What is What about #CWC15 on Social Media.

The world is going digital and so is everything that we see around us. This digitization process has taken this year’s Cricket world Cup to a whole new level as well. Irrespective of which nation one belongs to, people from across the globe are showing their support for their favourite teams through various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Instagram etc. This year’s world cup is witnessing the participation of 14 teams, who are not just playing the games on the field but also battling it out on social media. Thank God to their fans!
So, the social media platforms are not all that bad! They have managed to connect the entire world, by making all connections just a click away! Wondering, how is this related to the Cricket World Cup 2015 (CWC15)? Here’s how! Social Media platforms have connected people from around the world and allowed interactions between commoners and influencers. Team supporters, player freaks, match and pitch predictors, sponsors, commentators, and even the official cricket boards, used a common platform to discuss everything related to the World Cup. People were informed, entertained and enthused at the same time!
I am sure all of us must have seen the latest, trending topic #CWC15 on newspapers, television ads, news blogs and social networking sites online. Have you ever tried to guess the buzz around #CWC15 on Twitter? Well actually, it’s a whooping 2Million just in the past 30 days! To be precise it is 1,982,946.
Let’s learn some more stunning social media facts, about the 14 cricket teams playing this CWC15:

• 2015 is the 11th edition of Cricket World Cup. Australia and New Zealand are Hosting CWC for the second time, 1992 being their first time. England is going to host 2019 WC, followed by India in 2022.
• The number of Fans on the ‘Cricket World Cup’ page of Facebook is 5.5M, and observes an average weekly growth of 0.16M i.e. 3.1%.

• Sachin Tendulkar – the brand ambassador for 2015 Cricket World Cup, had proposed to have 25 teams. ICC had initially decided on 10 teams. However, with opposition from associate teams, they reiterated to conduct World Cup with 14 Teams – 10 permanent Members and 4 Associate Members.
• Afghanistan played its debut World Cup this time. The 6 Associate Members with ODI status are Ireland, Afghanistan, Scotland, UAE, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. However Hong Kong and Guinea did not qualify further.
• There have been 5 successful chases for 300+ Score so far. Ireland has successfully chased it 3 times, of which 2 have been against test playing nations England and West Indies.
• South Africa choked again in semi finals, against New Zealand. South Africa has never made it to the finals and New Zealand is entering to Finals for the first time in CWC. Cricket World Cup started in the year 1975.

What does Facebook say?

• Team India has the highest Number of Fans i.e. 22.2 million. Bangladesh stands second with 5 million fans. New Zealand has 676k fans and Australia has 58k fans. Scotland has the lowest with a fan count of 19k.

• Bangladesh has the highest growth rate of 167% in terms of comments, likes and shares. Accordingly, Bangladesh has the highest engagement compared to other teams on FB.

• Amongst the 11 sponsors for CWC15, top 3 brands generating greater impressions are Star Sports, Lays (Pepsico) and Castrol. With this the total savings from social media is 1.35Crores.
• Top 3 Batsmen with highest FB Fans: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma respectively.
• Top 3 Bowlers with highest FB Fans: Umesh Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dale Steyn respectively.

What does Twitter say?

• Team India has the highest Number of followers i.e. 1.4 million. They are followed by England and Australia. However, only Australia has 100% Profile Performance Index (The PPI shows how many interactions happen on a profile, how engaged the followers are and how fast a profile is growing. It helps to gauge the real image of a profile)
• Afghanistan – playing its debut World Cup, has secured a PPI of 98% and highest engagement of 0.75% on Twitter beating other Associate Members (Ireland, Scotland, UAE) of ICC, playing the Cricket World Cup 2015. Although team India has the highest number of followers on Twitter they have the lowest PPI of 29% compared to all other teams.

• 9 out of 14 Teams had official campaign tags on twitter for the first time in Cricket World Cup. They are: South Africa – #Proteafire, India – #Wontgiveitback, Ireland – #Backinggreen, Bangladesh – #riseofthetigers, Afghanistan – #bluetigers, Zimbabwe – #backyourboys, Newzealand – #backtheblackcaps, Australia – #Gogold and UAE – #GoUAE.
• #Proteafire has the highest buzz score of 141k followed by #Wontgiveitback at 48k.

• Even the sponsors of CWC15 are campaigning using hashtags on twitter. For example Star Sports is using #Wontgiveitback, Lays(Pepsico) #Layskeplays, #Gamekahero, #commontweeter,#yegamehihaitasteka and Castrol using #Clingontothecup. This has helped them to generate significant number of impressions as shown in the ‘Top 3 brand Campaign #tags’ image.
• Top 3 Batsmen with highest followers on Twitter are: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina respectively.
• Top 3 Bowlers with highest followers on Twitter are: Dale Steyn, R Ashwin and James Anderson respectively.
• MS Dhoni(batsman), Wahab Riaz(bowler) and Shahid Afridi(all rounder) have the highest buzz on Twitter respectively, this CWC15.

What  does YouTube say?

• Star Sports’ ‘Mauka Mauka’ campaign resonated exceptionally well among World Cup fans, yielding a cumulative of 12.9 Million views across the seven videos shared on YouTube. ‘Mauka Mauka’ ad on INDvsPAK has 2.9Million views, INDvsBAN has 2.5Million views, INDvsSA has 2Million views, INDvsWI has 1.7Million views, INDvsUAE has 1.3Million views, INDvsIRE has 1.2Million views and #Wontgiveitback ad has 943k views.
• Starsports, Lays (Pepsico) and Castrol have the highest views on Youtube respectively.

• CWC15’s final match is on 29th March, Sunday starting from 9:00AM IST. Location: Melbourne Cricket Ground.
• Every player from the teams who played against India in CWC15 have got a chance to bat. Scores against INDIA:                                 PAK: 224/10 SA: 177/10 UAE: 102/10 WI: 182/10 IRE: 259/10 ZIM: 287/10 BAN: 193/10.
• INDIA has won 60 overs, 50 overs and 20 overs World Cup
• England has lost 60 overs, 50 overs and 20 overs Finals
• There were 3 controversies with Umpire decisions till date in CWC15. Most talked about controversy was the quarter final match between India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina claimed India won the match because of umpiring errors.