This IPL saw more new brands come in like Parle, Vimal Pan Masala, and Polycab. Marketing communication of these brands
was focused on brand recall than sales as were the case with some of the Indian e-commerce startups last year. Freecharge,
the startup who topped the chart last year, simply decided to skip this year. Apart from Freecharge, start-ups like Flipkart, Ola, and Myntra, who were in Top 11 last year, were also not active.
Now, as the tournament is over, this is our 2nd annual IPL Digital Marketing Report to find how well the IPL sponsors and
advertisers supported their marketing campaigns on digital marketing channels.
3. INTRODUCTION
The theme of this year's Indian Premier League was #10SaalApkeNaam. With a successful 10th edition, IPL achieved what it
set out to achieve and turned out to be #ManoranjanKaBaap. But a lot has been changed in last 10 years. Now Indians can
watch their favourite game in HD. IPL is available on mobile phones. Millions of people are now watching IPL on Hotstar.
As IPL gave marketers an audience to reach via TV ads, brands shifted gears from television and conventional media to social
media in last 10 years.
As India was celebrating the 10th edition of the IPL, expectations of the fans, advertisers, sponsors and broadcasters were high
from India's largest sports event. Sony, the official TV broadcaster of the IPL, was set out to gain Rs.1300cr from this year's IPL
ad-spots, a 18% increase from last year's IPL. With the conclusion of IPL 2017, Sony was able to complete its target of Rs.
1300cr. But what remains to be seen is how much advertisers and sponsors gained from this year's IPL.
This IPL saw more new brands come in like Parle, Vimal Pan Masala, and Polycab. Marketing communication of these brands
was focused on brand recall than sales as were the case with some of the Indian e-commerce startups last year. Freecharge,
the startup who topped the chart last year, simply decided to skip this year. Apart from Freecharge, start-ups like Flipkart, Ola,
and Myntra, who were in Top 11 last year, were also not active.
Now, as the tournament is over, this is our 2nd annual IPL Digital Marketing Report to find how well the IPL sponsors and
advertisers supported their marketing campaigns on digital marketing channels.
Pg 3
4. Platforms Tracked
Engagements Tracked
Amplifications
179.19 million
Conversations
Applauses 32.124m
Video Engagements 152.81m
Social Media Presence of Brands
106
68
96
NumberofBrands
Platforms
16
843k
589k
Overview
Content Shared
Twitter hosted more than
65%
of total content posted
this IPL.
Twitter Facebook
Google+ Youtube
(65.43%)
(26.69%)
(2.81%) (5.06%)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75,893
Replies Tracked
Vodafone single-handedly grabbed more than
66%
share of total replies.
Pg 4
5. 84
68
Brands using Video Content on Facebook & Youtube
2016 vs 2017
Video Content Distribution Video Content Share
Marketers preferred Facebook over
YouTube for video sharing.
Engagements
Activity
Replies
2016 2017
1,85,18,824
3,58,57,255
53,342 15,917
70,47073,269
13,58,57,255
0 108
Pg 5
Total Posts
32,070
Video Posts
3,207
Video content posted was exactly
10%
of the total content.
Youtube
No. of Brands
Facebook (47.24%)
(52.76%)
(for top 11 players)
6. Social Media Display marketing
WINNER
Content strategy
Green Cap
Orange Cap Purple Cap Blue Cap
Brand who excelled in all 3 fields
will be wearing the most enticing prize for an advertiser
Scoring & Methodology
Pg 6
7. x1
As of 2017, India has more than 200 million users on social media. But brands like CEAT Tyres were busy buying TV ad slots and
strategic timeouts. They completely missed the opportunity to tap their users on social media. But the brands who used social
media in their marketing campaign certainly get the most out 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 7
8. Ÿ Vivo was the most engaging brand followed by Vodafone and Make My Trip.
Ÿ Vivo was most active brand on social media this season, while Motorola and Gulf Oil were next in line.
