Case Study: How Cricbuzz lockdown campaign pushed for a positive outlook

Cricbuzz lockdown campaign leveraged the concept of 'Strategic Timeout' through influencers to keep the consumers engaged & positive during a time of crisis.

Cricbuzz lockdown campaign Case Study decodes the brand's social media mix & tactics involved.

Brand
Introduction

Cricbuzz is an Indian cricket news website owned by Times Internet. Having established itself as one of the premier cricket news apps across the globe, Cricbuzz has now set its sights on becoming the premier destination for cricket content on video, spanning across cricket news, analysis, and entertainment.

The brand has always aimed to achieve top of mind recall amongst cricket fans by creating the most engaging and finest content. The idea has always been to adapt with new trends but stay relevant for cricket fans.

Summary

Cricbuzz kickstarted the campaign with video interviews of what popular cricketers and commentators were up to during this period. To amplify this in a better manner, WATConsult leveraged influencer marketing.

This was done by creating content around how influencers were using their time strategically, thus, it was termed as a 'Strategic Timeout' and not a Lockdown. This was done across the categories of Comedy, Music, Art, and lifestyle, to create buzz on Twitter and Instagram & reach a broad segment of the audience.

Problem
Statement/Objective

The brand was looking to positively encourage the audience to look at the lockdown scenario through an optimistic lens, where one could strategically use his/her time to pick up an activity or a hobby, just like in cricket where the strategic timeout is used to rethink the strategy going forward.

Brief

The fans have been devoid of any cricketing action, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be connected to the world of cricket and their favorite players.

With that intent in mind, the brand and agency aimed to create a long-lasting and impactful piece of content that will stay in the audience’s mind.

Creative
Idea

The brand’s creative approach and the alignment of the cricketing term ‘Strategic Timeout’, during the lockdown, resonated with the fan base.

To spread the word beyond hard-core cricket following audiences, the agency leveraged the use of influencer marketing across the categories of Comedy, Music, Art, and Lifestyle, to create buzz on Twitter and Instagram.

The content was centered on how the influencers are using their time strategically during this period to eventually lead their followers to the Cricbuzz app/social pages.

Challenges

• During a time where conversations around the pandemic were trending organically, the challenge from the beginning revolved around how is the brand effectively driving organic sentiments around the campaign and adding positivity in the outlook and maybe a smile wherever they could.
• Identifying relevant and compelling hooks for the audience, creating content around the hooks and integrating it into their social repertoires

Also read: Case Study: How Vadilal saw 35% growth in Instagram followers during off-season

Execution

Cricbuzz reached out to influencers across the categories of Comedy, Music, Art, and lifestyle, to drive un-duplicated reach and showcase how they strategically used their time, during this period. A few notable digital personalities who were a part of the campaign include- Sorabh Pant, Dolly Singh, Aadar Malik, and Valmakry.

To further the impact of the campaign, engagement activities like interactive quizzes, polls, GIFs were running in parallel to the influencer engagement on the brand’s social media platforms, with great success.

Results

Quantitative

• Generated a reach of 242 million
• Reached over 10.6 million unique users within the first week of its launch.
• Recorded over 8 lacs in engagement numbers across Instagram and Twitter
• Clocked a response of over 2.2k responses on Twitter in terms of User Generated Content.

Qualitative

• #StrategicTimeout trended on Twitter organically on the weekend at a time where a lot of political conversations were trending
• Exposed new users to the brand through organic conversations
• Amplified word of mouth by motivating influencers and the audience
• Humanized the brand by driving positive organic stories, during the grim reality
• Built loyalty & increased engagement through ongoing conversation

Quote

Sharing her views on the campaign, Deepanwita Bhattacharya, Marketing Manager, Cricbuzz, said, “Strategic Timeout was a success as it led users to know how their cricketing stars were utilizing their time during the lockdown. The idea was not to restrict users with just Cricket related content but to explore the other areas as well to draw their interest. With WATConsult coming on board, it helped Cricbuzz team-up to create a compelling campaign on social media.”

Heeru Dingra, CEO, WATConsult added, “We successfully employed the method of influencer marketing to engage the audience in a digital conversation about how we already are or potentially could invest our time strategically in various activities during the lockdown. Also, engagement across multiple digital platforms helps reach a wider audience and garner unique impressions. We want to focus on the message that this period could prove to be a #StrategicTimeout after all, if we use it wisely.”