Background
In India, Cricket is not a sport, but a religion. With the 2015 Cricket World Cup happening in Australia, a billion fans in India were looking for a way to feel closer to their team.
adidas was not an official sponsor of the Cricket World Cup. But we knew we would have a far greater impact than any sponsor, if adidas could make all that support from home, felt on foreign soil.
Insight and Idea
Cricket is a religion in India. So everywhere cricket is played is Sacred Ground. During the Cricket World Cup, adidas hijacked live broadcasts using the simple religious gesture of touching the ground. With #SacredGround, fans in India could send their support directly to the Indian players, who received it during live World Cup matches, by touching the ground as they walked out to bat. Using adidas ambassador Virat Kohli, he led the campaign and led the action of touching the ground, something players have never done before.
Results
With one simple gesture, we connected one team to one billion cricket fans. During India's World Cup matches, #SacredGround trended on Twitter and we gained 131 million social impressions.
This became a ritual they performed at every single match, including; India vs Bangladesh, 98 million viewers; India vs South Africa, 257 million viewers; India vs West Indies, 262 million viewers.
And then, in the most watched sporting event in history, India vs Pakistan, Indian players made the Sacred Ground gesture in front of over one billion viewers.
All this happened without any official World Cup sponsorship and without a single rupee spent on media.
In India, Cricket is not a sport, but a religion. With the 2015 Cricket World Cup happening in Australia, a billion fans in India were looking for a way to feel closer to their team.
adidas was not an official sponsor of the Cricket World Cup. But we knew we would have a far greater impact than any sponsor, if adidas could make all that support from home, felt on foreign soil.
Insight and Idea
Cricket is a religion in India. So everywhere cricket is played is Sacred Ground. During the Cricket World Cup, adidas hijacked live broadcasts using the simple religious gesture of touching the ground. With #SacredGround, fans in India could send their support directly to the Indian players, who received it during live World Cup matches, by touching the ground as they walked out to bat. Using adidas ambassador Virat Kohli, he led the campaign and led the action of touching the ground, something players have never done before.
Results
With one simple gesture, we connected one team to one billion cricket fans. During India's World Cup matches, #SacredGround trended on Twitter and we gained 131 million social impressions.
This became a ritual they performed at every single match, including; India vs Bangladesh, 98 million viewers; India vs South Africa, 257 million viewers; India vs West Indies, 262 million viewers.
And then, in the most watched sporting event in history, India vs Pakistan, Indian players made the Sacred Ground gesture in front of over one billion viewers.
All this happened without any official World Cup sponsorship and without a single rupee spent on media.
Case Study
