“Social Media Marketing in Business: a Case Study of IPL”
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International Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management Vol.2 Issue 3 May-June 2018 www.ijrbem.com “Social Media Marketing in Business: A Case Study of IPL” ABSTRACT In recent past online social media has played a pivotal role in sharing of information and opinions on real time events. In this study, we performed a detailed analysis of a sports event called the Indian Premier League for both Facebook and Twitter. Methodology: The research aims to answer the question of how one business recognized for using social media to grow the business, uses social media to engage customers. The research used a qualitative approach and adopted the case study methodology. Exploratory work must be done in order to determine the nature of the variation in the situation. Through thematic and content analysis the researcher aimed to acquire an initial understanding of the type of content shared by the business and for what purpose. Such information provides a thick description of the phenomena. The research is not argued as the absolute truth but an attempt to explain a particular phenomenon. Findings: The study shows the importance of social media marketing and various successful campaign activities led by several well-known brands. It highlights how companies can connect with audience vide social media that provides instant feedback and direct connection with the target audience. The study evaluated social media campaigns and identified best-suited channel. Expected learning outcomes: The study may be focused on understanding the dynamics of social media marketing. Management students would have a huge learning in terms of how social media campaigns are developed and effectiveness of social media campaigns. The study explains the metrics to evaluate the success/effectiveness of such campaigns. KEYWORDS: IPL, Social media campaign, Content Analysis. 43 International Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management Vol.2 Issue 3 May-June 2018 www.ijrbem.com INTRODUCTION Cricket, though played only in a very few countries in the world, is still one of the most followed sports on social media. India, as the second most populous country in the world, has the largest fan base of cricket anywhere in the world. IPL is the most watched cricket league in the world and with its recent TV broadcasting deal worth $2.5 Billion with Star India; these stats are bound to grow. During the years, Facebook has become an important platform for fans and teams to engage and interact with each other. Here, we take a look at the IPL teams with the biggest fan followings on social media. The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket league in India held every year during the months of April and May. Ever since its founding by the BCCI in 2008, it has become increasingly popular, turning even non-cricket fans to the sport. Cricket enjoys the second largest fan base of any sport in the world and nowhere is that passion more evident than on social media. In fact, the Indian Premiere League (IPL) is one the first leagues to ever broadcast matches live via YouTube. So it comes as no surprise that social media has become the new playground for cricket’s massive community of fans. If the sizzling social stats from the start of the IPL are any indication, the flourishing online community is set to grow faster than Dhoni sprinting between the wickets. The official IPL website has a ‘Social’ tab which captures all online conversations including a leaderboard for Tweets and mentions related to the tournament and each IPL team. IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the most-attended cricket league on Earth. It ranks sixth among sports leagues, and became the first sporting event in history to be broadcast live on YouTube back in 2010. Brand IPL is a beast. It was pegged at a whopping $3.2 billion in 2014, and BCCI claims the 2015 IPL season contributed over $182 million to the Indian economy. In 2016, the title sponsor of the IPL is Vivo Electronics. That means the league is now officially known as the Vivo Indian Premier League. Just like the IPL, the history of IPL’s title sponsorship is also muddled in a bit of controversy, confusion and drama. Back in 2008, DLF, Indian's biggest real estate company, paid a hefty sum of Rs. 200 Crores (around $36.25 million), to own the title rights for the first five years of the tournament. However, after the given period, DLF decided not to renew its contract. This forced BCCI to issue a new tender, with a base price of Rs. 300 Crores. 