Ogilvy Mumbai Launches Campaign For ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

ICC has released one of cricket’s biggest communication campaigns across the sub-continent for Cricket World Cup 2011.

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the biggest and the most prestigious tournament in the game. To be held across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the ICC CWC 2011 will witness 14 nations battle for cricket’s most coveted prize. Conceptualized by the ICC Marketing Team and Ogilvy Mumbai, the campaign for ICC CWC 2011 shall arguably be the biggest to promote any sporting tournament in the sub-continent.

Navin Talreja, Managing Partner, Ogilvy & Mather says, “About 1000 matches were played between the last ICC Cricket World Cup and this one. Many tournaments, many cups but a World Cup in any sport has been and will continue to be the pinnacle of achievement. The postioning line ‘The Cup That Counts’ serves as a reminder to all cricket fans of this very simple fact.”

With this in mind, a surround campaign involving not just TV, Print, Outdoor, PR but also last mile mediums such has Digital and Activation was created for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Navin adds, “This time around we have moved away from the conventional amplification approach of the core idea across mediums. Instead the messaging strategy for different elements developed reflects different facets of “The Cup That Counts” from the point of view of the teams, players and of course the fans.”

The campaign kicked off worldwide on the 1st week of January with the launch TV commercial titled ‘Tightrope’. Abhijit Avasthi, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather says, “Every country, every player and every fan has only one wish – to win the race to the cup. But this is no ordinary race. Full of obstacles and surprises, to win this race, each player would need to literally walk on a tightrope. Keeping this in mind we decided to use a metaphor and depicted a tightrope race to the cup that counts”.

 

The ‘Tightrope’ commercial aptly captures the passion, celebration, competition and fun associated with the game of cricket like never seen before. Shot across the entire city of Jaipur over 5 days, the commercial ‘features’ captains from most of the playing nations and over 400 fans from various countries. Professional tightrope artists were flown in from USA and UK for the filming of this commercial.

This film has been shot by the Cannes Gold winning director Bob of Good Morning Films and the music has been composed by Dhruv Ghanekar. This launch campaign shall also be supported by print and outdoor, shot by international photographer Palani Chandramohan.

In addition, fans will also get to see another campaign featuring iconic players from the sub-continent. A series of 3 commercials starring Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shakib Ul Hasan respectively, this campaign plays upon a deep personal wish that these cricketing legends are fostering – to bring the cup home. These films have been directed by Piyush Raghani of Old School Films and shall go on air towards end January. This campaign too shall be supported by print and outdoor.

Additionally, cricket fans shall also enjoy the Official ICC CWC 2011 Event Theme Song titled ‘De Ghumaa Ke’ that has been released on radio channels across the country. Composed and sung by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, this song brings alive the fierce sense of competition and the desire to win. The same song shall also be adapted in local languages for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A music video featuring Shankar Ehsaan Loy and ICC CWC 2011′s Official Mascot ‘Stumpy’ is also in the works and shall be released by end of this month.

Further, ICC shall also unleash a slew of contests and below the line initiatives to help spread the CWC 2011 buzz. Across venue cities, Official Countdown Clocks shall be placed at airports and popular malls, uniquely designed ICC CWC 2011 branded vans shall give fans a chance to share their wishes, radio stations shall run contests to help fans win tickets and much more.

As a part of ICC’s CSR and youth outreach initiative, Ogilvy also rolled out a nation-wide school contact program alongwith UNAIDS. The program reached out to 8 cities, 70 schools and above 10,000 students who got a chance to learn about AIDS awareness and also participate in an Inter School Mini Cricket World Cup Tournament.

Credits:

Client: International Cricket Council, Dubai

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, Mumbai

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director

Abhijit Avasthi, National Creative Director

Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director

Navin Talreja, Managing Partner

Kunal Jeswani, President (OgilvyOne Worldwide)

Sukesh Kumar Nayak, Senior Creative Director

Heeral Ahkaury, Senior Creative Director

Hemal Jhaveri, Associate Creative Director

Vinit Sanghvi, Art Director

Dharam Valia, Vice President

Mudit Trivedi, Account Director

Rahul Bhambri, Account Supervisor

Sukhvinder Singh Wilkhoo, Senior Account Executive

Activation Agency: OgilvyAction, Mumbai

Digital Agency: OgilvyOne Worldwide, Mumbai

Media Agency: Maxus Global, Mumbai

Writing World Cup song was an emotional moment: Manoj Yadav

Lyricist Manoj Yadav, who has penned the popular ICC Cricket World Cup anthem De Ghuma Ke, says he initially struggled to write the lyrics for the song that is replete with fun Hindi phrases. His brief was that the song should strike a chord with the rural and urban cricket lover. Yadav was told that the song has to have a strong fun element. "I got a call from O&M (Ogilvy & Mather) that we need to make a song for the ICC World Cup and gave me the brief. The brief was that it should not sound like just another anthem, which is motivational and inspirational; it should have a fun element too," Yadav told IANS.

De Ghuma Ke has been composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and crooned by Shankar along with Divya Kumar for the world event that kickstarts Feb 19 and will be held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. "I was told that a farmer should also like it and even a multiplex goer enjoy it. It was quite tricky for me initially because I didn't know what way to pick. It was challenging. Then I sat with Shankar and we came up with De Ghuma Ke," he added. It took Yadav two weeks to write the entire song, which is peppy and upbeat. He also revealed that Shankar was quite a guiding force when he was penning the lyrics. "In the beginning I was quite confused what to write. So I asked Shankar. He briefed me and his guidance was always there. He said, 'Forget that you're writing a song for cricket. Just write what you like and go beyond your imagination.' Luckily, what I wrote was liked by everyone," said Yadav, who has also written the Lux soap jingle for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

He also said that working on the song was an emotional moment for him. "A writer lives for these opportunities and so is the case with me. First of all it's a World Cup song, secondly it's with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, one of the top music directors, and third it's about cricket, which is my favourite game - what else does one want?" "I love playing cricket, used to play it a lot. I can't express how I felt when I got this song. Never thought I'll be chosen to write this. I'm thankful to god and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy that they considered me for this track. It's an emotional moment for me," he added.

De Ghuma Ke has commonly used Hindi terms like, aare paare (this way or that), guthi gutham (fisticuffs), juta hausla badla faisla (buck up and change the game) and jiyo khiladi wah re wah re. However, all was not easy for Yadav; while writing the song the fear of criticism always lurked. "As a writer you do wonder whether people will like it or not. This thought is always there, but when you make people hear it and they like it, then you get the positivity," he said.

"Yes, there was a fear of being criticised. The CWG (Commonwealth Games) song was so nice but people compared it to other songs of A.R. Rahman and criticised it. If it had been seen as a stand alone song I'm sure people would have liked it," he said referring to the CWG song Jiyo Utho Badho Jeeto, which was panned. "So I do have that fear too, but I will still hope that people like my song and take it in its right spirit," he said.