Social Media Campaign Review: Extra Innings T20 Uses Twitter as a Second Screen to Drive Engagement

This IPL season Extra Innings T20 (EI T20) is using a set of innovative methods to reach out to the users. Sticking to the usual Question and Answer method, EI T20 is all set to use the ‘Flock to Unlock’ mechanism of roping in people, a method that even the business team at Twitter speaks about.

‘Tweet to Unlock’ as the folks at EI T20 call it, is a way to unlock behind the scenes content after tweeters have reached a certain level of tweeting. They are encouraged to tweet using #eit20 and the EI team will unlock and reveal images of superstars, IPL anchors and snippets of what goes on behind the cameras in the next episode.

Objective

The objective of the campaign is to give the Cricket-crazy fans of India a platform not only to speak, but a platform where they can be heard and can also be spoken to.

In lines with this, tweeting with #eit20 will result into a few lucky tweeters getting replies from their favourite cricket stars. The objective of this is simple, get users to interact with cricket superstars, have them follow and converse with you consistently and thereby automatically spread the word.

In return, users get to interact with their favourite sport-stars.

Execution

The prospect of getting to speak to the likes of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and even film-stars etc. is played on very well by EI T20.

Tweets on the hashtag #eit20 started to flow right since the first day of IPL 7. The execution of the #eit20 campaign having just kicked off, will follow through till the end of the season. At the start of the campaign the two handles of @sonysix and @sonymax have focussed on broadcast tweets in the form of:-

• Tweets about the live score at that point in time
• The results of the match
• A shout-out at the start of the game/toss time to have the viewers all set for the match.
• Broadcasts in the form of @mentions to celebs who are on the set on that day.

Even the on-set crew including the drummer Joshua, the DJ for the night DJ Paroma and anchor Samir Kochhar join the bandwagon and tweet about what’s going on all as a part of enjoying the Twitter integration with this season's IPL.

Shout-outs and RT’s by Twitter India add to the entertainment of joining the IPL party on Twitter.

Positives

The most prominent positive is the use of Twitter and within that using the ‘Tweet to Unlock’ method.

This keeps the users on their toes and keeps them guessing what’s about to surprise them next.

The traditional idea of ‘get a chance to speak to your favorite sport-star’ is extended to Social Media using this campaign and here the winner isn’t restricted to just 1 person.

#eit20, taking advantage of this offers a chance to multiple users where celebs and IPL stars will reply back to their tweets, thus fulfilling their dream.

As this can be done on a mass scale the audience isn’t restricted and thus numbers in bulk can easily flow in, all in lines with #eit20’s campaign objective.

Scope for improvement

The scope in improvement is always wide. In the days to come EI T20 can be more engagement-oriented and pull in more people by asking them to flock the pages of @sonysix and @sonymax, reach out, speak to, ask questions and voice their opinions.

Though that presently does take place a lot but integrating that with the campaign can help bring in more fans.

A sneak-peak of what is happening behind the curtains too can help a lot. This could be a teaser in the form of an image of the sets, a vine video of the pre-take, a rehearsal etc. This will give users an idea of what more there is to unlock through the campaign #eit20 ‘tweet to unlock’

Further, the use of Facebook could be integrated too. Add in a YouTube channel and what you have is so much fascinating content that the audience is waiting to get their hands on it.

Conclusion

All in all the IPL fever has just kicked off and there’s a lot of action to catch on to. Seeing the way the campaign and the hashtag #eit20 is performing, it is all set to pick up pace and move to the groove and bring in the fever of IPL 7 online.