Summary
Becoming the Most Loved Team during IPL Auctions To stand out from the other 9 teams, we had to ensure that Rajasthan Royals' auction content was fresh and fan-centric. So, we travelled across Rajasthan to capture cultural nuances, dished out fresh memes, and bantered with other teams to welcome new players and fans. Our authentic, real-time video content reached over 64Mn netizens organically, garnering the ‘Highest Engagement Rate Among All Teams on Twitter'.
Challenge
In 2020 & 2021, IPL was conducted under significant restrictions. 2022 was finally set to see fans back at the stadiums. Our objective was to use digital to go beyond the stadium fans and become the most engaging and loved sports franchise. To speak to sports lovers at large and stand out from the other teams using minimum to no media spends. Our motive was to show off our personality to the fan base of new players and to the existing fans. Our core audience included men and women aged 15 to 40 years. Not knowing who might be picked by our auction table, our biggest challenge was to create content real time and retain our unique Royals tonality.
Objective
Rajasthan Royals is one of the oldest existing IPL teams. The team boasts of a loyal fanbase featuring fans from across the country. Fans, who were on the edge due to our long and dry spell of not lifting the trophy. Two months before the IPL Mega Auction, we reviewed our tweets replies and found an overwhelming number of suggestions from fans about players RR should pick at the upcoming Mega Auctions. The anticipation was evident. The expectations were high. To stand out, we had to ensure that our auction content was fresh and fan-centric, and it had to be done with minimum to no media spends.
Strategy
Inside jokes, banter, and the unique display of affection for common players brings fans closer to each other. It makes them feel like one team in joyful moments and times of sorrow. Our content had to speak in the language of these fans. As the Mega Auction marked the welcome of new players into the Royals Family, on digital we decided to greet our players with grand gestures, banter, and love that every fan could relate to. On Meta: To avoid a cookie-cutter approach, a lean and agile video team traveled across Rajasthan, our home state to capture unique Rajasthani welcomes. Over 100 clips were shot, like a parrot fortune teller, a traditional chaiwala, Mehndi artists, a scene in the Thar desert and so on, featuring people from our home state. On auction day, we deployed these videos on Facebook and Instagram Reels within minutes of players being purchased, stitched up with the top trending tracks. For example, when Devdutt Padikkal joined the Royals, his name featured on a jeep overlooking a fort and Prasidh Krishna's name appeared atop an elephant dressed in royal attire. Through IG stories, the second screen became a hub for our fan event held in Jaipur. A fan watch party where 50 of our top influential fans, the Super Royals, gathered to watch the auction and react live to the player buys. On X: We targeted key moments and represented them in fresh new lo-fi memes, LIVE. We created a crossover of a classic FEVICOL ad when 4 players were bought back-to-back. We leveraged rivalry of players with live bytes and promised fans drama in the dressing room. We slipped in football references to catch our fans by surprise. When a new player slid into our DMs, we tweeted his hilarious conversation with the admin.
Data
IPL 2022 Mega Auctions promised Rajasthan Royals' fans an overhaul in the dressing room and renewed gusto in the team. There was increased anticipation, conversations, and interest in our refreshed line-up. We strategically targeted the momentum during this 2-day period to bring fans closer to the new Royals. With the addition of new teams Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Lions, the fight between teams to outshout each other on social media was set to be at an all-time high. It became even more important for us the make the most of the Mega Auction days as a tentpole to stand out in the crowd.
Solution
Results
Our fan-centric approach to content saw unprecedented success with zero promotions or paid partnerships. On Instagram, we reached over 64 Mn fans, converting 34K in absolute follower growth during the 2-day period, along with 4.28 Mn engagements and 15. 1 Mn video views. Facebook garnered an additional 19.9 Mn in reach and 2.4 Mn in video views. On Twitter we were a part of over 218K conversations, garnering over 35 Mn impressions, 2.7 Mn video views, the highest ER of 53% among all teams, and 42K overall retweets. We received enormous positives for RR Twitter Admin from the start itself for keeping the auction day entertaining and engaging. Our content also organically made way into popular news portals like Zee News, HT, Crictracker, DNA and 20+ other portals, where we were applauded for our innovative content approach.
