A Quantitative Social Media Analysisof Season 4 AdvertisersPro Kabbadi

by

Brands Tracked

INTRODUCTION

Pro-Kabaddi league (PKL) was played for the second time this year. This is the first time ever in India that a professional sports

league got two seasons within a year.

Pro-Kabbadi launch was not as grand as IPL's. But in over four editions, it has made its mark into the audience's mind. People

know who Anup Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, and Manjit Chillar is. Rahul Chaudhary has entered into mainstream and so have

overseas superstars including Fazel Atracheli from Iran and Jang Kun Lee from South Korea.

Success of Pro Kabaddi League is evident from the way its sponsors have grown over four editions. Compared to 9 sponsors in

season 3, there were 12 on-air and on-ground sponsors. Many popular brands joined PKL in season 4 including Airtel, Nestle

Munch, Bisleri, Castrol, Britannia, Bajaj Electricals, and even SBI.

PKL season four saw a 51% rise in viewership on a cumulative basis. But are the event and team sponsors making most of it on

social media?

In this report, we tracked 40 brands including team sponsors using in-house tools to see how they are using social media to tap

the viewership growth of Pro Kabbadi League.

Key Takeaways

Ÿ Facebook generated more engagement per content throughout the tournament

Ÿ More than half of the advertisers are not still not focusing on creating video content. Only 45% of all the PKL advertisers

created video content.

Ÿ Google+ is the most ignored social media platform by the advertisers followed by YouTube.

Pg 1

Channel share in company activity

97.29%

62.16%

24.32%

8%

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

G+

Social media engagement

82.72

17.06

0.2

~0.00

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

G+

Use of Social Media

Twitter, with its microblogging outlook, is still the

most popular among the companies when sharing

content.

Of all the content, 59.9% was shared on Twitter,

36.2% on Facebook, and Google+ saw almost

negligible use throughout the tournament.

Channel share in content

Twitter

FB

YouTube

Google+36.2%

59.6%

Pg 2

However, Facebook saw the most engagement among all the platforms which might have been triggered by paid promotions.

Twitter and YouTube had an average engagement of 17.06 and 0.2 while it seems users have deserted Google+ for connecting

with brands.

Market share by content

47.7%52.3%

Market share by active companies

62.5%37.5%

FacebookYouTube

Social MediaPg 3

Top 5 video content uploaders of Youtube

Bajaj Electronics Un limited Store

Gionee

Big Bazaar

Modasta

Others

12.1%

12.1%22.2%

9%

9%35.5%

Top 5 video content uploaders of Facebook

Airtel

Amazon

33.7%

10.1%

18%

18%

20%

Of all the PKL sponsors and advertisers 97.29% companies were active on Facebook. Twitter was the second choice for

companies with 62.16% using it while YouTube and Google+ were used by 24.32% and 8% companies respectively.

Nestle Munch

Gionee

Others

Social MediaPg 4

Indian brands posted more video content on Facebook than on YouTube—a striking fact considering the dominance of

YouTube in video content. While 99 videos were shared throughout the tournament, YouTube saw 89 video uploads by

brands—a far cry from expected figures considering YouTube’s reputation as video sharing platform.

It is also nice to observe that most popular companies are more active on YouTube. The 89 YouTube videos came from only 9

companies. The top four brands created 82% of the YouTube content. On the other hand, on Facebook, 15 companies made 99

videos and the top spot players created only 55.4% of the total videos.

Big Bazaar is leading on video engagement table with a total engagement of 56,428 on their videos. The grandmaster in video

content, Amazon, stood on the fifth spot behind Gionee, SBI, and even Modasta. It was also good to find Havmor and Ibis

creating video content.

Video Content Engagement

Big Bazaar

Gionee

SBI

Modasta

Amazon

Airtel

Havmor

56428

12752

11754

8992

5820

4064

1468

Top 7 Brands by Video Content

YouTubeFacebook

Pg 5

Scoring Methodology

While advertisers registered 57 hours of TV advertising during PKL season 4, it was a great opportunity to tap audience

organically on social media. We were also astonished to find that many brands had no Twitter or YouTube profile and many had

profiles which were abandoned “centuries” ago.

