During the World Cup, Twitter turns into a virtual stadium. Many corporates realised it was the perfect time to connect with the masses, and used the Twitter platform creatively.

The lead protagonists in Cadbury 5 Star’s television commercials, Ramesh and Suresh, took on the job of commentating, and armed themselves with a television set, a Soundcloud account, and a Twitter fan base of 13,800. With a lot of buzz around the India-South Africa match, the corporate brand arranged a real time commentary.

Forgetting the scores, Ramesh and Suresh did ‘shayaris’, created an anthem (read an audio letter for the South-African team), thanked fans with personalised messages and ‘got lost’ during the commentary.

The campaign was conceptualised, developed and promoted by OgilvyOne.

George Kovoor, Senior Creative Director, OgilvyOne said, the India-South Africa match was a great way to leverage the World Cup and also bring alive Cadbury 5 Star’s campaign. He added that this was the first time a brand used Soundcloud for live cricket commentary.

The results were overwhelming: 26,926 plays for the commentary recordings on Soundcloud, about 3,80,221 Twitter impressions, 1,200 retweets, 698 replies, 667 favourites and 1.3 millions reached out on Facebook, with an engagement rate of six per cent.

Twitter Brand Index Using an aggregate of retweets, favourites and replies, Twitter has created a Twitter Brand Index to acknowledge the top five brands from more than 50 brands, who advertised during the World Cup. Among the top five advertisers who used Twitter as a platform during the second week of the World Cup, Cadbury 5 Star was at the fifth slot.

There were other brands that also jumped on to the social media platform.

Axis Bank continued to build engagement around cricketing rituals. As people tend to tweet about how they do not take baths before games, or leave their seats when a particular player is on a roll, Axis Bank decided to use the insight by inviting people to share their rituals.

Lucky charms OgilvyOne noted that the bank has been able to sustain engagement by continuing activity on Twitter beyond just match days, to having an ‘always on’ strategy. Its Twitter page: ‘Same old bracelet, same smelly cap – what’s your lucky charm to support India? Share it with us! #SuperFanRitual', was tweeted the most. Among 50 brands, it took the number one slot in the second week of the World Cup.

Footwear major Nike, continued to rally supporters around the #BleedBlue Chant. They shared more #BleedBlue stories and asked people to share theirs. It has been one of the unifying hashtags this World Cup, reported OgilvyOne, with Nike continuing to bring the Indian fans together under the #BleedBlue umbrella.

Chocolater KitKat India won the conversation with their casual banter on Twitter with their counterparts in South Africa.

The flags of the two teams were overlaid on KitKat chocolate bars, and tweeps loved the interaction between the two accounts. Hotelier Club Mahindra found creative ways to integrate stories from their resorts into the larger cricket conversation on Twitter.

The corporate jumped into non-India matches as well, and when New Zealand defeated England, they draw parallels between scenic locations in New Zealand with one of their locations in India.

Users loved the connection and they were rewarded with high levels of engagement, as was evinced in its Twitter page.

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