Cadbury Dairy Milk wraps up The Khaas Seat campaign

MUMBAI: For some fans, the sweetest part of cricket this season did not happen on the pitch, it happened in the stands. Cadbury Dairy Milk has brought the curtains down on its #TheKhaasSeat campaign with a final fan event in Mumbai, turning what began as a match-day promotion into a full-blown emotional victory lap for first-time cricket spectators. The finale, called The Khaas Meet, brought together campaign winners for an exclusive interaction with Mumbai Indians players Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar, giving fans one last memory after experiencing live stadium cricket for the very first time during the Indian T20 League season.

And for many of them, the experience clearly hit harder than a last-over six.

Launched at the beginning of the season, #TheKhaasSeat was built around a simple but effective idea making first live-match experiences feel genuinely special rather than just another ticket giveaway. Instead of generic stadium access, Cadbury Dairy Milk created a dedicated “Khaas Seat” section reserved exclusively for first-time attendees.

The campaign selected 20 winners, giving them the chance to witness the chaos, chants, tension and adrenaline of live cricket up close something millions watch on screens every year but far fewer experience inside a packed stadium.

But the brand did not stop at match tickets.

Fans also received signed merchandise, exclusive access and, for a lucky few, the chance to meet players face-to-face after the season wrapped up in Mumbai. Winners entered the campaign by scanning QR codes placed on special Cadbury Dairy Milk packs, blending product engagement with fan participation in a way that felt less transactional and more experience-led.

One winner described the experience as surreal, saying that watching a live match for the first time already felt unforgettable, but meeting the players afterwards made it something they would carry forever.

That emotional storytelling sits at the centre of the campaign’s larger strategy.

In a sports sponsorship landscape overflowing with logos, ads and celebrity tie-ins, brands are increasingly trying to create “memory-first” campaigns experiences fans emotionally associate with the sport itself rather than the sponsor behind it.

Cadbury Dairy Milk’s campaign leaned heavily into that space, focusing less on cricket as spectacle and more on cricket as shared emotion, nostalgia and personal milestone.

And it worked because it tapped into something uniquely Indian, the idea that a first live cricket match is not just entertainment, but an event people remember for years.

From roaring crowds and giant floodlights to stadium chants echoing through packed stands, the campaign transformed what could have been a simple promotional activation into a rite of passage for first-time fans.

Because in India, cricket is rarely just watched. It is felt.