THE Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has won the award for “Best Use of Social Media” from the prestigious International Sports Convention (ISC), for the league’s social media and content strategy during 2020, at the annual International Sports Awards.

The tournament took place between August 18 and September 10 of this year, and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was played behind closed doors.

Because of this, the use of social media to keep fans engaged was more important than ever. CPL achieved great results, with over one million new followers added and over 300 million social media video views achieved during the tournament period alone.

From the point that the lockdowns started earlier in 2020, Hero CPL worked tirelessly to keep fans entertained. From broadcasting archive matches with new commentary from the likes of Tom Moody and Ian Bishop, to arranging for the player draft to be done remotely with a world-class punditry panel; keeping fans entertained and engaged were at the centre of the tournament’s thinking.
During the tournament itself, live CPL games were broadcasted into 77 countries on Facebook and YouTube, as well as sending out highlights clips worldwide.

The tournament also worked with broadcast partners, Sunset+Vine, to create fun and engaging content so fans could learn what it was like inside the tournament’s bio-secure bubble.
Added to that, Hero CPL also launched the “Life Stories” films on the tournament’s social media channels. These beautifully made films focused on the lives of up and coming Caribbean cricketers and won plaudits from around the world.

The Life Story episodes focused on Jamaicans, Rovman Powell and Oshane Thomas, and Guyanese all-rounder, Keemo Paul.
Hero CPL has also started sharing content on a number of new social media channels such as TikTok, Twitch, Triller and Instagram Reels.

Hero CPL’s Head of Marketing, Chris Watson, said: “Hero CPL has always prided itself on being at the forefront of digital media and content creation, but in 2020, we realised it was even more important. Rather than scale down our digital output during the pandemic, we took the opposite approach to make sure our channels were more engaging than ever.
To have delivered 800million social media video views this year, including over 300m during the tournament, shows that this strategy was a successful one and to get recognition for this from ISC is a fantastic moment for the tournament.”