The inaugural edition of the signature rural engagement program
‘Wonder Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav 2015–16’, managed by
MidasNext Media.
MidasNext Media made Rajasthan all set to witness and participate in some exciting cricketing action
by getting Wonder Cement Ltd, one of the state’s leading cement companies announced the launch
of Wonder Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav. The tournament that attracted participation of 39,840
cricket enthusiasts from over 249 tehsils across Rajasthan, is pegged to be a large sports centric citizen
engagement initiative. Former Indian captain and Captain of the 1983 World Cup, Mr. Kapil Dev was
enrolled by the agency to flag off the initiative along with Mr. Vivek Patni, Director – Wonder Cement
at a glittering ceremony held in Jaipur on 3rd November 2015.
Commenting on his association with the tournament, Mr. Kapil Dev said, “I’m delighted to be a part
of Wonder Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav. This is a wonderful platform to identify budding talent
from within the state. This tournament will encourage greatly in identifying and grooming young
cricketing talent in the state and my hope is that more of them go on to represent India.”
He added, “I am happy that the game has corporates like Wonder Cement who are committed to
encourage budding talent in sports. The Wonder Cricket Academy at Udaipur that has trained over 450
cricket enthusiasts so far.”
The Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav is a seven-over an inning, seven players per team, tennis-ball cricket
tournament. Each team comprises of ten members. Having a woman player in the playing 7 of the
10member team attracts a 7-run bonus for the team. The tournament covered every district, tehsil
and village of Rajasthan. With an aim to engage the last mile cricket lover, the tournament also looked
at identify cricketing talent from within the state for further training at Wonder Cricket Academy, the
company’s sports training initiative while making the Wonder Cement brand name a household name
in Rajasthan.
OOH locations around the state encouraged youth and the state’s cricket players to band together
and enroll their team names with the authorized Wonder Cement dealer in each of the tehsils. Radio
promotions led by RJs ensured that contests were conducted and on-air winners were awarded. Road
shows were rolled out simultaneously across 249 tehsils of Rajasthan. Promotion crews converged at
market places, colleges, bus terminuses, commute locations and other such TG sensitive touch-points
in their respective tehsils. Extempore games and cricket based quiz games were conducted. Winners
of these on-ground campaigns were awarded with campaign branded merchandise such as tennis
balls, bats, tees and other such.
The entire state of Rajasthan was gripped over by the cricket fever, with over 9000 team registrations
and over 40000 enquiries on the campaign’s toll-free phone number. The participations list has well
extended to over 90,000 active applicants from across Rajasthan, leaving aside the spectators. The
total engagement numbers were expected to go well over 2 Crore people from across the state.
There was a War Room set up at Udaipur from 26th October 2015 with 20 heads that were segregated
into teams comprising of Campaign Hotline Management, Campaign Dealers Management, Trade
Information Resource, Participant Relationship Officers, Permissions and Liaisons, Data Management
and MIS; headed by Campaign Manager and his team – with support functions including
Communication Strategy, Creative Services and Logistics Management. This served as Ground Zero, to
power 249 tehsil level promotion teams comprising of 11 members in each of these locations.
Excluding those from the brand and partner teams, about 5300 different individuals came together
on-ground at various points of this campaign to deliver the Citizen Engagement Experience using a
new format of the Cricket game as an Engagement Tool. A part of the War Room will be operational
till 15th Feb 2016.
Udaipur and Jaipur witnessed maximum registration with over 1800 teams coming from each city.
Over 1300 teams from Bharatpur, 1500 teams from Bikaner, 1300 teams from Jodhpur and 1350 from
Kota. Teams were selected by virtue of a lucky draw. There were also some special teams who
registered – All MBBS Students, Team of Coolies, All Deaf and Dumb, Rajasthan Police and Electricity
Board.
Adding a crown to the spirit of the Wonder Cement Saath:7 engagement program are the 7 unique
teams that have registered to be a part of the tournament. The registration witnessed some
encouraging news, seven all woman teams have registered (i.e. a team full of 10 women members). A
total of 238 girls have registered themselves for participating in the tournament. Also, the captain of
another team is a 66-year-old woman Mira Devi, who was clearly not daunted by her age and instead
chose to participate with great interest. 13 applicants are over the age of 50.
Cricket enthusiasm has no boundaries, which is once again upheld by Mr. Pawan Kumar Mangal,
captain of the uniquely abled team (hearing and speech challenged), who have also registered to
participate in Wonder Cement Saath: 7 Cricket Mahotsav.
The first edition of Wonder Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav concluded on 17th January 2016 as MSG
Club from Bikaner beat Pradhan Club from Udaipur in an exhilarating and tense finals held at Delhi
Public School grounds in Udaipur.
The highlight of the event was the attendance of chief guests – Shri. Gulab Chand Kataria, Hon'ble
Home Minister of Rajasthan and Dilip Vengsarkar, Former Indian Cricket Team Skipper & Chief
Selector at the final. The chief guests watched the final from the side of the pitch along with hundreds
of spectators who had gathered to cheer their favourite team and enjoy the spirit of cricket.
