The sports equipment landscape in India is dotted with pure-play sports equipment companies. adidas is a shoe company that also sells sports equipment. The challenge was how to make a serious play for the hearts of a cricket crazy country.

Adidas is a well-known sportswear and lifestyle brand in India. But awareness about its range of cricket equipment was low. And in a country where cricket is a religion, it was a huge opportunity.

In India the passion for cricket is plentiful. But in the cramped cities, cricket pitches are scarce. Kids look out for strips of land between buildings for a game of cricket. At adidas, we wondered if cricket pitches and the passion to play could meet. So we added a new feature to the streets. Cricket stumps. adidas went around and pasted the adidas Wall Cricket Poster in skinny alleys, quiet corridors, empty parking lots, lonely bus stops and every possible strip of land in the city. And overnight urban landscapes turned into cricket pitches.

The adidas Wall Cricket Poster did what no other sports equipment brand managed to do. An instant connection with the kids on the streets. The results were instantaneous too. Footfalls in adidas stores went up by 16% and there was 23% more traffic on the adidas cricket website. But most importantly adidas managed to occupy the most important piece of real estate in India. The hearts of a million cricketers.