Cricket is India’s biggest unifier. The Cricket World Cup is India’s biggest shared viewing experience. The 2011 edition of the World Cup was the biggest ever with 500 million+ viewers watching India being crowned World Champions at home.

The challenge for the 2015 edition was to make it bigger than ever before- overcoming key challenges (played away in Australia and in difficult conditions). The solve was to start big and draw as big an audience as possible for India’s first game against arch-rivals- India & Pakistan and then take the narrative forward from there. Arriving at an idea that grabs the attention of fans across the cricketing world, drive conversations and one which has the potential to be amplified across by brands and other media was the key.

The ‘Mauka’ campaign (designed for TV & digital and to drive PR/virality) was devised by Star Sports captured the story of a die-hard Pakistani cricket fan from Karachi desperately waiting with a box of crackers since 1992 for a ‘Mauka’ (an opportunity) to celebrate Pakistan’s victory over India in the World Cup and who would go to any length to see India lose. The campaign told the story of the World Cup and India/Pakistan’s journey in the World Cup through the lens of this fan and the execution ensured that ‘Mauka’ and the ‘Mauka Man’ became the narrative of ALL things World Cup and beyond in India and the cricketing world and delivered a record-breaking World Cup.

India’s first game was against arch-rivals Pakistan, a game bigger than even the World Cup final. India had emerged victorious on all 5 occasions that they have played Pakistan in the World Cup. Our first film showed a Pakistani fan desperately waiting with a box of crackers since 1992 for a 'Mauka' (opportunity) to celebrate Pakistan's first ever World Cup victory over India.

For India's next game against South Africa, we surprised everybody by poking fun at ourselves.The film showed two South African fans trolling a bunch of Indian fans on how India had never beaten South Africa in the World Cup.

Our campaign was adapted to go real time. We shot 2 different ads and released the relevant version immediately after every India match based on the result (win/loss) of the match.The selective reveals and the plot twists captivated the fan imagination and endeared Star Sports to them.

The response was phenomenal - the ‘Mauka’ series of videos attracted over 33.5 million views across platforms! Viewers switched to social media when the game ended, to see the latest Mauka video. Over 190,000 users participated in ‘Mauka’ related conversations, and ‘Maukaticons’ continue to be used extensively online.

When India lost in the semi-finals after a record unbeaten streak, rival cricketers were quick to point out that India had also lost its ‘Mauka’. Fans even called up the Indian Cricket Board’s office singing the now ubiquitous Mauka theme. The word ‘Mauka’ had successfully entered modern cricketing vocabulary!