MUMBAI: The ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is seeing a strong rush of trends on social media platforms. Comparing the social media buzz from both the first weeks' action of the 2011 and 2015 Cricket World Cups, the growth of India's online community has made them the dominant force in international social engagement within the sport, states a report released by sports marketing research company Repucom.
According to the report, in the first week of the tournament held in 2011, the top 10 most active nations talking about the Cricket World Cup had produced just under 9,000 (8,930) online interactions. When compared to the same period of this year's competition, the top 10 most active nations produced over 82 times as much traffic (7,39,050). Besides over 36 per cent of the global chatter was produced by one nation, India.
Speaking about the emerging social media trends, Repucom South Asia senior vice president and India director Joseph Eapen said, “Commercially speaking, India’s official Facebook page generates $16,156 per post of potential media value to their sponsors. This average was taken from a sample of 10 posts during the first seven days during the World Cup.”
Eapen also states that the ICC has been making big efforts in bringing digital platforms to the foreground of this year’s tournament through collaborations with Twitter as well as extending their digital coverage with live scores, in-match clips, exclusive videos and an official app.
According to the report, other teams which have produced the biggest online buzz this year include Pakistan, Australia and the UK. Surprisingly though nations like the US have also contributed to a good deal of engagement. “In 2011, the US was responsible for 29 per cent of the global online buzz. In 2015, that percentage has dropped to nine per cent, showing the growth in online competition and share of voice,” the report adds.
In its concluding remarks the report says that of all the competing nations, England and South Africa join India as the only teams to rank in both the top five most well followed Facebook and Twitter accounts.
