Facebook Unveils New Fan Engagement Data for the T20 Cricket World Cup

The ICC T20 Cricket World Cup begins this weekend, and while cricket isn't a popular sport in other parts of the world, it is the most popular sport in one of the most socially active countries, with Indian cricket fans intensely invested in the tournament's outcome. In light of this, Facebook has released a new guide to assist marketers in tapping into the World Cup conversation and trends, as well as understanding important usage habits related to the tournament. The guide also includes some fascinating comments on broader Facebook usage in India – you can download the entire 29-page 'Where the Fans Play' guide here, but we'll focus on a few key points in this piece.

First and foremost, Facebook describes the variety of World Cup material available on its platforms, as well as the importance it places on cricket. Facebook also highlights the variety of cricket influencers and pundits that use the platform, many of whom have significant, engaged followings, making them ideal candidates for business partnerships.

Through the creation of its Brand Collabs Manager platform, Facebook has been striving to make it easier for brands and influencers to collaborate, and it plans to utilize the Cricket World Cup to highlight the potential in this area.

Facebook also details the different tools it has in place to help people find World Cup content more easily:

It also gives a general picture of Facebook usage in India, emphasizing the company's overall reach and presence in the country. Facebook has been working to become a bigger part of India's digital infrastructure, in the hopes of establishing itself as a foundation element, and thus becoming an essential connection platform, for a variety of purposes, among the region's millions of mobile web users, as technology adoption rises in the world's second-most populous nation.

This is why Facebook is emphasizing its potential reach about the World Cup — while simultaneously emphasizing this statistic on a broader scale. This astounding number was first announced by Facebook in April, with in-stream eligible video views highlighting the power of Facebook's video advertisements in increasing audience exposure and awareness.

Every month, over 2 billion individuals watch Facebook In-Stream eligible videos, and 63 percent of In-Stream standalone video ad views are completed internationally. Facebook video performance has a solid basis, and its reach to Indian cricket fans, in particular, is unrivaled. If that describes your target market, you should check out Facebook's most recent guidance.