Amidst IPL 2020 played in challenging circumstances faced by sports globally due to the pandemic and the forced restrictions on in-stadia fan engagement opportunities, the IPL teams and athletes were left with a daunting task of connecting with their fans through digital innovations.
Mumbai Indians took early steps in conceptualising and timely launch of an array of innovative virtual fan engagement initiatives like ‘MI Live’, ‘Paltan Play’, ‘Virtual Wankhede’ and ‘MI Buddy’. Each initiative was designed with the concept of MI’s ‘One Family’ motto having fans as the largest stakeholder of the franchise’s outreach program.
Mumbai Indians’ digital initiatives exceeded expectations as the Paltan (fan army) found comfort in interacting with Rohit Sharma and his boys over the 60-day activation.
Mumbai Indians, across digital platforms, captured fans’ imagination through its engagements clocking cumulative interactions of over 317 Million across all its three social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, earning the cap of the ‘most engaged’ amongst the competing clubs.
According to the numbers made available publicly by CrowdTangle and Unmetric, RCB recorded a second best at 277.65 Million and CSK at 189.67 Million. This is 60 % higher compared to MI’s last season’s digital fan engagement performance, clearly indicating MI Paltan’s connect with the club through these innovations.
Interestingly, the ‘MI Live’ show in its very first year of roll out has been a super hit with fans as it surpassed engagement and consumption numbers by huge margin compared to most established cricket publishers’ shows during IPL 2020.
