Celebrity Brands: What makes Sachin Tendulkar Master Blaster of social media?

This segment of celebrity brands deep-dives into the Sachin Tendulkar social media strategy - a second inning of the maverick cricketer that transcends boundaries off the field becoming a force to reckon with, for audiences & brands, alike.

The Bharat Ratna winner, Sachin Tendulkar is synonymous to ‘God’ in the cricket world. While we know all about the Master Blaster’s cricket journey, not much seems to be known about his inning on social media & the strategy that pervades across the channels creating his personal brand.

Apart from showcasing unparalleled performance on the field, Sachin has batted for many noteworthy causes throughout the years. Be it the UNICEF brand ambassador for hygiene and sanitation back in 2013 to UNICEF Cricket for Good, ambassador for the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017. Often vocal about gender discrimination, the cricketer was also roped in for the nationwide ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The cricketer has also displayed a seeming business acumen with investment in two hotels in Mumbai in a partnership & even co-owned ISL franchise Kerala Blasters and Bengaluru Blasters in Premier Badminton League. He even launched a mobile app, 100MB in 2017 & kickstarted Tendulkar Middlesex global academy for talent development in 2020.

As Sachin swore to his father to never endorse tobacco or alcohol brands, the cricketer displayed authenticity by supporting brand campaigns that are known to have ‘synergy’ with his personal beliefs. Capped with the attributes of humble beginnings, a down-to-earth persona with soft-spoken nature, the cricketer is a favorite amongst brands, transcending geographies & cultures across the globe. 

As we tread through social media strategy with added insights from Qoruz data, we understand what forms the core of his personal brand on social media.

Brand Sachin Tendulkar Social Media -Overview

Inspiration, Sports, Nationalism, Skill development, Family & Parenting, Food, & Cricket, are some prominent themes that emerge from Sachin Tendulkar's social media presence.

Other prominent hashtags as per Qoruz data include #FlashbackFridays, #ThrowbackThursday, #FanFridays, #Nostalgia, #teamindia, #100mb, #Playingitmyway, #SportsUnitesUs & #SwachhBharat.

Tendulkar leverages social media for causes, brand campaigns & most importantly for promoting & celebrating sports.

Sachin soon launched his YouTube channel post his retirement, to stay connected with his viewers in 2013. The glimpses of the cricketer’s autobiography launched in 2014, ‘Playing it my way’, can also be seen on the channel.

Sachin refers to his second innings in life as the 'digital inning's. In 2017, when launched 100MB, an app dedicated to him, he said, "Many of you and my friends have asked me what are you going to do in your second innings of life. The first innings went on for 24 years. There are a number of things which I am involved in, but something which I am looking forward to starting soon, in fact now, is the digital innings."

In the same year, Tendulkar became a LinkedIn influencer with the first blog post as ‘My Second Innings’.

The cricketer commenced the year 2020 with friends & a sneak-peak from Thailand.

With the Coronavirus pandemic, the cricketer spent the lockdown with his family, investing time into spreading awareness through social media platforms & varied activities. The Sachin Tendulkar Social Media strategy reflects responsible content on all fronts.

He often went Live on social media platforms and kept up with posts on topical news, trends, and more.

He experiments with formats like Cinemagraph to keep the content trendy and HQ.

The cricketer is known for his love for music & poetry. He is often seen posting about his namesake, S.D Burman & even Lataji.

The captions he uses range from being medium to long, depending on the topic of the posts. Announcement posts are usually in Hindi, English & Marathi. Regional languages are prominent across Sachin's social media posts.

More than 50% of his posts are dynamic with short & long-format video posts, cross-promoting his app & academy pages.

Social Media Footprint & Analysis

• Twitter - 34.1 million
• Facebook - 33.9 million
• Instagram-26.9 million
• LinkedIn - 596k followers
• Youtube - 400k subscribers

Tendulkar seems to be popular across generations, masses, and classes and has maximum followers on Twitter with the significant engagement on Instagram amongst other social media platforms.

According to Qoruz, content affinity on Tendulkar’s pages are seen majorly for Cricket, Family & Parenting, and Food & drinks.

Instagram Overview

The cricketer garners 3.18% engagement rate with a 1.4mn increase in followers in the last 30 days on Instagram. Owing to its visual nature, many of the posts are videos with four reels on the platform.

Further, most of his followers speak ‘Travel’. 78.4% of his Instagram audience comprises males.

The cricketer often cross-posts from 100mb to his profile page.

