MAM
Star Sports clicks with its ICC Championship promos
MUMBAI: How do you better what you did the previous time? That was the question on top of the Star India creative communications’ team’s minds when they were conceiving the new promotional campaign for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The 2015 Mauka Mauka campaign was a runaway hit, spawning thousands of me-too pieces of video clips from users, viralising the idea like a raging bushfire.
From the brainstorming at the Star Sports network emerged the #championskaWorldCupcamapaign which has seen a clutch of promos including the ‘World Cup wali feeling’,‘Har Koi Dekhega’ and ‘Matrabhasha’ being launched which have been airing across its channels and on digital platforms. And the campaign which has been on for the past two months has got sufficient traction on its YouTube outlets.
But the latest challenge was how to build further hype around the 4 June Group B match between India and Pakistan at Edbagston in Birmingham in good old Blighty which it will be airing live.
“The ICC Champions Trophy is the biggest cricket tournament of the year and, with an India-Pakistan match, every cricket fan will tune-in no matter which side they cheer for. The passion, pride and enthusiasm that an India-Pakistan match draws from fans is unmatched around the world,” says a Star Sports spokesperson.
And that feeling has been encompassed into the one-liner #SabseBadaMoh which has been spun off into a promo. It is a take on the allure, the magnetism and the huge-audience pulling draw that an Indo-Pak conflict between the cherry and the willow on the field has. Every time the two nations go into battle, more than a billion hearts on both sides of the border beat faster, praying that one will best the other.
The #SabseBadaMoh promo been playing out on the Star India network and on various digital platforms promoting the clash.
The results have been impressive, say company officials, with more than 30 million users being reached, and viewing of the film crossing 7.5 million times across YouTube and Facebook. The average viewing time on the google owned streaming service: 66 seconds. Shares and engagements on Facebook have also been noteworthy standing at 45,000 and 160,000 respectively. Finally, relevant content around the “MOH” narrative has worked extremely well in delivering more than 1.3 million engagements on Cinema graphs, Graphics relating to trending topics, Carousel ads.
And while that is celebration time for the Star Sports creative comms team, what is the film about. Let’s take a look:
It basically showcases how a fan can willingly abandon any materialistic possessions and desires to attain moksh but cannot give up a chance to watch the cricketing action between India and Pakistan.
Set in scenic Ladakh, the film opens with a monk reading a story in a newspaper about a young businessman giving up his worldly possessions. Soon after, he sees the same man, dressed in a suit, stepping off a helicopter and walking towards the monastery. The film cuts to the man in various facets of his life, parting with his treasured belongings. Even after achieving all the success in the world, something is amiss in his life and he embarks on a quest to attain moksh.
At the monastery, the man is on the threshold of embracing the life of a monk starting with shaving-off his head, when a gust of wind flips a newspaper with the headline – India vs Pakistan clash at the ICC Champions Trophy on 4 June. Next we see that,the man races out of the monastery, to catch the most-awaited match of the year between India and Pakistan.
Ending on an emphatic note, the film states – “Yeh moh kabhi nahi chhutega.”
Industry observers point out that the core message of the promo is tapping into what young India is feeling today. Says one of them: “India is going through a massive reinvention exercise today. Many young Indian people are torn between idealism and living in reality – self realization vs materialism. This has further emerged in the Modi era where anyone can get rich quickly courtesy his government’s policies. So the #sabsebadamoh promo has clearly tapped into this sentiment of spiritualism vs living in the world in a rather lighter vein. Hence, it should continue to appeal to the youth.”
MAM
Hyphen launches sunscreen campaign featuring Kriti Sanon as SPF Police
Campaign drives SPF habit; Blinkit tie-up enables instant sunscreen delivery.
MUMBAI: No SPF, no mercy Kriti Sanon is out patrolling your skincare routine. Hyphen has rolled out a new campaign film starring its Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer Kriti Sanon, who steps into a playful alter ego as the brand’s “SPF Police”, turning sunscreen reminders into a full-blown public service announcement with a wink. The campaign kicked off with a cheeky social media tease suggesting Sanon had “stepped down” from her role, sparking chatter online before the brand revealed the twist: she hasn’t gone anywhere, she has simply taken on an additional avatar, one dedicated to ensuring people do not skip sunscreen.
The film leans into humour to drive home a serious point. In a slice-of-life setting, Sanon intercepts a gym-goer about to step out without sunscreen, promptly handing over Hyphen’s ‘All I Need Sunscreen’, which arrives instantly via Blinkit. The message is clear: forgetting SPF is no longer a valid excuse when it can be delivered in minutes.
Beyond the laughs, the campaign taps into a well-known gap in everyday skincare habits. Sunscreen, despite being one of the most recommended steps, is often the most ignored. By gamifying the reminder through an “SPF Police” persona, Hyphen aims to turn a routine into a reflex.
The multi-stage rollout from intrigue-led teasers to the final film has been designed to spark conversation while embedding the brand into daily behaviour. It also spotlights Hyphen’s quick commerce partnership with Blinkit, positioning accessibility as a key enabler of consistency.
Sanon, who remains closely involved in product development and brand strategy, noted that the idea stemmed from a simple insight: skincare works best when it is easy, habitual and hard to ignore. The campaign reflects that philosophy equal parts science, storytelling and a nudge you cannot quite escape.
The film is now live across Hyphen and Blinkit’s digital platforms, with further activations expected to extend the campaign’s reach and perhaps keep the SPF Police on duty a little longer.
