing on the margins

of the screen. This was indeed a smart

move if one wants to show their ad

repetitively demanding the audience

interest without creating multiple

commercials.

Yes Bank, however, lacked commitment in

web development. Instead of making a

single web page about IPL, they could

have created a dedicated website to

engage the users. They had very strong

slogans and #IndiaBoleYes

#YesBankMaximum to cash on.

YES Bank

Conclusion

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While there are a lot of insights one can draw from the report, the two most important ones remain this:

1. Even with a great content and social media strategy, it is not possible to reap benefits without a right display marketing

strategy. The brands who topped the chart have two things in common: they were consistent and spent on display marketing.

While your audience may interact with you on social media, it is really crucial to get engagement from them on a unique

platform of your brand. The best examples came from Britannia5050 who created a dedicated . The brands who could website

not get into top 11 did not focused on display marketing.

2. Content and social media do help in entertaining, educating, or inspire your audience. But in the case of an event like IPL, it

was not enough to engage users without giving them an offering related to the game. Ola Cabs offered two free match day

tickets. Freecharge’s spin the wheel is another good example. Vodafone’s super fan and fan army are also great concepts.

The marketing messages should promote these offers rather than the message of sales.

For example, Flipkart’s and Amazon’s campaign was too focused on their own brand

and they could not make into the top 11.

It may look like FreeCharge’s Rs. 100 crore marketing budget was the reason

for their success. But it was not the top in social media. Nor top in the

content strategy. The reason for FreeCharge’s success was its ability to

understand audience and the IPL pitch better than its competitors and

create a digital marketing strategy based on it. Its digital marketing

campaign was aligned and consistent across social media, content, and

display marketing.

Content Strategy

Display Marketing

Social Media

Score by Category

Top 11 Digital Marketing kings of IPL

1

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

11

1010

Overall Ranking

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