Airtel beams fans' 3D avatars into live cricket TV; campaign wins Abby 2024 Grand Prix

When Airtel launched 5G Plus, the problem was not coverage but comprehension — speed claims are abstract, and most people could not tell what the network actually changed. Star Sports offered the biggest stage in India: the Tata IPL, broadcast to tens of millions.

Instead of running a 5G ad, the three partners built 'Airtel 5G Plus Ultimate Fan' into the Cricket Live studio show. Fans anywhere in the country were captured in real time and rendered as photo-real 3D avatars that sat in the studio and talked with cricket legends — a first for Indian television.

The stunt did double duty: the smooth, low-latency avatar stream was itself the proof of 5G, and the 'Look Maa! I am on TV' moment turned a network feature into an emotional experience for fans.

The campaign won the sole Media Grand Prix at the Abby Awards 2024 (powered by One Show) in the branded-content-integration category, out of 3,506 entries, and became a reference case for telecom marketing in India.