CSK-MI game the buzziest; Sachin Tendulkar missing amongst top 5 players: MEC Study

MEC, a leading media buying and planning agency and a founding partner of GroupM has released the first IPL social media update. Powered by GroupM’s Social Hub, the weekly update will present a succinct analysis of the social chatter around India’s biggest blockbuster event. The study covers the complete spectrum of social media - Twitter, Facebook, blogs and message boards.

Said T Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC India, “Multi-screen engagement is a reality today and social media chatter is a terrific indication of how invested we are in premier TV events like the IPL. This study throws up interesting insights with regard to teams, players and brands and can be enormously useful for advertisers seeking to ride the IPL wave”.

Key highlights from the study

IPL6 got off to a tepid start on social media platforms until the epic CSK Vs MI -  43% of IPL chatter that week (April 2 to April 7) happened on the day of the CSK-MI game.

Chatter peaks in the last hour of the games.

Amongst the teams, MI dominated conversations with a 22% share of buzz, followed by CSK (19%); surprisingly, reigning champions KKR are last with only 5%. 

Amongst the sponsors, Pepsi leads with 93% of share of conversations primarily because of #PepsiIPL. If one excludes Pepsi and #PepsiIPL Cadbury and Vodafone have 40% and 24% share of conversations respectively.

In terms of chatter around sponsors’ TV commercials, Pepsi’s Ranbir Kapoor and Oh Yes Abhi ads dominate with 62% share of conversations; Vodafone Zoozoos follow with 22%. Godrej (Aamir Khan) and Samsung are distant third and fourth – at 4.3% and 4.1% respectively.

When it comes to player buzz, there are surprises galore – 3 out of the top 5 most discussed are foreign players – Kieron Pollard (15% - rank 2), Gayle (11% - rank 3) and Steyn (9% - rank 5). MS Dhoni (22% - rank 1) and Rahul Dravid (10% - rank 4) are the two Indian players in the top 5. With a 7% share of conversation, Sachin Tendulkar trails at a distant no. 6.

Said Karthik Nagarajan, National Director - Social Media and Insights, "In India, prime-time television is becoming prime time for social media as well - with sports, news and reality television driving maximum chatter during 'air time'. Nothing demonstrates this more than IPL6, where platforms like Twitter and FB are becoming conversation capital and virtual stadiums during the game. The opportunities for advertisers to join these conversation organically are priceless".