India’s heartbreaking loss to Australia in the Cricket World Cup final on Sunday has prompted an outpouring from brands in support of the Men in Blue.
India’s contribution to the tournament was not ignored by advertisers. The national team had won 10 matches on the trot before losing to Australia in a final that broke viewership records.
Names such as Dream11, Parle-G, BPCL, Tata Motors, Swiggy, Zomato, Shaadi.com, Spotify, HSBC, ICICI Bank, DBS Bank, SBI, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Polycab, Pizza Hut, Burger India, Jindal Panther were in praise of Team India’s spirit, describing them as the ‘Champions of a Billion Hearts’.
“1 loss. But 140 crore hearts won,” said a digital ad by Dream11 on Monday.
“#RoarforIndia,” said HSBC in front-page advertisements in national dailies, thanking the Indian team for “winning hearts, love and respect”.
Burger King India simply said: “We’ll always bleed blue,” thanking the “Kings” for a “whopper of a series” in a digital campaign. While Pizza Hut India said: “Win, Lose or Tie, Team India till we die.”
Brand experts describe the wave of topical ads as a good instance of moment marketing.
“There was a frenzy around the Cricket World Cup this year. India had won all matches till the final. They were the favourites to lift the trophy. And then the unfortunate happens. We lost. To me, the outpouring has been genuine, not only from brands, but celebrities, politicians and people from all walks of life. This was their way of showing that they valued Team India’s performance through the tournament,” said N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research, a Mumbai-based brand advisory firm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and actor Shah Rukh Khan were among the leading personalities who took to twitter to express their support for Team India. “Nothing to be ashamed of,” Tharoor said in a tweet, as he asked India to cheer up after the loss.
Samit Sinha, founder and managing partner of Delhi-based Alchemist Brand Consulting, said that using opportunities for branding may not be a bad idea for advertisers as long as the communication does not misfire.
“In this case, the ads appear to be genuine and have been tastefully done. A billion hearts were indeed broken and brands have been expressing their feelings about it,” he says.
In a melancholic strain, music streaming app Spotify took lyrics from the Ranveer Singh-starrer ‘Lootera’ to express the mood of cricket fans in a social media post. It said: “Mujhe chhod de mere haal pe, main zinda hoon yaar kaafi hai.”
But Zomato, Swiggy, ICICI Bank, Parle-G, SBI, DBS Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Polycab, Jindal Panther and Shaadi.com were positive in their messages.
Shaadi.com said, “Thank you Team India for teaching us that partnership is everything, that there will be ups and downs, that you can lose, but still win hearts.”