The city of Ahmedabad, during the time of the Cricket World Cup final, hit a full-blown accommodation crisis. Not only were hotel prices exponentially increased to staggeringly unaffordable figures for most, but rooms were booked out everywhere. The situation was so bad that, in desperation, match attendees had reserved hospital beds to sleep in. People crashed at rail stations and on pavements, unable to afford shelter. The initial brief was to find a way to increase sales at a time when attention around India's favorite sport was high. The objective for the brand was to break through the clutter of thousands of sports-related messages at the time, with an engaging message that would increase footfall leading to in-store sales.

If our goal was to bring people to our store, we felt we could go a step further, and make them stay in our store. Literally stay. Overnight. For two nights, including the big night of the Cricket World Cup final, Total Sports & Fitness Store became Total Sports & Fitness Hotel, opening its doors on a first-come-first-serve basis to a lucky few cricket fans who had nowhere to stay.

Our strategic approach to get more people into our store was based on our inventory, and linking it to an immediate need in the city during a mega-event. We stock tents, and camping equipment. And there were hundreds of thousands of people visiting our city that had no place to sleep. This was a golden moment to build a true brand experience. We strategically targeted cricket fans who were stranded at railway stations, or had just arrived without any idea of where they would sleep.

First, Total Sports & Fitness turned their place into an accommodation for a night, setting up 7-8 tents in the limited space of the store. There were no games, quizzes, or lucky-draws: the accommodation was first-come, first-serve, and completely free for fans holding match passes for the finals.

To ensure that the brand was able to reach out to the fans in need, they set up posters that would lead fans to the store at strategic touchpoints:

Outside railway stations

On rickshaws that took travellers from the stations to nearby destinations

Outside packed hotels

Outside the airport

The result of our effort was that fans who had no accommodations at the night of the world cup found the store as their base camp for the night. They experienced unexpected kindness from a sports brand, in solidarity as fellow sports enthusiasts. We created word of mouth and goodwill by pursuing the cultural belief of Athiti Devo Bhava (Guest is God) and thereby quietly illustrating that the customer is God.