Cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, and, surprisingly, shuttler Saina Nehwal were the most discussed brand ambassadors on the social media during the 2011 cricket World Cup that culminated with India beating Sri Lanka to lift the trophy for a second time last week in Mumbai. Sony (featuring Dhoni) and Airtel 3G (Nehwal) topped the list among the most frequently discussed brands.

These are some of the many findings by Vangal, a Bangalore-based software company that offers insights to brands and industries based on data collected from several social media platforms. Vangal tracked users’ feedback on social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs and message boards) about 143 unique television ads released by 85 advertisers during the World Cup.

“The objective was to understand consumers’ feedback on TV ads during one of the most watched sporting events in India,” said Vinita Ananth, founder of Vangal. “Importantly, these were totally unaided comments. Which means no questions were asked and people discussed and commented about brands and brand ambassadors voluntarily,” Ananth added. All that Vangal did was to use their software engine to track specific words, use algorithms to collect relevant data and analyse them using social media analytic tools to offer insights.

According to the study, there were about 70 lakh mentions of the CWC and 1 lakh mentions of ads during the final.

About Nehwal, a non-cricketer, being one of the top brand ambassadors discussed on social media, Ananth said: “This could be largely because she is fresh and many people see her as the new face of Indian sports internationally.”

Interestingly, the study also found that while men discussed the game a lot more than women, they commented more about ads. Top ads mentioned by women were Airtel (Nehwal), Bharti AXA, CEAT and Reliance 3G, while men discussed Pepsi (Virender Sehwag, Dhoni), CEAT and Aircel.

Marketers had termed the 2011 CWC as the first ever “social World Cup” because of the proliferation of discussion around it on social media platforms.

According to a Boston Consulting Group study, India had nearly 100 million internet users by the end of 2010, of which 14 million were on FB. Internet penetration is growing at a rate of 50 per cent, while social media usage continues to grow multiple times.

“Today it is important for marketers to leverage social networking sites during big events like the CWC,” said Ananth. One-year-old Vangal works with several companies from different industries offering them social media analytics for their brands and in certain cases social media analysis of specific marketing campaigns.