As a sports store looking to capitalize on a big sporting moment, we provided the ultimate in-store experience for cricket fans, using some of our inventory to host them at a time when they needed it most, and turning it into high sales results.

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.

India is mad about the sport of cricket. It is usually termed as a religion, and there are few comparative examples of the level of passion more than a billion Indians have for the sport. Naturally, when India made it into the World Cup final and the match was taking place in India itself, for most people it was a situation of “buy a match ticket first, ask questions later.” Yet when some fans actually arrived in Ahmedabad during the weekend of the match and realized that hotels were either full or impossibly expensive and one’s only options were to sleep at the railway station or outside the stadium, it was a situation of immense stress and discomfort. The moment was incredibly special - the city hosting the final, Ahmedabad, had a brand new stadium, the largest in the world, which has a hosting capacity of 132,000 (obviously sold out). The passion is so intense that thousands of fans had descended on the city even if they didn't have a ticket to the stadium, just so they could be close to the experience of India making it into the final.

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.

Our first step was to inform our target audience, and we did this by strategically placing posters at transport locations, such as the railway station, and at rickshaw stands. We strategically placed posters outside packed hotels, redirecting fans. We handed out fliers near the stadium for our activation, inviting fans to a free night's stay as long as they could show a match ticket. Once a guest arrived at our store, we "checked them in" at the counter, and provided to them a tent to sleep in, complete with camping amenities. Of course, they could also use the store's WC facilities.

Besides creating an immense buzz about the store amongst cricket fans and at transport locations, there was an increase in footfall into the store much beyond what we had expected. Even those who were too late to avail the offer came by to the store, trying their luck. Our sales for the period of the campaign, went up by a staggering 28%. And we ended up selling the most desired item in our store - the India cricket team jersey - at an increase of 192%. This is an incredible figure especially when considering the mega brand outlets close by to the stadium that were selling these items.