Results and Effectiveness

Added 100,000 fans on Facebook in 3 days. And hundreds of people made the print ad itself their Facebook profile picture. Multiple articles in over 20 national dailies. Coverage and a debate on all leading TV channels and radio stations. Free coverage on blogs and sports websites. Over 50 Million Rupees in free media. Over 5000 tweets in a few hours including, a couple of bemused tweets from Mr. Vaughan himself.

Creative Execution

Vaseline decided to speak up on the nation’s behalf, for Indian cricket and to steer the conversation in its favor. We did a nationwide front-page release addressed to Michael Vaughan which educated him about the genuine multiple uses of Vaseline, and the fact that rubbing it on cricket bats was not one of them. We gave people an opportunity to rally behind this message by making a badge on their profile picture on Facebook for a week.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In India, cricket is a religion and cricketers are gods. An uncomplimentary tweet by former England captain, Michael Vaughan questioning the integrity one of India’s cricketing stalwarts hurt the sentiment of the nation. The tweet generated a roaring debate across the cricketing world and, of course, in India. In a fight between two cricketers, Vaseline was unnecessarily getting dragged into the controversy.