Over 80% conversations online are around football & cricket: Germin8

Germin8’s report on ‘Resumption of Sports’ reveals that 89 per cent of the social media chatter in India is around football and cricket, followed by hockey, F1 and badminton; with 92 per cent of the posts coming from live tweeting the sporting event as it happens. As per the research conducted by Germin8, 69 per cent of the users were pro-resumption of sports and were excited to see their favourite players back on the ground. ‘Resumption of Sports’ reveals the dominant sentiments of the viewers and gives an insight into brand association and ways to keep up with the sporting spirit digitally. The researchers and analysts at Germin8 have collected and analysed more than 15,000 twitter conversations on the resumption of sports and gaming events.

Some of the key findings include:

The dominant (69%) sentiments were that of happiness, excitement, and cheer
5 states contribute almost 39% of the total mentions about the conversations about the resumption of sports in India
Nearly 90% of the conversations online were around football and cricket

Behaviour patterns & insights:

The report states that nearly 92% of people watched their favourite matches live while tweeting about those on a real-time basis
69% of the people are excited with the resumption whereas 31% are against the resumption mostly citing the health of the players
About 75% of conversations were from metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai where the preference was for football, followed closely by cricket;the balance 25% conversations were from smaller cities like Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Lucknow, Meerut, Varanasi, Agra where the sports preference was for cricket, followed by hockey and then by football.

Reaction and expectations: Viewer & Brands

Viewers discussed IPL 2020 when it came to cricket and resumption of league tournaments with title-deciding matches to be played when it came to football
Star sports and Disney+HotstarVIP were the most spoken about platforms followed by Colors Infinity when it came to watching sports
With 92% of people watched their favorite matches live while tweeting about those on a real-time basis. While 8% of people were seen watching sports a day after they aired. Majority of these conversations were about users watching the highlights or the recorded game.
Sports has a lot of emotions running-high and brands have to keep up with that. In most of the international sports events, brands have promoted messages related to social causes and messages like Black Lives Matter, maintaining social distance, and staying safe.
It is very interesting to see online education brands like Byju’s and gaming brands like My 11 Circle along with telecom brands like Airtel sponsoring sports in India. This indicates a shift in the type of brands which can be potential sports sponsors in the near future.

According to Dr Ranjit Nair, CEO, and Founder, Germin8, “Over the years, one of the key reasons that sports events are so relevant to marketers is the passion and enthusiasm of their fans. While this pandemic period gave very few opportunities to marketers for offline engagement with consumers, it has made social media and digital content platforms all the more relevant. With vocal sports fans consuming sports via live streaming apps and engaging in social media, digital channels becomes all the more important for brands who want to engage with a passionate audience. While this report focuses on sharing a better understanding of how sports fans are using social media, it also highlights how brands need to incorporate innovative strategiesformore digital activities and social messaging. The report has also seen a shift in the type of brands which can be potential sports sponsors in the near future.”

Germin8 analyses the sports ecosystem looking at innovative opportunities to engage with fans and keep the sporting spirit alive as it goes digital.