IPL teams extend social networking presence

The teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are planning to raise their social networking presence by building on the popularity of the event, the next edition of which runs from 8 April to 28 May.
Most of them report an increase in digital and social media expenditure.
Delhi Daredevils will give eight bloggers (one from each city where matches are held) the chance to travel with the team, see practice sessions etc. and blog or tweet about the experience. They will upload videos of players (in their off-field moments) on YouTube and other such platforms.
Team Kochi has appointed Windchimes Communications Pvt. Ltd to handle social media needs. That includes roping in fans from Facebook to pick the team’s name and designing team merchandise—t-shirts, caps etc. These will then be sold via Facebook.
The team’s 25,000 Facebook fans were asked to vote for a name, said Nimesh Shah, director, Windchimes Communications, which wants to build fan networks in specific cities and countries.
Fans picked Kochi Tuskers Kerala as the team’s name.
“We will send our ardent fans merchandise and special passes to some of the matches,” he said. “We will also get them to travel with the team on some occasions, be a part of net practice etc., subject to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) rules.”
Kings XI Punjab “will get fans to blog and post videos on the team, which we will then upload on our website”, said Arvinder Singh, senior vice-president, Kings XI Punjab. Official Facebook and Twitter pages will also be set up.
The team’s digital budget has risen by as much as 50%, with most marketing activities being pushed to social networking websites.
“In today’s age, fans don’t like to be told, they make their own decisions. Hence, traditional advertising has a limited influence on fans,” said Singh.
Delhi Daredevils media director V. Krishnaswamy said the aim was to provide an insider’s view.
“We’ll get someone to travel with the team (with a hand-held camera). We’ll upload the videos on YouTube,” he said. “We will encourage fans via Facebook and other platforms to send in their pictures and videos as well.”
The eight bloggers mentioned above will be chosen through a writing competition, Krishnaswamy said.
Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt. Ltd, owner of Rajasthan Royals, said lifestyle videos of players will be posted on YouTube.
“We will have (sound) bites from players on the kind of food they like, exercise tips etc. Our fan page on Facebook has more than 1.5 lakh” friends, said Raghu Iyer, chief marketing officer, Rajasthan Royals. “This time our focus is also to introduce video chats with Shilpa Shetty (co-owner and celebrity) and a lot of our players, subject to their availability.”
Chennai Super Kings plans to introduce new activities around the promotional video Whistle Podu, which had more than 450,000 views last year, said S. Chockalingam, founder and director of OPN Advertising Pvt. Ltd, which is handling the team’s advertising.
“This year we plan to bring in more dimensions to Whistle Podu and make it a much larger success,” he said.
Mumbai Indians is increasing its digital budget by as much as 20%. “The Mumbai Indians Paltan page on Facebook has over nine lakh fans and is the most followed out of the 10 franchises,” said a spokesperson. “The team also benefits from a large fan following within Reliance (Industries Ltd) group. Apart from external media, we have also planned interesting intranet-and SMS-based campaigns for this captive audience.”
Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd owns Mumbai Indians, which plans to integrate more platforms with the official website, apart from Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and Technorati.
Kolkata Knight Riders, which has appointed 22feet for its social marketing needs, declined comment for this story.