#SSIPLWatch Cricketing teams or mini publishers? Recapping IPL 13 with team social media strategies

With IPL 13 missing the in-stadium fan action, individual teams put their weight on creating virtual experiences that went beyond the usual social media reach and engagement. Here's a recap.

A deeper focus on creating rich candid imagery beyond the on-field action and efforts to organise virtual meet & greets were key elements of the social media strategies of all IPL teams this year.

Regular IPs helped each of them become mini publishers in their own might, complete with websites and YouTube productions.

Though each team seemed to have a unique social media strategy owing to the city they represent and the demographic they cater to, cricket and a few trends could be seen coming alive across teams.

• Twitter is where the real action happened for them as it was the easiest platform to drive real-time conversations in.
• Instagram and Facebook became spaces where content could be used as a tool to document the team's journey in the league.
• Most of the creatives across social media platforms were the same with optimisation-related modifications to adjust to the dimensional requirements of the platform.
• YouTube was a key platform where the teams could put forth deeper, richer, long format content featuring the players.
• Creation of IPs helped them create regular, episodic content to keep fans coming back for more.
• Posting pictures of players in team outfits and highlighting the pride associated with it proved to be a catalyst to generate demand for merchandises.
• Brand associations and sponsor advertising could be seen on all social media pages, be in posters featuring players or deeper storytelling where a brand would sponsor a content segment/IP for the team.
• Teams have been using social media to create brands out of their players, fuelling individual branding to strengthen their team's overall branding. Focussing on one player at a time or featuring them in content that includes a more well-known player seems to be helping them in doing so.

Click on the images below to read individual team social media strategies.

2020 forced teams to experiment with digital content in ways a regular IPL season may not have. What remains to be seen is how this impacts their strategies next year when, if all goes well, they will have stadium experiences to support these digital initiatives! Stay tuned, we sure will.