Ÿ Vodafone learnt from their mistakes they have made in the last season and delighted its users not only in quantity but with
quality replies. The telecom giant was followed by Vivo and Mumbai Indian's Title Sponsor “Videocon D2H”.
Orange Cap: Top 5
Social MediaPg 8
x1Brand engagementKey Brand activity Replies to customers
#1 #2
#3
#4 #5
9. Vivo being the title sponsor of IPL-2017 made most of the opportunity. It topped the engagements chart leaving the telecom
giant Vodafone behind with a margin of nearly 4.5 million. #VivoV5s and #VivoPerfectSelfie campaign with a dedicated
website helped the mobile manufacturer lead from front.
#VodafoneSuperfan and #MakeMostofNow drove Vodafone to 2nd position with 21.67 million engagements.
Engagements and Video engagements graphs are similar except for the positions of Jio and Gionee. Vivo, Jio and Amazon
were most consistent and secured positions in top 5 in all the parameters.
Brand Engagement
Vivo
Vodafone
Make My Trip
Jio
Amazon
Kingfisher
FBB
Gionee
Hike
Motorola
Mother Dairy
26,137,992
21,670,493
20,997,746
18,689,897
18,447,937
9,343,029
5,772,632
4,607,544
4,070,665
3,568,875
2,550,445
Top 11 Brands by Total Engagement
(likes + share + comments + favorites + retweets)
Social MediaPg 9
10. Engagements were also analysed 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
Book My Show
Vivo
Jio
Amazon
YES Bank
Etihad Airways
Gionee
Himalaya Men
Kingfisher
Motorola
Mother Dairy
Top 11 Brands by AmplificationTop 11 Brands by Applause
(shares + retweets)
Top 11 Brands by Conversation
Amazon
Vodafone
Jio
Kingfisher
Vivo
Parle
Arabol
Kenstar
Etihad Airways
Gionee
YES Bank
(likes + favorites)
Brand EngagementSocial MediaPg 10
(comments + replies)
Vivo
Jio
Amazon
YES Bank
Gionee
Kingfisher
Idea
Gillette
Hike
Book My Show
Mother Dairy
4,404,404
3,087,659
2,868,575
1,848,405
1,753,388
1,514,843
1,222,443
1,073,830
898,295
790,621
773,011
81,361
51,954
49,898
27,997
26,814
22,167
17,723
13,936
13,822
13,500
11,009
134,145
74,261
73,367
69,947
29,955
29,586
28,557
21,613
20,287
17,290
17,254
11. Vivo
Vodafone
Make My Trip
Amazon
Jio
Kingfisher
FBB
Hike
Motorola
Gionee
Mother Dairy
22,500,384
21,643,446
20,386,363
16,881,274
16,714,774
8,337,455
5,255,920
3,342,029
3,240,674
2,818,636
1,948,638
Video Engagement
Video EngagementsSocial MediaPg 11
Even though video content contributed just 10% to the total content posted in IPL 2017, it was this 10% that grabbed more
than 85% of the engagements this season. On an average every video posted during IPL Season 10 attracted 47.65K
engagements.
It was Video Engagement which helped crashing Vivo to success in overall engagements. 86% of the whooping 26.13 Million
engagements of Vivo came from Video content.
3 Brands, namely Vivo, Vodafone and Make My Trip crossed the 20 Million video engagements' mark this season.
Video Engagement
(likes + share + comments + favorites + retweets)
12. Vivo, Motorola and Gulf Oil secured top 3 positions in total activity as well as tweets. Twitter was most preferred channel with
84.4% of activity of top 11 brands taking place on the microblogging site.
Jio was least active of the Top 11 brands in terms of tweets as well as percentage of tweets to total activity. Just 31.8% of the
total activity of the telecom giant was on Twitter.
