GONE ARE THE DAYS OF cricket holding a monopoly on mind share amongst sports enthusiasts in India. The success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen the birth of other sporting leagues in the country. The timing has perfectly coincided with the advent of heightened social media conversations and corporate investment in sport, which makes for an interesting story.
Amongst all sports, Football and Kabaddi have been running parallel in going neck-to-neck to being crowned as the second largest sport in the country. Star India controlled Mashal Sports, which owns and operates Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and the Reliance-Star India joint venture that runs the Indian Super League (ISL) had their first seasons in 2014. Another similarity the two share is that a few of their franchises have the same faces as owners. There are corporate houses who not only wish to grow Indian sport, but also build their brand identity around it.
One of them is IQuest Enterprises, an investment holding company owned by serial entrepreneur Nimmagadda Prasad. Prasad has been able to forge a consortium of investors in actors Allu Arjun and Ram Charan and film producer Allu Aravind to form Blasters Sports Private Limited, which co-owns the franchises of Kerala Blasters and Tamil Thalaivas in the ISL and PKL respectively. Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar had also held a 20% stake in the Blasters set-up until a month ago.
While there is no questioning the owners’ popularity in the southern part of the country, engaging fans in competitions lasting for less than a season can be challenging. However, call it coincidence or just brilliant strategy, both the franchises have performed exceptionally well on social media in this regard if the engagement metrics on three of the most sought-after platforms – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – are taken into account.
Kerala Blasters (KBFC), which has been in the ISL since its inception in 2014, is the clear winner amongst all teams in the competition garnering as many as 1.09 million followers on Twitter, 1.1 million Facebook likes and 633,000 followers on Instagram. On Twitter and Instagram, the club has more popularity than the ISL tournament page itself!
When it comes to Tamil Thalaivas, although the team was conceived last season, their performance within just 15 months draws awe. It can easily be considered one of the fastest growing franchises on social media with 37,400 Twitter followers, 275,000 Facebook likers and 49,800 followers on Instagram. On Twitter and Instagram, the Thalaivas fare better than their counterparts who debuted alongside them in Season 5 such as Haryana Steelers, Gujarat FortuneGiants and UP Yoddhas. By the end of Season 6, don’t be surprised if they go past established teams such as Dabang Delhi and Telugu Titans!
So what goes behind attracting such numbers and popularity despite these sports being a different ball game altogether and regions differing as well? SportzPower ‘s Dhruv Rupani interviewed the CEOs of both the franchises, VARUN TRIPURANENI of Kerala Blasters and VIREN D’SILVA of Tamil Thalaivas to find out more!
What are the primary reasons or factors contributing to social media proficiency for the Blasters and Thalaivas alike?
Varun: We have a very young fan base for both Kerala Blasters as well as Tamil Thalaivas, 80% of which is in the age group of 18-34. Hence, it is a conscious effort to communicate with them through a medium they are the most comfortable with.
Viren: Within this, we ensure that there are three areas of focus. Firstly, every piece of content we publish is relevant to our fans which is customised to the specific needs of the respective sports and geographies. Secondly, we amplify our efforts by consistently using a voice that is local and authentic and which every man, woman and child can relate to. Thirdly, the communication must be interactive, rather than just being one-way. All these have played a part in making both the franchises extremely successful on social media.
A Facebook executive has likened the fan following of Blasters to that of CSK in terms of stickiness / loyalty, which is saying something. We seem to be witnessing something similar with Tamil Thalaivas. What can we extrapolate from this?
Varun: Kerala’s love for football far surpasses cricket. So we are blessed to have a substantial fan base. And fans love to engage deeply with the sport, their team and their heroes – in fact, we would argue that the level of engagement for sports fans far exceeds that of consumers of any other product (FMCG or other forms of entertainment). So to us, it is not a surprise, but an intended target that we provide the same level of engagement and stickiness that has traditionally been reserved only for cricket teams.
Viren: One of the reasons to own Tamil Thalaivas is that the sport of kabaddi originated from the state of Tamil Nadu, which is why it is adored so much there and has a strong culture. So even as the Thalaivas have burst onto the scene much later, we needed to understand the importance of the fans’ desire to keep them engaged and feel a connect with the team. In such a short span of time, we strived to represent their pride not just on the court but through meaningful content in the language they understand the best.
How do the two franchises manage to stay active during the off season?
Varun: We have created year-long engagement opportunities for our fans, so that the engagement is not intermittent. Not only do we provide a continuing digital dialogue with them through contests, updates, techniques of the game etc, but we supplement this by various on-ground activities. KBFC participated in a first-of-its kind friendly tournament featuring Australia’s Melbourne City and LaLiga’s Girona recently and there is a very active year-round youth development calendar featuring matches in the Under-13 and Under-15 age categories.
Viren: When it comes to kabaddi, we ran another first-of-its-kind Corporate Kabaddi tournament where we saw the participation of over 30 corporates including 6 women’s teams. We have also run the Children’s Kabaddi Challenge where we saw the participation of over 200 schools from all over Tamil Nadu. Focusing on grassroots development has proven to the best way for us to keep our dialogue fresh and relevant to fans so far during the off season.
What is the role of fan clubs to attract more followers for your social media pages?
Varun: KBFC has been blessed with ardent fan clubs such as Manjappada, Blasters Army and Kerala Blasters 12th players for KBFC who are working constantly to have a considerable follower base themselves, which increases the reach of our communication and also re-directs fans to like/follow our official handles.
Viren: We are fortunate that within one season, we have found Tamil Veerans as the official fan club for Tamil Thalaivas. A lot of our posts are dedicated to them. It is a work-in-progress but we can’t be thankful enough for their contribution.
Which is the state (outside Kerala for the Blasters) and (outside TN for Thalaivas) that attracts the most followers for the franchises? Which countries outside India top the charts in this context?
Varun: Within India, we see good traction for KBFC from the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Outside the country, perhaps owing to many expats from Kerala, Gulf nations such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait give us good traction.
Viren: Karnataka and Maharashtra have many Thalaivas fans as well, although we have a strong fan base in Telangana already. From an international perspective, Singapore and UAE are starting to show up on engagement levels.
Which players have been posted about and got the most mentions in posts across all platforms for both the franchises?
Varun: Our skipper, Sandesh Jhingan for KBFC who has also played for India. But there is a very healthy engagement level for other players as well.
Viren: Same goes for us as our captain, Ajay Thakur rules the roost.
Are there both short term and long term social media targets set for both the franchises? If yes, which criteria of insights is the most focused upon?
Varun: Whether it is for the Blasters or the Thalaivas, the criteria of insights we look into the most are reach, engagement and our share of voice and how do we fare in these as compared to other PKL and ISL teams.
Aside from digital engagement, there is nothing quite like in-stadia fan support that Blasters enjoy. The sea of yellow that turns out in Kochi for Blasters home games is a sight to behold. Have you been able to translate that into jersey sales or is it just about the sponsor value that the shirt brings that you are riding on?
Varun: The primary value in this regard has been sponsorship over the years.
