adidas cricket was not an official sponsor of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. But we still wanted to gain an unfair share of the conversation in the world’s biggest cricket market- India. In a country where cricket is not a sport, but a religion, we knew that to have any impact, adidas needed to connect with Indian cricket fans in a way that was culturally significant.

The act of bending down and touching the ground is a gesture used at places of worship by millions of Indians every day. During the Cricket World Cup, we applied that gesture to India’s other religion- cricket. And used it to help fans send their support directly to the Indian team. adidas teamed up with India’s most popular cricketer, Virat Kohli. We asked fans to touch the ground where they play cricket, take a photo and show their support using #SacredGround. The message struck a chord with fans, sports stars and celebrities, who sent their support through the hashtag. As the support flowed in, something amazing happened- players in the Indian team joined the Sacred Ground Campaign, touching the ground during live World Cup matches witnessed by millions.

With one simple gesture, adidas connected one team to one billion fans. During India’s World Cup matches, #SacredGround trended on Twitter, and the fans’ social involvement led to over 131 million social impressions. As the support grew, something amazing happened; players in the Indian team joined the Sacred Ground campaign by touching the ground during live broadcasts, witnessed by millions of viewers. This became a ritual they performed at every single match, including; India vs Bangladesh, 98 million viewers; India vs South Africa, 257 million viewers; India vs West Indies, 262 million viewers. And then, in the most watched sporting event in history, India vs Pakistan, Indian players made the Sacred Ground gesture in front of over one billion viewers. All this happened without any official World Cup sponsorship and without a single rupee spent on media.