Viacom18 hijacks Google Search in its latest campaign of TATA WPL

Viacom18, the official broadcast and digital partner for the TATA WPL, has launched ‘Search Hijack’, the latest campaign from its stable of the thrill-a-minute women’s T20 league. With women’s cricket popularity picking up steam in India, Search Hijack is aimed at giving Indian Women Cricketers the much-deserved glory as they continue to inspire on-field, while simultaneously encouraging viewers to catch the WPL as it heads into a high-octane play-offs stage.

The campaign features stylish southpaw Smriti Mandhana who was recently named as one of the current most likeable and popular female sports personalities in India in the Brand Endorser Report by Hansa Research.

The campaign germinated from the core idea that male baby names in India are inspired by cricketers while parents tend to turn towards film stars for their female baby names. Viacom18 aims to disrupt the status quo and encourage parents to look at a wider canvas comprising our women cricketers while choosing names for their baby girls. The campaign gives new parents baby girls’ names that will soon go down in history.

Search Hijack, conceptualized by 22feet Tribal Worldwide, makes girl name recommendations to new parents each time they run a search on Google. It uses Google’s retargeting feature to serve up an ad featuring Smriti Mandhana where she gives parents a glimpse of the trendiest names of stars from the future, being that of India’s most popular women cricketers.

“It is not just a wonderful feeling to be the face of this campaign by Viacom18 but also to throw weight behind the thought that drove it,” said India’s Vice Captain Smriti Mandhana.  “These are small steps towards big changes in the way we function as a society and I do hope that somewhere everything we do while wearing the India badge on-field will inspire the next generation of aspiring cricketers to come.”

“Our vision is to develop the WPL into the world’s biggest women’s sporting league. Search Hijack is one of the many efforts we are making along those lines, to grow awareness about our women cricketers and their exploits on the field which will make them household names,” said Viacom18’s Creative Head of Marketing, Shagun Seda. “Our aspiration is to popularize these names to an extent where ‘Smriti’ or ‘Mithali’ are just as much sought after names as ‘Sachin’ or ‘Rohit’ eventually.”

Vishnu Srivatsav, National Creative Director, 22Feet Tribal Worldwide, said, "The launch of the WPL wasn't just a sporting event; it was the start of an era and a historic moment in sports made possible only by the endeavors of a long list of heroes. We wanted to celebrate these women in a way that ensures their legacy lives on. We realized that we needed to intervene at a moment that ensures their name is carried on—the moment when parents-to-be were searching for their baby's name. And so, the name search hijack was born.”