Performance and Popularity may not go hand in hand

Now, popularity in IPL 2010 is guaranteed. You know that, or you should! What I am here to tell you, that it will be guaranteed even if the teams never perform. Why am I saying this? Because I have empirical proof for this.

 

 

The above table that you can see is the points table that was created at the end of the league stage of IPL 2010, after the coverage of IPL 2010 at All Padded Up.

 

Now, look at the following table:

 

 

This table was created at All Padded Up through a poll, a poll in which 973 votes were cast for the most favoured team as determined by the readers of All Padded Up. The readers were allowed more than one vote in the poll. This was done so that the choice of the readers, and the popularity of the teams is not confined. This is the reason that the % figures add more than 100%.

The poll was conducted during the league stage of IPL 2010. Thus, the two tables were being created at the same time.

Thus, while the first table was a measure of performance of teams in IPL 2010, the second table is a measure of popularity.

The following points are something that we note:

• Kolkata Knight Riders is the most popular team, inspite of the fact that they were placed 6th in the performance team. In fact, the votes cast for KKR (68%) is higher than the votes cast for all the four top teams combined (59% combined).
• Delhi Dare Devils (Placed 5th in Performance table) has got more votes, that is more popular that 3 of the four teams that made to the semi finals of IPL 2010. Only Mumbai Indians have got more votes, among the top 4 teams.
• Mumbai Indians, which were the runners up in IPL 2010, must have lost the IPL 2010, but they were clear winners in terms of popularity beating the winners (34% as against 10%)
• Kings XI Punjab show that performance still matters. They are the last team in the points table, and have also received only 2% votes. That is because their performance was horrible right at the start of IPL 2010.

Thus, we come to the conclusion that while popularity is not confined to performance of the teams, performance of the teams does act as a parameter.

We are in the process of determining our own methodology of rating teams and brands. Wait for it!