2017 Winners & Shortlists

PINBALL CRICKET

BrandPEPSI
Product/ServicePEPSI
EntrantBBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
CategoryOnline: Fiction & Non-Fiction
Idea Creation BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
Production THEATRICA PRODUCTIONS Lahore, PAKISTAN

The Campaign

Pakistani youth today are mostly found online playing games and hardly step outside. While street cricket is not as popular as it used to be. So we decided to bring the two together. We fused the online gaming experience with age old street cricket in a way that appeals to the youth. We built the first digital cricket game to be played on streets: Pinball Cricket.

Creative Execution

After launching with a film showcasing Pinball Cricket, we set up a tournament on ground in which we asked the youth to participate and compete. Using projection mapping and digital technology, we enabled younger players to play amidst the cramped streets of Old Lahore. We introduced specific new rules to the game that allowed a player to score just like they would in an online game, but they had to score using physical strength and skill, just as they would in real street cricket. After two months of the launched film, and after generating tremendous amounts of interest in our activity, the tournament was held over the course of a very action-packed day in an old part of Lahore city.

The campaign received an astounding number of impressions. A total number of 205 million impressions of the hashtag were generated during this campaign, an enormous figure for Pakistan. More than 4 million video views were clocked, sending our message far and wide through the country, and bringing many different people forward to compete. The country had taken notice and the game had gone viral, generating conversation around the revival of street cricket. Ultimately, the official Pakistan Cricket Board joined in the discussion, along with senior professional cricketers. Pepsi had made street cricket cool once again.

Cricket has always been a second religion to Pakistanis, and they are crazy about it. They spend thousands of hours every year watching really long cricket matches (some of which take up to five days per match). Our task was to build not only a never-seen-before cinematic experience around the sport for our audience, but also to link it to an on-ground activation. All for the higher purpose of making the game better for Pakistanis, and introducing a new form of it into a very strong cultural experience.

Our strategy was to generate interest in the campaign with the launch of an online film announcing the new form of the sport. We set up and filmed a game in which we featured a Pakistani professional cricketer who once played on the streets himself. The film went viral, and sparked thousands of requests from the youth of the country to set up a Pinball Cricket game in which they could participate. We followed up the film with a tournament on the streets in which we asked young cricketers to compete.

Credits

Name Company Role
Ali Rez Impact BBDO Regional Creative Director
Assam Khalid BBDO Pakistan Strategic Planning Director / Creative Director
Faisal Durrani BBDO Pakistan General Manager
Aamna Rahim BBDO Pakistan Senior Creative Manager
Jamayal Tanweer BBDO Pakistan Digital Business Director
Moiz Khan BBDO Pakistan Digital Creative Group Head
Shahzaib Hussain BBDO Pakistan Art Director
Mohammad Ali BBDO Pakistan Account Manager
Alize Munir BBDO Pakistan Community Manager
Ahmad Zafar BBDO Pakistan Graphic Designer
Tania Umar BBDO Pakistan Content Writer
Links
Video URL