The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Oreo 'relaunches' in India to bring back 2011 — the year India won the World Cup
Oreo tied its 2011 India launch to India's World Cup win, then 'relaunched' and asked fans to repeat 2011 rituals — 2.6B impressions, no sponsorship.
Oreo · Mondelez India
What it had to solve
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.
How it works
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.
Why it lands
- 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
What it did
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.
What you can take
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.
Since then
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.
Sources
- Leo Burnett Mumbai scores Gold Effies with Oreo and Whisper at 2023 APAC Effie Awards
- Bring back 2011
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card