The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicks off on 17 June 2024. Manifest's coverage for the festival continues with its 'India at Cannes' series. This series will showcase all of India's entries to this year's festival, speakers giving a sneak peek of their talks, and those attending the festival sharing expectations. 

In this piece, we showcase OML's entry for this year's festival. The agency has shared one entry. 

Tinder: Project 'match fixing'

The brief: An unprecedented innovative campaign that leverages the popularity of cricket in India to increase brand awareness, adoption and engagement among our target audience.

Objectives: Drive increased engagement and app downloads while positioning Tinder as the platform that unlocks endless possibilities. All while ensuring that the user experience remains at the heart of the conversation.

Strategy: A young girl holds up a poster at a cricket match with the words, 'Tinder, help me match with Shubman', capturing the attention of a Twitter celebrity. Tinder springs into action, and gives this photo a little nudge to set off a chain reaction. Strategically placing billboards along Shubman Gill's next game route and near his hotel. To ensure maximum impact, we enlist the help of Shubman's friends and family, urging them to share photos of the billboards and tag him. But we don't stop there. In the grand finale, we get Shubman himself, asking him to create a verified Tinder Profile to fulfil the girl's dream of connecting with her cricket idol. We merged the worlds of cricket fandom and modern dating, creating an unforgettable experience for our users and reinforcing Tinder's commitment to making meaningful connections happen.

Execution: Fan-made posters are a huge rage with major sporting events; the campaign began with one such poster. A fan was spotted during a live match, and her photo made it to the internet via Twitter. In the first 24 hours, the photo was given a little nudge via culture hubs and community pages. It was everywhere, even on TV. In 24 to 48 hours, we took it upon ourselves to get Shubman to notice her. We placed billboards along Shubman Gill's next game route and near his hotel. Roped in close friends, fellow teammates and family members to ensure he noticed our fan. Got other brands to push our fan's request. In 72 hours, Shubman joins Tinder, giving our fan girl the opportunity to shoot her shot. A well-timed campaign that took into account India’s fan culture behind Shubman Gill and cricket; deliberately organised various touch points leading to maximized impact and reach. The campaign gathered attention from across the nation, with people applauding Tinder for amplifying the voice of a user.

Results:
1.8 billion+ media impressions
100,000,000+ reach on X (previously Twitter)
50,00,000+ reach on Instagram
600+ earned media articles
20% increase in in-app signups

Also read:

India at Cannes: FCB Kinnect's entries

India at Cannes: MullenLowe Lintas Group's entries

India at Cannes: Mindshare India's entries