Brand activity
Vivo
Motorola
Gulf Oil
Vodafone
Finolex
Book My Show
Zeven World
Itz Cash
Himalaya Men
Daikin
Jio
3,747
2,988
2,060
1,062
919
507
501
462
460
419
321
Top 11 Brands by Tweet Activity
(Tweets)
4,039
3,157
2,193
1,087
1,037
1,011
1,008
662
605
559
559
Vivo
Motorola
Gulf Oil
Vodafone
Finolex
Book My Show
Jio
Zeven World
Daikin
YES Bank
Itz Cash
Top 11 Brands by Total activity
(Tweets + Fb posts)
Pg 12 Social Media
13. Vodafone was the most active of all brands in replying. The telecom giant replied at an average of more than 1073 replies per
day. The quantity of Tweets didn't hinder the quality and Vodafone's replies were personal and authentic.
Jio was the only brand catering its customers with Facebook replies.
50,459
6,141
2,909
2,549
1,995
1,458
1,201
1,191
1,105
950
512
Vodafone
Vivo
Videocon D2H
Motorola
Voltas
YES Bank
Daikin
Etihad Airways
Maruti Suzuki
Canara Bank
Lawaman Pg3
Top 11 Brands by Replies to Customers
(No. of replies)
Replies to Users
Pg 13 Social Media
14. Get In Touch
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15. Content and engagement go hand in hand. Whether it is a 140-character tweet, GIFs, videos or images, you cannot expect
engagement unless you create engaging/impressive content. Unlike the last year, companies focused more on branded content
in 2017. However, not all brands were able to relate content with the game.
Manforce was the emerging player of content game this year. However, Vodafone grabbed the title.
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
Pg 15
Winner
How we Scored?
16. #1
#2
#3 #4 #5
Ÿ All brands focused on engaging users in conversation with personal authentic responses.
Ÿ Vodafone and Motorola showed tough competition-on the creative front as well as in creating real-time content..
Ÿ All brands performed well in content distribution except Motorola which did not focus on on-air publicity.
x1Engagement AuthenticityKey Content Development Content Distribution Strategy
Purple Cap: Top 5
Pg 16 Content Strategy
17. Amazon
The E-commerce giant made most of IPL-2017 with
ChonkPur Cheetahs. Amazon’s characters Dhyani, Coach, and
others garnered fame not just on-air but on social media as
well. Their custom responses to the customer queries on
social media were in perfect synergy with IPL.
Pg 17 Content Strategy
Manforce
This year’s emerging player in content played Intimate
Partner League and gathered humongous response and
engagements on social media.
Creativity with a touch of wit made the content incredible for
Manforce.
18. Vodafone & Motorola
Both the brands created the best real-time responsive content which was equally creative. Vodafone went a step ahead with
added element of wit to the content. Synchronization of the on-air publicity with perfect hashtag usage by Vodafone helped
the telecom giant in securing the top rank.
Pg 18 Content Strategy
Ceat Tyres & Polycab
It seems the official strategic timeout partner was on a timeout with no real-time content and no conversations with users.
Ceat Tyres used the official as well as Ceat CCR (Ceat Cricket Review) handles for IPL 2017 but got stumped yet again.
Polycab got stuck in multilingualism and could not engage users in conversation. The multi-talented player (Polycab) left the
field in between the game and stopped posting exactly a month before the scheduled IPL final.
19. Display marketing is the broadest of all the three parameters. Ranging from real time on air ads to over the top platforms like
Hotstar attracts largest chunk of expense from various brands.
IPL 2017 witnessed a heated battle in telecom industry. Newest entrant in the industry Jio locked horns with Vodafone, which
completed 10 years of its partnership with IPL.
Blue cap was awarded to the brand which made its presence felt all-around.
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
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
Pg 19
Winner
Blue Cap
Brand who fielded well in Display Marketing
How we Scored?
20. Ÿ Hero Cycles topped the chart with its all-around presence during IPL-2017, it felt like “Wherever you go I follow.”
