How one brand made all pause and play during the Indian Premier League

Kingfisher’s IPL formula was everything but the formula - Lights. Camera. Freeze. 

With the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League underway, all brands are vying for the top spot in the league. And what a time for Kingfisher to refresh our imagination, as they’ve been doing to our taste-buds over the years. 

The latest integrated campaign unveiled by Kingfisher for the 10th IPL elevates their ‘Divided By Teams, United By Kingfisher’ positioning in a rather unique way. It was a few months back that an internet phenomenon called Mannequin Challenge went viral on the internet. And Kingfisher decided to ride on this phenomenon, giving it the twist of good times. They gave a new flavour to the challenge and the #KingfisherMannequinChallenge was born. 

Commenting on the campaign, Kishore Tadepalli, SVP & Managing Partner, JWT Bangalore said, "While all these years fans have seen their favourite players sing and dance to the ‘Olalalalaleo jingle’, we knew we wanted to take the celebration a notch higher at this grand stage of IPL 10."

The Kingfisher Mannequin Challenge arrests an IPL fan's imagination and showcases their favourite cricketing stars from around the world in all their glory, frozen on screen. It catches their attention on television and keeps the curiosity built till the end of the film. It’s does justice to the grand scale of the Indian Premier League. 

The Indian Premier League is known as the ‘Superbowl of India’, where brands compete off-the-field as the teams battle it out on field. The phenomenon of the #KingfisherMannequinChallenge started online, with Kingfisher challenging Rising Pune Supergiants. Pune released their team’s Mannequin Challenge and challenged Delhi Daredevils. As teams challenged each other online to their own version of the Mannequin Challenge, the players also called in entries from their fans. Entries came in huge numbers and viewers responded with their own version of the #KingfisherMannequinChallenge.

Commenting on the campaign, Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice-President (Marketing), United Breweries Limited, said “For a decade, Kingfisher has brought together a majority of the teams and fans of the most exciting Premier T20 club Cricket Tournament. Each year we have successfully captured the essence of the brand with our much-acclaimed campaigns under the headline ‘Divided by Teams, United by Kingfisher’. This year we celebrate 10 years of ‘Good Times’ with the Kingfisher Mannequin Challenge, which by far has been the most fun and exciting content on social media. We took the mannequin challenge up a notch by blending it with the spirit of the game and got the fans excited with a series of videos that featured their favourite teams. The response to the campaign has been tremendous and we hope the ‘Good Times’ experience gets better every year.”

The #KingfisherMannequinChallenge is a terrific example of contextual advertising done right, with a spot-on execution, without losing the core brand proposition. This season of IPL, Kingfisher has served us a fresh recipe in the formulaic world of television commercials.

While all the players battle it out on field, Kingfisher brings alive the good times with the cricketing world's superstars. Because if anyone can unite the good times of this nation during IPL, it’s Kingfisher.

7 teams. 8 films. 10th IPL. One King of Good Times.

Ad Links:

Main TVC - https://youtu.be/HdAmTqNCVFw

Candid Mannequin TVC

RPS - https://youtu.be/s_upjQ6pvGk

DD - https://youtu.be/4rAp6VipBso

MI - https://youtu.be/GPjJ9nEyG98

SRH - https://youtu.be/jEiCShL29nM

KKR - https://youtu.be/Oq1hU_TGLDE

KXIP - https://youtu.be/T4xIGyFHUYU

RCB - https://youtu.be/0_72yPpyMXI