Social media marketing hits cricket for six

If you think that cricket is boring and perhaps one of the least likely candidates for social media marketing success then you may have to think again. If I were to tell you that a large multinational organisation that has been associated with Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Madonna was going to undertake a joint social media campaign with cricket’s ICC, would you start believing me?

So, a recent press release from the International Cricket Council announced plans to work with social media giants Pepsi (that’s where the celebrity name dropping came from above) and Castrol on their Twitter marketing activities as well as numerous other joint-branded social media initiatives.

You may be asking yourself why cricket would want to actively work on social media campaigns so let’s look at some social justification to support the ICC’s decision (I’ve no affiliation to the ICC by the way but I do enjoy a good social justification workout).

Reaching a new audience with Twitter

When you think of a stereotypical avid cricket fan, you probably don’t immediately think of someone that tweets a lot about; nights out, what films they’ve watched, what they are doing today and their social plans for the coming days and weeks right?  So what you are saying is that there is a massive social potential here to reach out to an entirely new potential audience for the sport of cricket. With the UK having invented the game and also having the 4^th biggest uptake of Twitter users in the world, the alignment of Twitter marketing and cricket seems to be drawing closer together.

Engaging with people socially

Cricket’s move into the social media arena is not going to be limited to Twitter updates alone. They have already detailed some plans for Facebook marketing too with cricket’s ICC, Jon Long, acknowledging the role of Facebook and Twitter when it comes to engagement. He notably discussed the role that multiple screens have with engaged cricket fans and the role that Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms can have with ‘in match’ comments from viewers.

When you think about being able to watch the game and chat with your friends at the same time, you can really start to see cricket appealing to a younger demographic and adding some great social success to their sport in general.