Hockey World Cup to boost global fanbase; Know FIH's digital strategy 

The FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 is around the corner. Just like in 2018, the Indian state of Odisha is the host, but this time it is happening in two different cities – Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. The excitement and buzz among the people in Odisha is overwhelming.

We caught up with Nicolas Maingot, Senior Communications Manager at FIH, and Nishant Mehta, FIH’s Social Media Manager, to understand the efforts and dynamics that go into social media behind hosting tournaments of such stature.

Nicolas began his career as a press attaché with the French Football Federation, working with the organization for seven years until he joined FIFA in 2001. He became the head of media in 2008 and twice served as acting communications director at World Football's governing body. He was also the main spokesman at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He joined FIH in 2018.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Q. Successive World Cups happening in the same country are very rare. So, how easy, or difficult, was it for your social and digital media team at FIH to promote this tournament, and has the focus been on getting engagement outside the host state – Odisha?

Nicolas: The engagement on our social media for this year’s World Cup is even bigger than the last one in 2018 and there are many reasons for it. The first is that the sport and its fanbase are growing.

Coming particularly to social media, our engagement has increased multiple times, and substantial credit for this goes to our Social Media Manager Nishant Mehta. We have been pushing a lot of content specifically on Instagram, and our followers have almost doubled in the last four years. We also launched TikTok and ShareChat in 2019.

As shared by FIH Social Media Manager Nishant, FIH’s Instagram followers by the end of 2018 were 115k, while it has reached a whopping 244k.

Q. While this time there have been two venues, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, instead of one like last time, how have you capitalized on fans at both venues? Or is it only Rourkela where there is maximum activation as people in Bhubaneswar are already aware of the Hockey World Cup?

Nicolas: Hockey India and the Government of Odisha have done a fabulous job in promoting this event in the entire state and country. But the engagement in Rourkela will surely be extremely high as hockey fans will be witnessing an international tournament for the first time in their city and that too in a brand new stadium, which is the largest all-seater field hockey-specific arena in the world, is already sold out for all matches.

When it comes to fans in Bhubaneswar, they’ve already shown their passion and enthusiasm for hockey multiple times! We look forward to seeing and engaging with them again!

Q. FIH has dedicated handles for Hindi and Spanish. How has it helped in the promotion of the sport and are there any plans to add more vernacular languages?

Nicolas: Extending our offer in terms of language for our digital handles is a major step we’ve wanted to take for some time. We were finally able to publish content on social media in Hindi and Spanish a year ago and it really paid off! We have been able to engage with local fans from India, Pakistan, Argentina, Chile, and Spain – just to name a few - through our groups.

The main reason behind creating these groups was that we wanted to build relationships with people, as their local/native language helps to build a far deeper connection.

For example, after the final of the Women’s World Cup, we did some Instagram live on the pitch in Spanish with some Argentina players and the results were fantastic. This is obviously because of their huge fan following but talking the language of their local fans is a big plus.

Most of the people who follow hockey on social media speak Hindi, English, and Spanish, and that was one of the main reasons for starting Hindi and Spanish groups first. Spanish speakers are the highest in terms of our social media engagement.

Launching the Spanish group was a key strategic decision for us, which was also launched along with the Hindi group. Our social media teams led by Nishant have been working hard and the results are visible now.

Q. The HWC 2023 trophy has toured across India and also to the length and breadth of Odisha. Is this one of the first trophy tours of such a large scale and would you want to implement it in other tournaments as well?

Nicolas: The engagement of people during the Trophy Tour across India has been very inspiring. People have welcomed the sport and this tournament with great energy. We are a big advocate for that and we are very happy that Hockey India did it so greatly!

This is not the first time as we also did it with the FIH Women’s World Cup this time, but I can say that this is by far the biggest trophy tour in hockey, and kudos to everyone involved in it. I am receiving daily press clippings and I am overwhelmed to see the excitement not only in Odisha but all over the world.

Q. What are the different kinds of social media and digital media campaigns that you are planning to do in India and across the globe during the tournament?

Nicolas: We will have a post-matchday story, a daily digital newsletter that would include things like interviews, goals of the day, pictures of the day, facts of the day and many more.

We will also be having a regular talk show of 15-20 minutes which will go on YouTube where some of the big names of international hockey will be discussing the matches.

Back in December, we had a contest for fans across the globe, where two lucky ones – one from India and one from abroad - will win a free VIP trip to Odisha for a couple of days.

Nishant: We are planning to do some video stories for the players which will be more about their lives beyond hockey. We will be conducting fun interviews with the players which will surely be exciting for the fans to watch. Everyone wants to know their favorite players inside and out, and we will try to tell their stories to the whole world.

Q. Say something more about the celebration of the best moments that the FIH page has been doing for the last few days.

Nishant: The average engagement for the countdown of moments that we are doing is 10 times the normal post. Just on Instagram alone, we have generated over a million video views for these moments, which are some of the best in the history of hockey. Finding 30 moments from a sport like hockey was difficult, but I am glad our social media team pulled it off.

I would urge everyone to take a look at the 30 moments that we are posting daily and it will remind you of some of the best moments in hockey.

I would say it's not just us, the teams have evolved since 2018. Their social media channels have gotten more engagement, and the buzz among the fans on social media is something very encouraging for us to see.

FIH had 1.5 million followers across all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter) in 2018, but now we have around 2.1 million followers.

Q. What are the key markets for FIH, other than India?

Nicolas: Hockey India is a bit unique as they have a huge number of followers, obviously because of the hockey history of the country and the size of the country. Then it would be Argentina which has got a big fan following not only for the sport but also some of the players who have some of the biggest numbers of followers in the world.

Chile, being a rising hockey country, already has a good number of followers. Their women participated in the Women’s Hockey World Cup and their men will be making their debut at a World Cup on January 14, 2023, here in India.

Q. Where do you see hockey in the next decade and what role is digital media going to play in it?

Nicolas: As FIH, we have two very important objectives. One is the increase in the number of people playing the sport and the other is the growth of the fanbase.

For us, Hockey5s is another very exciting project. It is not new, but FIH has decided to give it a push and it will surely attract more players and fans.

Coming to the digital media section, our Watch.Hockey app has been a key part of our projects at FIH. We launched it two and a half years ago, and it was an important initiative as now people can watch hockey from anywhere – except where there are rights-holding broadcast agreements in place, of course - which was not the case before.

On our side, we will continue to extend our digital output to offer fans the best hockey experience!

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When does the FIH Hockey WC start?

The FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup starts on January 13, 2023, with Argentina taking on South Africa in their first match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

India is placed in Pool D and will play its first match against Spain, also on January 13 at the newly constructed Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela.