Happy Ads put Knorr inside Pakistan's most-loved sport. The result: a branded cricket game that ran inside mobile apps with no download, no app store — just tap, bat, and brand.
The Challenge
Knorr — Unilever Pakistan's market-leading soup and seasoning brand — needed a digital campaign that could break through during Pakistan Super League season, when every brand was fighting for the same social and programmatic inventory. Standard video and display formats were producing noise, not engagement, in an environment saturated with cricket-themed advertising.
The brief was to create a campaign that felt native to the cricket moment. Pakistani consumers during PSL season are deeply immersed in cricket — they're checking scores, watching highlights, debating team selections. Any ad that interrupted this without adding to the cricket experience was guaranteed to be ignored.
The format constraint was standard programmatic: whatever was built had to serve as a rich media ad unit within existing mobile inventory — no dedicated app, no landing page, no app store redirect. The entire brand experience had to live within a banner.
The Solution
Happy Ads' creative-tech team built a fully functional cricket batting game inside an HTML5 rich media ad unit — no app download, no redirect, zero friction. Players faced an onscreen bowler, timed their tap to swing the bat, and scored runs as Knorr-branded elements appeared throughout the game world. The Knorr brand palette and seasonal messaging were woven throughout the gameplay without interrupting the cricket mechanic.
The game ran as a playable ad unit across mobile gaming and sports content inventory during PSL season. The cricket mechanic was deliberately simple — tap at the right moment to hit — so any user could engage immediately without instruction. Three difficulty levels kept users returning for better scores.
The playable ad format generated significantly higher interaction rates than standard display alternatives — because it gave users something to do rather than something to look at. In the context of PSL season, where audiences were primed for cricket competition, the Knorr cricket game arrived as entertainment rather than advertising.
Key Results
0
App Downloads Required
HTML5
In-Banner — Zero Friction
3
Difficulty Levels Driving Replay
PSL
Season Activation — Perfect Timing
Key Insights
