Oreo 'relaunches' in India to bring back 2011 — the year India won the World Cup

Oreo had to stand out during the Cricket World Cup without paying sponsorship fees while rivals partnered with teams and players. India's cricket fans are famously superstitious, and 2011 was both India's last World Cup win and the year Oreo launched in the country.

Treat Oreo's 2011 India launch as the reason India won the 2011 World Cup, then 'relaunch' Oreo and ask superstitious fans to bring back 2011 so history repeats.

MS Dhoni went live on YouTube with no brand mention, then revealed the 'relaunch' of Oreo and took a pledge to #BringBack2011. Fans and institutions revived 2011 rituals — cricketers repeated old pre-match routines, Times of India reprinted its 2011 front page, restaurants revived 2011 menus — and a Hotstar integration added streaming reach.

2.6 billion impressions and US$30M in earned media without sponsoring the tournament; 247 organic news references; 19.5M social media engagements, four times the target; sales growth ran twice as well as predicted. Won two Golds at the 2023 APAC Effie Awards and a Silver at Cannes Lions.

In 2022 India had not won the Cricket World Cup in 11 years, and Oreo — a global brand competing in a crowded biscuits market — wanted to own the tournament conversation without outspending rivals who had signed teams and players. The brand's history handed it an accidental coincidence: Oreo launched in India in 2011, the same year India lifted the Cup.

Leo Burnett and Wavemaker built a superstition campaign around that coincidence. MS Dhoni, the 2011 captain and Oreo's ambassador, appeared on a mysterious YouTube live stream with no brand mention, then announced that Oreo was being relaunched in India 'for the first time' so history could repeat itself. Fans were invited to pledge #BringBack2011 and recreate their own 2011 rituals.

The idea spilled out of advertising: cricketers re-enacted pre-match routines from 2011, Times of India reprinted its 2011 victory front page, restaurants revived 2011 menus, and a fan replicated his 2011 tattoo. The campaign earned 2.6 billion impressions and US$30M in media value with zero sponsorship, generated 247 organic news references and 19.5M social engagements, and sold twice as many Oreos as forecast.

Finds a reason for the brand to exist inside a national obsession instead of interrupting it

Turns the audience's own superstitions into participation, not passive viewing

Makes the relaunch of a cookie into an event worth news coverage

Achieves World Cup-scale reach without paying World Cup-scale sponsorship

A national superstition can be the campaign mechanic: give people a belief worth acting on, invite them to co-create the story, and the audience and press become the media budget.

For the 2023 Cricket World Cup, Oreo repeated the play with Dhoni in 'Oreo Bola Mat Bol' ('don't jinx it'), asking fans to keep quiet about India's chances. The platform won two Golds at the 2023 APAC Effie Awards, a finalist spot for Influencer, and a Cannes Lions Silver, and Wavemaker documented it as a reusable growth story.