Starsports.com unveils IPL 2014 campaign

Lowe Lintas and LinTeractive have launched a promotional campaign for Starsports.com, 'Keep Calm and Watch Pepsi IPL on starsports.com'.

Lowe Lintas & Partners' two agencies - Lowe Lintas and LinTeractive - have unveiled the first-ever campaign that promotes IPL streaming online.

STAR India had chosen Lowe Lintas & Partners and LinTeractive to promote Starsports.com as the online viewing destination for Pepsi IPL 2014.

The online and offline responsibilities are being handled by LinTeractive and Lowe Lintas, respectively.

The campaign, 'Keep Calm and Watch Pepsi IPL on starsports.com' kicks off with a 'Keep Calm Music Video', followed by a lot of "interesting engagements" on social media to bring alive the idea in a way that resonates with the young IPL viewing audience.

This is the first time that a dedicated campaign has been launched to promote online streaming of Pepsi IPL.

Talking about the campaign idea, Arun Iyer, NCD, Lowe Lintas & Partners, says, "Unlike others, young people actually thrive in the chaos of their multi-demanding life. They achieve this by using handheld devices as a way to chill-out from all the madness that surrounds them - and IPL at its core is all about entertainment and forgetting all the mundaneness. This understanding is what led us to the campaign idea of offering the starsports.com destination as a way to 'Keep Calm' this IPL season."

The campaign aims to speak the language of this group. According to Rajesh Ramaswamy, ECD, Lowe Lintas, the agency wanted to keep it as raw and real as possible. "Very rarely do we get opportunities to cast real faces, and that was exciting. We went about this in a very organic way - kept our instinct alive, more than logic and kept adding to the script and situations along the way. And, basically had fun in the entire process without 'over-braining' anything. The entire team that worked on it was young, including director Kishore Iyyar and music director Prashant Pillai. That certainly brought in a lot of freshness."

For the record, earlier this year STAR India licensed the digital distribution rights for Pepsi IPL 2014 from Times Internet. STAR India will now offer streaming and video on demand on starsports.com, the STAR Sports app, and on mobile operator services powered by STAR Sports.

The campaign executions will be heavily focussed on digital engagements with an ongoing social strategy to keep the conversation going. Multiple digital channels are being deployed as a part of this to drive more people to see IPL on starsports.com

Vikas Mehta, CMO, Lowe Lintas & Partners believes brands must create engaging conversations to hold people's attention in the long-format digital/social space. He adds, "While great content (the 'keep calm' video in this case) helps create interest in the brand, to deliver business impact, the thought needs to be driven as an ongoing conversation to sustain that interest."

The entire engagement is expected to last through the tournament and started with YouTube, where the videos have crossed a million views within the first week. The films are also being played across key channels of STAR India and other network channels.

According to Ajit Mohan, EVP and head, new media, STAR India, for this IPL, the mobile screen will become the first screen for a large number of sports fans. "The campaign reflects our ambition, our commitment to make IPL the biggest online sporting event in the world. The creative is a fabulous take on how IPL fans can leverage our service to stay unaffected by the twists and turns that life throws at them. Arun and Lowe have been fabulous partners for us."