Mumbai: The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 witnessed a host of remarkable player performances, new records, epic turnarounds, and heartwarming moments, resulting in massive social media buzz. Interactive Avenues, a leading full-service digital agency and the digital arm of IPG Mediabrands India, has released "Smashing Records, Winning Hearts: A Social Listening Report on #CWC23", which delves into the digital conversation landscape surrounding the historic tournament. The report, based on extensive data gathered from social platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and popular cricket forums, reveals unique insights on player popularity, most appreciated performances, most talked about matches, biggest moments, top brand partnerships and more.

Commenting on the report, Interactive Avenues COO Shantanu Sirohi said, “The unprecedented scale of social media buzz sparked by this year’s Cricket World Cup has been remarkable. Using innovative tools and techniques, our Social team analysed millions of online conversations to unearth valuable metrics around player influence, match fever, emerging talent, brand engagement, audience sentiments etc. The report validates the surging power of social media in shaping the narrative of sports across the globe.”  

Here are some key findings and highlights from the report:

Social chatter highlights:

• Overall, the tournament garnered 44.6 Mn mentions and drove 476 Mn engagements.
• Virat Kohli emerged as the most talked about player and batsman (8.3 Mn mentions). Mohammed Shami was the most popular bowler (1.6 Mn mentions), and Glen Maxwell was the top all-rounder (1 Mn mentions).
• The most talked about match was India vs. Pakistan (2.7 Mn mentions), followed by India vs. Australia (2.6 Mn mentions).

Most talked about records:

•  Kohli’s record of hitting the most centuries (50) in an ODI got 816K mentions.
•  Maxwell’s ‘first-ever double century in an ODI chase’ drove 370K mentions, while Shami’s ‘best ODI bowling figure by an Indian (7/57)’ and ‘fastest-ever to 50 wickets in the world’ garnered 306K mentions.

Most popular players:

•  Powered by his stellar performances, Virat Kohli topped overall popularity charts (8.3Mn mentions). He was followed by Rohit Sharma (5 Mn mentions), Babar Azam (1.9 Mn mentions), Mohammad Shami (1.6 Mn mentions) and KL Rahul (1.1 Mn mentions).

Top emerging players:

•  Amongst emerging talent, Indian players topped the popularity charts. Shubman Gill led the roster (1 Mn mentions), followed by Shreyas Iyer (728K mentions), Mohammed Siraj (410K mentions), and Rachin Ravindra (322K mentions).

Top controversies:

•  During the match with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews became the first international cricketer to be ‘timed out’, which resulted in 1.07 Mn engagement.
•  A policeman at Chinnaswamy stadium stopping a Pakistani fan from raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans drove 338K engagement.
• Pakistan not qualifying for the semi-finals due to a debatable LBW decision in their match against South Africa resulted in 224K engagement.

Top brands that leveraged the tournament:

• Brands across diverse industries leveraged CWC-based partnerships to drive engagement. Coca-Cola got 3.4 Mn mentions, Mastercard garnered 685K mentions, Nissan got 772K mentions, Mondelez received 395K mentions, while Bira got 248K mentions.
• Royal Stag witnessed a 915 per cent increase in average monthly engagement, while IndusInd’s #CheerForGreatness campaign drove a 554 per cent spike in average monthly engagement.