Cannes Lions

Ab Cricket Buzzega

WATCONSULT, Mumbai / CRICBUZZ / 2021

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Overview

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OVERVIEW

Background

The Indian Premier League (NFL Superbowl of India), the pinnacle of 20/20 short form cricket in India would be resuming after months of delays due to the covid pandemic. Cricbuzz, one of the leading cricket news and entertainment apps in India, had to kickstart the craze of Cricket for a country that went without Live televised sport for almost half a year.

The brief was to bring back traffic to the application and ensure new app downloads. A tough ask due the recent launch of legalized sports betting apps that were stealing the traditional Cricbuzz audience. And the objective was to dominate conversations around cricket, all before the season began. All this had to be done without utilizing any IPL assets (Photo and Video) because Cricbuzz was not an official sponsor of the tournament.

Idea

While Cricket is cool, Entertainment is awesome. We combined the best of both elements to present a campaign that promised to be at the sweet spot of cricket-ainment. We chose to marry India's devotion to the religion of Cricket with India's most-loved hobby - music, dance AKA entertainment! Born out of this union was 'Ab Cricket Buzzega' (Now Cricket will start Buzzing).

With 'Ab Cricket Buzzega' we created an integrated entertainment platform across Music / Content / Social Media / Influencers / AR / OOH / PR. Thus, transforming the brand experience and its communication from functional to an emotional one.

Strategy

The rise of the underground Rap/Hip Hop movement in India has given its youth population new independent artists who regularly touch millions of views per video. This music is home grown, sung in native languages and exudes the energy that one would get from a high octane 20/20 cricket match.

The intersection of music and sport (especially cricket) is evident in all forms of Indian pop culture and social media content. The audience, largely Gen Z and millennials, cricket fanatics who view Cricbuzz as a “true cricket lovers” app were the prime targets for this campaign.

The approach was to craft a platform that allowed fans to celebrate and join in the cricketing action and entertainment driven by the expertise of Cricbuzz. Twitter was strategically chosen as it’s the preferred second screen for any sports fan, both for following matches and for engagement, with Instagram driving audio-visual engagement action.

Execution

We began with a rap music video titled #AbCricketBuzzega (English - Now Cricket will be buzzing) on Twitter, followed by a multi-prong execution strategy.

The Instagram Reels Challenge

We were India’s first sports brand to use Instagram Reels. A danceable hook step was created for the track and amplified through popular Instagram personalities.

AR Filter

Our ‘Hit corona out of the park’ Instagram filter gave people a fun way to take on the virus. The Filter added a mask on the face and ball shaped like the virus. The users could BLINK to select their favorite team and nod to hit the Corona ball.