“Dhoni finishes off in style, a magnificent strike into the crowd. India lifts the World Cup after 28 years and the party starts in the dressing room,” like any other cricket fanatic Indian, you find this commentary by Ravi Shastri hard to get it out of your mind, Star Sports banking on nostalgia is bringing back the #WorldCupWaliFeeling.
World Cup reminiscence
Considering how emotionally overwhelmed Indians get when it comes to cricket, Star Sports promoting the ICC Champions Trophy attempted to stir a similar feeling through their film which was mostly edited in reverse of the events that made history that evening.
The film begins with the former captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni grabbing to the trophy and gloriously posing with it in front of the Gateway of India. Then, the film starts moving backwards, from the manic celebrations by the fans and the players after winning, to the iconic six hit by the captain and then the poignant hug by Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni. All those moments etched in our minds came alive.
After the entire scene edited in reverse, the film concludes with a voiceover saying the #WorldCupWaliFeeling will return as ‘World Cup of Champions is yet to come, with a shot of the current Indian captain Virat Kohli on the screen. Through this film the brand attempts to engage us with the sentiments felt back then and yet at the same time embraces the change as Virat Kohli takes the lead this time.
Triggering the euphoria, ICC Champions Trophy is marketed by the brand which is to happen almost six months later. Star Sports makes itself the channel that engages the cricket fanatics and promotes itself.
Social media highlights
The first leg of the campaign had a very strong emotional connect as it managed to receive 1,765,748 views, 184k positive reactions, over 8k shares and comments flooding in just within a week. It also received over 33k views on YouTube.
The brand interacted with the fans on Twitter, by posting a few tweets around this campaign and tried to stir some excitement.
Cricket and this country share a loyal and extremely intimate relationship, leveraging on this the brand constructed a film to build further on this emotion. World Cup moments became the primary content hook for the brand which worked in their favor and garnered a large crowd.
Banking on this passion, Star Sports got itself some social media fame for a tournament that would be held in June. Considering the small attention span of netizens, this same film would’ve raged a lot in the digital world a lot more nearer to the World Champions Trophy, thus keeping it more topical and trending.
Currently, with the applaud-worthy win of India against England, the brand should not have banked on this thunder. But, in India when it comes to cricket, everything seems to sell at any point of time.
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