The Genius Behind The ‘Mauka’ Ad Campaign That Ruled TV During The World Cup

By Venkatesh:

During ‘Insight 2016’, the annual marketing fest of India’s premier B-school, IIM Ahmedabad, a big delight awaited us in the speakers’ series. Many of us there essentially didn’t recognise who the speaker was but when we realised that it was the creator of the ‘Mauka‘ ad campaign, many were bound not to leave the auditorium for the next hour.

‘Mauka Mauka‘, first released before the India vs. Pakistan encounter in 2015 World Cup was a genius in the most comical way. In a cricket-obsessed country, it became a national trend within hours of its release. The brainchild behind this was Suresh Triveni.

Triveni, a South Indian, born and brought up in a small town in Ranchi; always aspired to be a filmmaker but eventually landed up doing marketing. Life was all smooth, until ‘Mauka Mauka‘ happened and in the words of Suresh Triveni, “I never thought something gigantic like this will happen. It just happened at the right time and at the right place and it changed my life forever.”

When the first advert was uploaded on February 7, Triveni was sleeping in his home in Kerala and when he wake up, to his astonishment he received a Whatsapp text from his friend, “Ye advertisement dekha hai kya?” (Have you seen this ad?) Before he could even envisage what was happening, the ad had 25 thousand views till 7 p.m. and then 2 lakh views till 12 a.m., followed by a million views within a day. “It didn’t have had any logic and retrospect, it just happened,” said Triveni adding further that ‘”Viral kiya nahi jata, ho jata hai” (You don’t make it viral, it becomes viral).

After the ad, Triveni was worried on February 15, the day India was going to face Pakistan. He was wondering throughout: what if India loses? Fortunately, India had won and he had heaved a sigh of relief but the game wasn’t over.

The Star Sports creative team directed him to take this advertisement further to the upcoming India vs. South Africa game. According to Triveni, this was the genius of the campaign although he didn’t concur onto this initially. People were rejoiced and relishing the aura of India’s triumph against Pakistan and then the next advertisement reminded Indian fans that, like Pakistan, India too hadn’t won against SA ever in the WC. It was a ‘mauka’ for India too, to make things right and the rest became history.

‘Mauka Mauka‘ drew much attention on the other side of the border too. I had the privilege to interact with Triveni and asked whether he had received any threats from Pakistan after this comical sweet poison reached there. He was excited to say that it was widely acclaimed and appreciated in Pakistan and a lot of news portals interviewed him.

‘Mauka Mauka‘ isn’t merely an advertisement, it became a mania, an unavoidable phrase at the chai-samosa conversation during the 2015 WC and later during ICC T20 WC 2016. We still love this advertisement, don’t we?