The finale day of Wonder Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav also witnessed a knockout match between
two All Women Team to crown the champion. Maharani from Jaipur emerged as the winner.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri. Gulab Chand Kataria, Hon'ble Home Minister of Rajasthan said, “I
would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to Wonder Cement for organising such a large
tournament that helped not only in identifying talents from the state but also developing peace of
mind, brotherhood and respect. I would also like to applaud the winners and even the teams who
participated in the tournament at various levels and would like to wish them best of luck for their
upcoming endeavours.”
Mr. Dilip Vengsarkar said, “I would like to appreciate Wonder Cement for the efforts taken in
organising a great tournament. Such tournaments helps in identifying new cricketing talent & stars
from the grassroots of India. I would like to applaud the efforts of the Wonder Cement family for
engaging the entire state in such an interesting format.”
Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Tarun Chauhan – Management Advisor, Wonder Cement Ltd., said,
“It gives us all at Wonder Cement immense pleasure and a great sense of satisfaction to announce the
launch of Wonder Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav in Rajasthan. We believe that through this
activity we will be able to provide a platform to the state’s talented young players to showcase their
talent, get identified at the grassroots level and groomed to go on to play bigger league games in the
future. Wonder Cement has always believed in promoting sports and has always been closely
associated with cricket.”
The winners & runners up of the tournament were awarded prize money of INR 3,50,000/- and INR
1,40,000/- respectively. The total prize money for winners in the inaugural edition of this tournament
was to the tune of Rs.30Lacs.
Deepak Pawar, Managing Director, MidasNext Media said, “It has been a unique experience from the
Marketing Team at Wonder Cement and us in taking the brand name to the length and breadth of the
state and make it a household name. Riding on Cricket to deliver engage the consumer at the grassroots level is new to Rural Marketing in India and we believe we have met the objective here.”
Sampath Prabhakar, Strategy and Creative Lead, MidasNext Media added, “The finale of Wonder
Cement Saath:7 Cricket Mahotsav 2015-16 is not just the culmination of 13months of Planning,
Mapping and Training that resulted in . It is also a testament to the excellence in devising and delivering
branded experiences. The Saath:7 exercise has made the brand synonymous with identifying grassroots cricket talent. With the brand keen on taking the tournament to other markets they are active
in, the Saath:7 format has had Ek Perfect Shuruaat!”
Wonder Cement Saath-7 Cricket Mahotsav - Summary
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55 Days TV Campaign on ETV- Rajasthan and National Channels
25 Days Radio Campaign on 92.7 BIG FM, 95 FM Tadlka, RED FM
350 + Outdoor Site Across the Rajasthan
250 Arc Gate at 250 Nos. Tehsil
2 Half Page and 2 Quarter Page ad in RAJASTHAN PATRIKA- ALL RAJSTHAN
ROADSHOWS ACROSS ALL 249 TEHSILS OF RAJASTHAN (10000+ Village, 140000+
km )
2 LAKH APPLICATION FORM, 1 LAKH POSTERS ,11 LAKH LEAFLETS , 6000 BANNERS
Total Applicant 90000+
Total enquire on toll free 40000+
Total Team 9000+
Total no of girls participating = 259
Total All-Girls team = 7
Highest team formed at tehsil level = 167 in Girwa, Udaipur
No of Players above 50 = 13
No of handicap player = 02
Oldest player = 65yrs old
Oldest Female player age = 61yrs old
Special teams: All MBBS students; Team of Coolies; Differently abled; Electricity
Board
Campaign Timeline:
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3rd Nov. 2015
: Press Conference with Kapil Dev
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24th Nov. to 7th Dec. 2015
: Team Registrations + Roadshows in 248 tehsils
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20th Dec. 2015
: Lucky Dip
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26th & 27th Dec 2015
: 248 Tehsil Level simultaneous Cricket Matches
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2nd & 3rd Jan 2015
: 33 District Level simultaneous Cricket Matches
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10th Jan 2016
: 6 Zonal Level simultaneous Cricket Matches
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16th & 17th Jan 2016
: Cricket Tournament Finals - Udaipur
Campaign Impression:
Some detail of the impressions: Mobile Visibility was conducted across these locations using
branded Tata Ace and supported by promoters, encouraging citizens to enroll in the Cricket
Mahotsav. In all, 9894 Gram Panchayats were touched across Rajasthan.
1843 Gram Panchayats across Udaipur Zone; covering Banswara, Chittaurgarh, Pratapgarh,
Rajsamand, Udaipur, Dungarpur districts
1692 Gram Panchayats across Jaipur Zone; covering Ajmer, Dausa, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu and
Sikar districts
1852 Gram Panchayats across Jodhpur Zone; covering Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jodhpur,
Pali and Sirohi districts
1598 Gram Panchayats across Bikaner Zone; covering Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Nagaur
and Ganganagar districts
1425 Gram Panchayats across Kota Zone; covering Baran, Bhilwara, Bundi, Jhalawar, Kota
and Tonk districts
1484 Gram Panchayats across Bikaner Zone; covering Alwar, Bharatpur, Dhaulpur, Karauli
and Sawai Madhupur districts