Ÿ In real time ad buys, Vodafone and Jio were two such brands who bought most ad slots. This paid them back in securing
them a position in top 5.
Ÿ Vivo had one of the most ad slots in real time, but poor performance in other parameters, pushed them out of the top 5.
Pg 20 Display Marketing
x1Web EngagementKey Real time Ad buys
Blue Cap: Top 5
#1 #2
#3 #4
#5
21. Hero Cycles
If you follow IPL closely there is one thing which you must
have noticed for sure, presence of Hero Cycles everywhere.
The Ludhiana based company advertised on air, on various
websites, on all social media platforms, as the title sponsors
of Kings XI Punjab and transformed their website in sync with
the ongoing campaign.
An All-round performance by the Cycle makers fetched them
the “Blue Cap”.
Jio
This emerging player of the Indian telecom market played all
out in IPL 2017. Strategic marketing efforts like fan wave in
Wankhede Stadium and Vivo Jio Cricket Mania offer was in
perfect coordination helped Jio #MakeMostofNow ;).
Maruti Suzuki
Maruti Suzuki left no stone unturned with its Vitara Brezza
“Sport of Glamour” campaign. Campaign was perfectly in
synchronization with the game. The Automobile giant was
one of the official partners of IPL.
It used the position to display its advertisement on air, on
Hotstar, presented Vitara Brezza #GlamShot of the Season
and above all hosted “cricfantasy.in” which brought huge
traction to the brand.
Pg 21 Display Marketing
22. Pg 22 Display Marketing
Vodafone & Amazon
Both the giants came up with one of the most liked campaigns. While Vodafone broke age barriers with its #MakeMostofNow
Campaign, Amazon tapped tier-2 and tier-3 cities with its heart-warming #ChonkpurCheetahs campaign.
As an associate sponsor of Sony Max Vimal Pan Masala spent
most of its marketing budget on real time on-air ads. Roping
in Ajay Devgn for “Bolo Zubaan Kesari” and connecting
whole of India was perfect moves.
But what went wrong for them was that they left digital media
untapped and that is why Vimal Pan Masala was one of the
lowest scorers in this year's IPL.
Vimal Pan Masala
23. Conclusion
Pg 23
Though this year's IPL kicked off with 8 grand opening ceremonies, but there was only one winner. Similarly, we gave away
3 caps to 3 different brands, but there can only be one winner.
This year the battle on all fronts (Display, Content and Social Media) was so furious that no brand could remain consistent
in terms of rankings except for Yes Bank and Vodafone. Both the brands were the only Two to secure a rank in all the Top 5
ranks (Display, Content and Social Media). It was due to this consistency that Yes Bank held 2nd Position and Vodafone won
the Green Cap.
Major driving factor behind Vodafone's success was great content, able content distribution, best customer satisfaction and
perfect usage of ad slots. Perfect mix of Zoozoos with Happy Couple celebrating their Second Honeymoon helped Vodafone
#MakeMostOfIPL2017.
Yes Bank's success should be credited to its game related content and catchy hashtags. #IndiaBoleYes and
#SayYesToGrowth were some of the many hashtags used by Yes Bank which made its presence felt in social media and
display advertisements.
Display proved its mettle yet again. Six of the Top 11 brands didn't perform well in
display and finished in bottom seven (Motorola, Amazon, Kingfisher, Gionee,
UltraTech Cement and Zeven).
Book My Show was the most consistent brand in terms of points in all three
parameters and managed 8th position in Top 11.
Poor performance in content creation and distribution hit the title sponsor
of IPL - Vivo hard and pushed it to third rank in overall rankings.
Four of the top five spending advertisers in IPL 2017 managed a rank in top
6 (Vodafone, Vivo, Reliance Jio and Amazon India). While 7 out of the top 11
brands belonged to the top spending categories (Handset Makers, Telecom
Operators and Online Shopping).
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