44 International Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management Vol.2 Issue 3 May-June 2018 www.ijrbem.com This was also the time when the match fixing scandal struck hard, and there was widespread skepticism about the future of the tournament. In the 2013 season of the IPL, Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila and S Sreesanth were arrested over charges of spot- fixing. There were allegations that Chennai Super Kings team principle Gurunath Meiyappan and Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra were involved in betting. The BCCI banned the three cricketers for life, CSK and Rajasthan Royals were banned from the tournament for two years and Meiyappan and Kundra, were banned for life. Anyway, Pepsi struck a new title sponsorship deal in 2012. The amount was almost double the original title sponsorship deal DLF signed back in 2008, and everybody was happy. Officials were positive that despite all the negative colours IPL had been painted in, the league will endure. The deal was clinched for a solid Rs 396.8 Crores (around $71.77 million) for the next five years (2013-17). Airtel, India’s largest telecom company also bid Rs. 316 crores (around $57.27 million), but was obviously outbid. However, in 2015, the beverage giant pulled out from a five-year deal that was to end in 2017. PepsiCo's decision to end its deal with IPL was reportedly caused by the spot-fixing scandal which shook the game in 2013. In 2016, mobile company Vivo replaced PepsiCo as the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL), and the game continues. SOCIAL MEDIA ROLE In India, Facebook usage by brands picked up in early 2008 when the latter started using the platform's 'Pages' to build a loyal fan base. The omnipresent 'Like' button was then called 'Become a fan'. Globally, there were a plethora of successful brand pages engaging with their fan base and Indian brands started following suit. "The focus then," says Rajiv Dingra, founder and CEO, WAT Consult, "was to build a community of consumers and engage with them." Brands concentrated on contests which were experimental and created engagement among consumers. Organic reach was at its peak and there was a mad rush from brands to garner the maximum number of likes which they wore as badge of honour. Telecom players were spending money on Facebook and creating interesting campaigns. Virgin Mobile's 'Indian Panga League' launched during the IPL 3 was one such. The campaign engaged the youth with new pangas and hatke takes on the game. Executed by WAT Consult, over 100 unique films of 15 seconds were created and promoted on Facebook. The mobile brand garnered over 3,000 fans on Facebook. 45 International Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management Vol.2 Issue 3 May-June 2018 www.ijrbem.com Another popular campaign was Intel's 'Mueseum of Me' an interactive film that generated personal museum exhibits of the user by connecting to Facebook. It was done by visualizing elements such as your Facebook friends, photos and likes; it revealed who you are as a reflection of your social graph. The experience attracted over 10 million people globally. LITERATURE REVIEW WEBSITES Before facebook or twitter — there used to be something called a website — where people used to sign up, post things (usually forms) — and hoped someday someone would reply to them and hopefully get a discussion going. The job of a company, sports team was to make this platform available and move away from it — very static. But with the netizens growth and impact (refer egypt controversy on twitter later) — a website can’t stand be static any more. All IPL teams have a website — the Kochi team even have/had a website (http://kochiteam.com) even before having a name — and wore this on their t-shirts during the IPL 2011 auction — which just went to show how important it has become to get a word out — get the youth (majority of the netizens and customers/clients/audience of the IPL) engaged. Examples: Visit http://facebook.com/MumbaiIndians, http://facebook.com/RajasthanRoyals or and look at their latest and most frequent posts. KKR (.in) has even decided to go ahead and make their own social media platform. FACEBOOK In 2008, 2009 there were many (actually too many too count) fan pages for various IPL teams on facebook — none official though — but they had a lot of fans — India had caught up with facebook but the IPL teams hadn’t. In 2010 suddenly these fan pages/groups started getting consolidated — all started becoming one — leading to 10,000+ fans for teams like Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals (others are still trying to keep up unusually) — why? — coz it was official now– the concept of social media pr / team had become popular — facebook was being contacted — to close all fan pages — get all the existing fans and add them to the official FAN pages. Facebook is being used by the teams to broadcast messages and create discussions — used a lot in 2009-10, but come 2011 the focus has changed to websites (see Website section above for why) — but still facebook is a popular platform for engagement — why — coz people are already there — it easy to “Like”, “Comment” or “Share” — or post a photo or video and share it with others — much easier process than going to a team’s website and doing this.