Kolkata ThunderBolts

Overview

The pioneering Volleyball sporting club of Eastern India, who aims to bring the sport into the mainstream and build a cult following helmed by the visionary in Mr. Pawan Kr. Patodia and Mr. Vineet Bhandari.

Objectives

Primary objective : To launch a new Volleyball sporting club and take the sport to every home of Bengal.

Secondary Objective : To create awareness and a fanbase around the sport.

Target Audience

Primary Target Audience: 10 – 25 years

Aspirants of the game, people who are into volleyball or any other sport. Young minds who are studying and working around sports.

Secondary Target Audience: 26 – 60 years

Aspirants of the game, people who are into volleyball or any other sport. Young minds who are studying and working around sports.

Research Focus

We wanted to deep dive into understanding consumer mindsets for leagues without cricket.
We wanted to understand the sports ecosystem of Bengal
We wanted to understand how Bengal behaves to a new sport

Challenge

To Establish Kolkata Thunderbolts as a Volleyball Club that represents Bengal.

To inculcate a Volleyball Culture amidst the state.

Bengal has always been inclined towards football with two iconic clubs that have made place in our folklore and the entire India is obsessed about cricket for decades. As per the data collected from statista.com, cricket was most watched at about 79 percent on Indian televisions in 2019. Whereas, no less than 155 million watched football in the same period.

Sporting icon Saurav Ganguly has been responsible in building a massive fan base for Cricket in this part. Despite being a sport loving city, Volleyball has neither been consumed nor widely played like the other two.

Positioning

To position this club as a cultural extension of the sporting culture of Bengal.

How do we do that ?

Cultural Personalization.
Topical Conversations.
Experiential Innovation.
Communication voice.

Tagline

Khelbe Bangla Jitbe Bangla.

Insight

Bengal gets a team now that will bring back the sporting culture that resided in its gullies. It will bring back the passion for sports that lived in every home. It will become a part of every conversation of A sport that is played, experienced, lived and cheered by all. With every action of this team, Bengal strives towards a different win.

Campaign

Banglar Ball Bodle Geche.

Insight

Insight : Bengal is all about heritage and while implementing change, it is essential to keep the heritage of Bengalis in mind. If you mention sports to a bong, the instantaneous answers would be cricket and football. Football has been the home sport of Bengal since the beginning of time. But with time, to keep the fire alive, it is imperative that we switch things up. As it is rightfully said, change is the only constant, we must bring change in aspects of Sports.

The idea behind this campaign was to revolutionize the Bengali sports syndrome and channel that vibrant energy into … Well… A different ball. The legs take a backseat, the hands do the work. Banglar ball bodle geche emotes that very change in the minds of Bengal.

The campaign focused on uplifting volleyball’s legacy and raising awareness amongst the general public about the splendours of the game, educating them about how volleyball has always been a part of our tradition and its time we resurrect it.

Teaser

Insight : We wanted the campaign to change the ball of Bengal, with people not just participating, but celebrating volleyball around the state. To make a revolutionary impact on their interests and make them have volleyball in everyday conversations.

The idea was to establish KTB’s unbeaten standpoint at pvl and make bengal realize that they have a different dimension and level in their sports fanatic world and it’s time to turn the court around, change the game.

Revealer

Insight : We analyzed that we need to inflict consumer behaviour here and introduce a new sporting culture amidst the sporting ecosystem of Bengal.

Logo

Logo Revealer Video

Jersey

IP

Cultural Personalization

We identified a team influencer
A talker who will take through the Kolkata Thunderbolts journey , a true bengali at heart who knows kolkata inside out. Who will behave like a guide and introduce India to our sport culture and Ktb insider.

How?

We have created a brand[human] mascott
Volley Biswas who would be our curator of experiences and weaver of different stories around the sport in partnership with Radio Mirchi, or without. The idea is to create a spokesperson for the brand who grows into an influencer and builts an ecosystem for the brand.

We’ve created the first ever IP for a sporting brand outside cricket and from eastern India.

Volley Biswas

Volley Biswas was a Happy Mascot introduced by us. Main motto for this character was to add Bengal’s touch to Kolkata Thunderbolts so that people in Bengal can connect more with the team.

Volley Biswas was also responsible for giving insight to those areas where people don’t have access to.

Why Volley Biswas ?-Biswas in bengali translates into trust and volley brings a direct connect with the sport. He will be a version of the ‘Rcb insider’ when the league starts but pre-league he will be the introducer of the KTB culture to bengal.

Launch Video

Digital

ObjectiveTo create a digital voice that can establish KTB as a Volleyball sporting club rooted in Bengal.

Pre leagueTo establish this club as an extension of the Bengali Culture.

During the LeagueTo create relatable content around the human side of these sporting champions and capture their journey humanizing their experiences of the championship.

Few Content Forms

Sporting
Around the court
Volley Biswas
Behind the game
Player Engagement
Practice Moods

Sporting

KTB Signatures

Where we have showcased the iconic signature shots of the players

Around the court

This was a property created to brand conversations with masters of the game who’s career grew from their ameteur days to the absolute champions that they’ve grown into.

They were on- sceen talking about their journey.

IP Content

As we wanted to establish a new era of sport through volleyball, where KTB is the main voice. The fact that an entire sports industry can be personified was the main temptation here, Volley Biswas came out as a tour guide Who got into the core and brought the bangaliana out of us.

Behind the game

Where we’ve shown snippets of the player’s hard-work, their bonding , fun interaction with Volley Biswas and most importantly the journey where they’ve put effort to become the leading team in pvl.