Facebook overview

Tendulkar is quite active on Facebook with many dynamic posts & content buckets. He often redirects users to his YouTube channel involving quizzes, #SachInsights, & anecdotes through the platform posts.

The engagement rate for the last 30 days is 0.24%, suggests data. The follower growth seems to have decreased on the platform. However, the content performance is better than the influencer benchmark on the page.

Twitter overview

Tendulkar recently engaged with fans through the online commentary for IPL 2020. He also utilizes the channel to wish colleagues and friend, promotional activities & staying abreast with the latest news & trends 

The growth in the followers has increased on Tendulkar’s Twitter account. Most of his followers speak English as the primary language.

YouTube & LinkedIn Overview

From the first ‘#ThankYouSachin’ video to sharing nostalgic & iconic moments, Tendulkar garners a fair share of eyeballs through his YouTube channel. He continues to discuss inspiring & funny stories from his life while promoting his business ventures & updates.

The cricketer is also one of the few influencers to engage in relevant dialogue through LinkedIn. Positioning himself as the change-maker, Tendulkar shares blog posts & relevant initiatives through the platform.

The Family Man

Tendulkar shares endearing moments and nostalgic posts with his parents & spending quality time with family on Instagram & Facebook.

Also read: Celebrity Brands: Akshay Kumar – the ‘Khiladi’ of social media?

Fun & Banter with Friends 

Another noteworthy trend is the cricketer engaging with his ex-colleagues through social media pages. The posts range from supporting the endeavors by friends, challenging them for fun & sometimes banter with other senior players.

Nature & Food

The cricketer is often vocal about his love for varied cuisines such as Thai & Bengali and shares such posts to engage the audience.

He also loves to travel and shares throwback posts with an eye for the beauty of nature.

Leveraging nostalgia

Another noteworthy trend is sharing nostalgic posts associated with Cricket & endearing moments.

Brand Associations

Starting from ‘Boost is the secret of my energy’, Brand Sachin Tendulkar has changed the face of advertising with his presence. Data suggests that five Indian icons that cut across gender, culture, geographies & socioeconomic classes include Tendulkar.

In-line with this thought, Kapil Dev once said, “People don't relate Sachin to any particular brand. He is brand India for consumers and will earn dividend or pension throughout his life for being that.”

Be it during a crisis such as the Pepsi carcinogenic case or positioning a campaign with trust & reliability, brands turn to Tendulkar for multiple reasons. His persona stands for the attributes of dedication & honesty according to various reports.

Tendulkar stands at 15th position in the Duff & Phelps 2019 report & is ranked 9th in Forbes 2019 list of 100 celebrities.

According to Qoruz, Brand Sachin is quite active in FMCG, Apparels & TV channels for endorsements.

His investments include Smartron India, backing Smaash & Universal Collectabilia, and True Blue, amongst others. With IPL 2020, the cricketer gained visibility with brands tilted more towards sports celebrities.

Luminous Technologies

Gillette India

DBS India

Apollo Tyres

Philanthropy

Apart from associating with the Indian government on initiatives such as Swachh Bharat, Road Safety & Skill India, the cricketer has been active across social media to spread awareness around COVID-19. Tendulkar is also associated with UNICEF for varied causes.

UNICEFinnocenti

Road Safety

LetsTalk1on1 (MyBMC initiative)

Empowering women for sports

Bushfire Cricket Bash The Big Appeal

#SafeHandChallenge

Inspiring & Promoting sports

From urging people to help transform India into a sports-playing-nation, to calling sports as a unifier for all, Tendulkar promotes sports through his social media platforms as also mentioned on SRT Sports Management Pvt. Ltd. (SRTSM).

Content Strategy

Unlike many celebrities, Tendulkar's social media content strategy is evidently divided among days. Mondays & Tuesdays usually for brand campaigns, initiatives & challenges; Wednesday content is seldom posted but is mostly dedicated to food. #Throwback Thursdays with nostalgic posts, #FanFridays, appreciating sketches from followers, Saturdays for the celebration of Sports & Sundays for other leisure activities.

Summing it up

What works in the Sachin Tendulkar Social Media strategy is precise planning and a seamless reflection of his persona. Tendulkar posts on the platforms with keen precision - sometimes the day-wise division of topics, consistent business push, and responsible brand endorsements. His humbleness and dedication reflects on his social media, which attracts both brands & users.

As rightly pointed by experts in the past, Brand Sachin is timeless.