The highlight of Archies' cricket initiative was the promotion of pre-addressed Good Luck Greeting cards. Says Kapila: ``It drew a huge response.'' A small-budget print campaign and TVC, created by Delhi-based R Kangra, communicated how with Archies World Cup Special Cards, criket fans could send `Fan Mail' with personalised messages to the team or their favourite heroes and cheer the home team on to a victory.

The special cards, which started selling in the third week of April 1999, came with envelopes pre-addressed to the BCCI to ensure that the Good Luck messages reached one'shero.

For Ajay Jadeja, for instance, the Good Luck card's message was `Hey Hitter, it's time to make a kill', while for Kumble: `It's time to set a few more records.'

But the star-studded Indian team did fail its fans as it was ejected out of the tournament before the semi-final stage. ``As an Indian organisation we would have loved to see India pick up the World Cup,'' says Kapila. ``We are very happy with the market response till now, but if India would have reached the final stage of the tournament, the sales would have been even better.''

In addition to World Cup Special Cards, Archies also exploited the cricket mania by offering a plethora of cricketing merchandising via its 386 franchisees across the country. Archies offered 16 products in up to eight designs bearing photos of Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agerkar, Azhar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly.

The portfolio included a personal diary with a lock, an autograph book, a telephone index, a scribble note book, a compositegift set, posters of 16 national and international cricket stars and, of course, a range of World Cup Special Cards.

Archies has earmarked around five per cent of its projected sales of Rs 75 crore (Rs 3.75 crore) for its advertising and promotion budget for the fiscal year 1999-2000. Presently, Archies claims to have around half of the Rs 120-crore branded cards market.