To make our analysis, quantitative, we used in-house tools to track the social media profiles of 40 brands who were either

official PKL sponsor, sponsor of a team franchise, or an advertiser.

x1

Evaluation criteria

Brand engagement Brand activity Replies to Users

x2 x1x1

Pg 6

Winner

It must be obvious to you as a seasoned businessmen and entrepreneur that The Banker to Every Indian, State Bank of India,

leads in brand engagement. They topped the brand engagement table with a total engagement of 359,829.

At the same time, Himalaya Men beating more popular brands including Airtel and Amazon who revel in their customer service

quality. Himalaya Men stood third on the brand engagement table with a total engagement of 239,550.

Brand Engagement

SBI

Gionee

Himalaya men

Airtel

Modasta

Havmor

Manforce

3,59,829

3,30,159

2,39,550

1,38,358

1,37,152

1,34,390

1,09,535

Top 7 Brands by Total Engagement

(likes + share + comments + favorites + retweets)

Pg 7

Engagements were also analysed by specific engagement type. The three engagement types measured were:

Ÿ Applause, representing favourable responses and including metrics such as likes and favourites,

Ÿ Conversation, representing consumer responses and including metrics such as comments and replies,

Ÿ Amplification, representing brand advocacy and including metrics such as shares and retweets.

Top brands by Engagement type

23,365

17,109

7,753

6,448

4,524

4,246

4,113

Top 7 Brands by AmplificationTop 7 Brands by Appluase

(shares + retweets)

Top 7 Brands by Conversation

SBI

Himalaya Men

Gionee

Amazon

Castrol active

Paryag

Modasta

5,119

4,258

2,732

2,432

1,763

1,663

1,643

(comments + replies)

SBI

Gionee

Himalaya Men

Airtel

Modasta

Havmor

Manforce

SBI

Telegraph

Karvy

Paryag

Bajaj

Modasta

Himalaya Men

3,31,345

3,23,903

2,31,179

1,34,486

1,31,263

1,29,492

1,05,240

(likes + favorites)

Pg 8 Brand Engagement

Oh! Did we mention the renowned Calcutta daily, Telegraph, was also a sponsor for the event? They were—thanks to the

opportunity laid by Kolkata Warriors! Telegraph topped and outperformed other in the brand activity chart with Twitter being its

favourite channel.

The consumer products brands used a mixture of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to roll out the messages. Among the top 7 in

brand activity table, YouTube activity came only from SBI and Gionee.

Most companies are hyper active on Twitter while Facebook is their second destination to roll out content.

Brand activity

Telegraph

Havmor

Manforce

MOdasta

SBI

Gionee

Karvy

615

275

270

255

247

243

196

Top 7 Brands by Brand Activity

TwitterFB YoutubeGoogle

Pg 9

If you look at this data, SBI justifies its another tagline “With you all the way”. With 2,844 replies to Twitter users, SBI left behind

its nearest social media rival, Karbon Phones, by a big margin who replied only 243 times during the tournament.

While very few of the brands behind in the table would pick up a customer care call, it seems they haven’t learned yet to use

Twitter as a customer care platform.

2,844

243

234

107

82

64

50

SBI

Karbon sphones

Amazon

Gionee

Havmor

Nestle Maggie

Bajaj

Top 7 Brands by Twitter Replies to Customers

(No. of twitter replies)

Twitter Replies to Users

Pg 10

x1Brand engagementKey Brand activity Replies to customers

Pg 11

Top 7

#1

#2

#3

#4 #5

#6#7

Conclusion

PKL Season 4 shows some unusual insights into companies behaviour on social media during sports

tournaments and events.

Facebook is still the favourite among most companies. They are active on the most popular social media

profile and even reaping benefits by leaving social footprints. Twitter is still the most popular social media

platform during game time. It is easiest to use out short and crisp message during game action.

While major brands like Airtel, SBI, and Amazon were on-board, comparatively lesser known brands were able

to outperform many on social media. For instance, TT Garments were ahead of TVS Tyres, Big Bazaar, Good

Day, and many others. Similarly, the Calcutta Daily, Telegraph, were ahead of Airtel, Nestle Maggie, and Bajaj

Electricals. It might be due to their products’ and Kabbadi’s local appeal. But the bottom line is they got the

most out of the sponsorships at the end of the day.

On the other hand, brands like Force Motors, Prayag, Fogg, and Omtex Sports completely failed to make

anything out of their sponsorships.

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