After recognising Mumbai's temporal nature, we realised the only tool that can provide data on the right space & time was Google Maps. It is the go-to-tool for checking traffic density with accuracy at any point in time.

150+ new locations have been identified by Google Maps' tools at locations that lost playgrounds due to urbanisation.

Turf Finder can change the way sports infrastructure can be planned. A blueprint for sports in the future. A simple traffic data was able to visualise opportunity for sport. This can be implemented for highly dense city in the world.

While India has always been a sports-loving nation (mainly cricket, that enjoys religion-like fandom), it is now becoming a sports-playing nation as well. A country that has conventionally deemed sports (besides cricket) unimportant, is now prioritizing sports (cricket and beyond) for professional and personal growth. This growing sporting appetite is inspired from multiple things:

•India winning medals in more, and newer sports at Tokyo Olympics. 71% parents want their kids to take up sports as a hobby or profession post Tokyo Olympics.

•India’s growing stellar performances across global sporting tournaments (cricket and non-cricket)

•People’s ever-growing intent to be fit and healthy (catapulted by Covid)

Even the Indian Government has increased investment in sports infrastructure by 11% in FY 2023-24 (highest hike for sports till date), and launched initiatives like ‘Khelo India’ (Play India) – reviving the sporting culture in India at the grass-root level by building a strong framework for 20+ sports disciplines.

But this barely scratches the surface for a gigantic population. The Government is currently spending USD 407 million for a population of 1.4 billion, which means every Indian is allocated USD 0.29 per year for sports. This is momentously lower than other countries like United Kingdom (USD 58 per person per year) or Australia (USD 11.69 per person per year).

This spelled opportunity for Gatorade to go above and beyond Government initiatives and play a meaningful role in people’s lives. We wanted to become a platform that catalyzes everyone - beginner, player or athlete- to play more.

Objective: To create meaning in the everyday lives of sports-playing Indians, we wanted to solve a problem in their contextual sporting reality.

Gatorade exists to fuel your sweat and play more, and India wasn’t playing enough. A nation of 1.4 billion people where only 2% play sports. Reason? Lack of space. 76% Indians complain ‘lack of space’ as reason to not play any sport.

A problem especially strong in over-crowded cities like Mumbai. Open space is urbanized, expensive, inaccessible (far/ pay-to-play), or limiting. This created a blaring gap – a rapidly growing intent to play more against rapidly decreasing open spaces to play. We wanted to create a practical solution that could realistically address lack of space for anyone, anywhere to play more.

Brief: Configure a smart solve for lack of space to play, within the chaotic space of crowded cities, starting with Mumbai (India’s most crowded city).

Turf Finder is a path-breaking tech-innovation, in partnership with Google Maps, that analysed 20 years’ historic traffic data and live business tracking to forecast when roads go empty – becoming open spaces to drop the turf and play!

Why roads? Because Indian roads are temporal. Their usability is measured not just by space, but by space and time – meaning these roads are multipurpose! Roads normally used for everyday traffic could also be used for playing, by dropping the turf at the right place, at the right time.

Our turfs were modular, configured to be easily assembled and dismantled to maximise play time and minimise clear-up time for traffic. People played football, badminton, and basketball. Our turfs became urban community playgrounds, reimagining open spaces for play unlike anything before.

The Google tools were able to accurately predict the exact moment even when the most densest places in India would be.

This data isn't anything new. It's always been on our smartphones since Maps has existed. It is how we were able to use this for areas that had their playgrounds uprooted that gave this campaign a larger purpose.

We dropped our turfs where they were needed the most. We identified crowded city clusters (space/1000 people). Then, basis the least people-per-open space ratio we selected locations to analyze road traffic.

A simple traffic data was able to change not just a cultural, but a geographical problem.

We targeted the most traffic dense city in the world. The most impossible locations had an opportunity for us to drop a turf through data.

Traffic data visualised in finding opportunities for sports is path changing.

In partnership with Google Maps, we used their historic insights tool to find when roads go empty – becoming open spaces to drop the turf and play. Why roads? Because Indian roads are temporal. Their usability is measured not just by space, but by space and time.

They key task was to use Google's Location Insight's tool to identify:

- car density

- people density

- and traffic density

After scanning roads, streets, and lanes - historical data helped us plan ahead for our next drops. This data was important as we implemented it on our website- gatoturffinder.com allowing players to pre-book or call for enquires.

Even in Chadni Chowk, that has a density of 500,000+. the Google tools were able to accurately predict the exact moment the road went empty.

This initiative can be a blueprint for any highly dense urban city in the world.

1.The State Government partnered with us- offering 20+ new locations for future turfs in Mumbai, as part of ‘Fit India Movement’ - launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage Indians to become more active.

2. Gatorade was sampled and consumed by over 100+ people at every drop

3.With 150+ future turf drops expected across India, Gatorade is now looking at global expansion in other urban markets

4.Sales increased by 121% (Mar’23 – Apr’24) with a profit increase of 4% and earned media USD 1 Mn.

5.Turfs reached people at scale with 111 Mn reach, 51.39 Mn impressions and 40.3k website visits.

6.We broke the category record with view-through-rate of 58%.

7.Behaviour change

•Top of mind awareness: +2 pp

•Total spontaneous awareness: +4 pp

•Consumption: +5 pp

•Consideration to buy: +3 pp