Mumbai, Maharashtra, India – April 9, 2015 – One of the world’s leading sports solutions companies, Sportz Interactive (SI) recently showcased an exciting array of digital innovations for Star Sports India (SS) on their digital platforms during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
Through the World Cup, SI innovated to help Star Sports deliver the highest engagement among brands on digital platforms. The activations ranged from serious to fun aiming to cater to every kind of cricket fan – while the trivia buff played #QUIZSTER, the stats fanatic took to collecting STAR CARDS; on the other hand, the India and Pakistan cricket fans were enthusiastic about tweeting for their respective teams in a digital tug-of-war that was extended to an offline experience as well. The overall result was fantastic with a staggering number of conversations and Star Sports topped the Twitter Brand Index during the World Cup beating out all other brands that were active during this period.
Arvind Iyengar, CEO, Sportz Interactive, added, “Partnering with Star Sports to revolutionize the fan experience on digital has been an incredible experience. On social media, we have been able to drive a high volume of conversations and excite fans around the world through unique innovations and engaging content.”
With its continued success, the team at SI is now gearing up for its next challenge – or rather, challenges across various sports.
Key Activities & Results
#OWNTHEJERSEY
We kick-started Star Sports’ World Cup campaign in early January this year with this campaign. In brief:
- This was a unique TV + Twitter based quiz activation with over 1.6 lakh tweets received during the activity using #OwnTheJersey
- The hashtag trended at No. 1 in India. It also trended worldwide
- Twitter India acknowledged, appreciated and amplified the contest through their handle
REAL-TIME FACEBOOK COVER PHOTO UPDATE
A cricket game goes through multiple ups and downs and using Facebook’s cover photo to highlight match status was a truly unique innovation. This was achieved through some nifty technology innovations and the result was a highly engaging cover photo that was updated real-time to reflect match status. A first for cricket anywhere!
DIGITAL TUG OF WAR
A unique digital + outdoor activation, the Digital Tug of War got fans to support their team – India or Pakistan. Using Twitter as the primary medium, fans of India and Pakistan tweeted their support to their team with #IndWins or #PakWins and the number of tweets received were converted into a virtual tug of war that was visible at leading malls in Mumbai. We received over 1 lakh tweets through the activity.
STAR CARDS
One of the most engaging digital activities during the World Cup gave fans an opportunity to collect player ‘cards’ of all quarter-final teams. All they had to do was tweet and a randomly generated card would be sent to them. To top this, five winners were given a cricket kit for their efforts!
Totally, over 2 lakh tweets were received for this activity and it trended in India for over 24 hours.
MAUKATICONS!
The guy we all came to love through the World Cup – Maukaman! Having already been immortalised on TV, SI brought him to live digitally through ‘Maukaticons’. His passion, anguish, disappointment and happiness were all captured and digitised for sharing across all platforms. Easy to download, the Maukaticons were a rage during India’s and Pakistan’s matches and had the Once again, it was as easy as sending a hashtag (#Maukaticons) to @StarSportsIndia to get all the emoticons in a ready-to-use format.
#QUIZSTER
While the players battled it on the field, fans were invited to a battle of wits on Twitter. #Quizster offered the user 4 categories to choose from and the entire quiz was run on Twitter. Users had to follow a simple mechanism to get started and continue playing. Winners got the chance to meet their cricketing heroes at the Star Sports studios for a once in a lifetime experience.