AI-Powered Fan moment: Fans could take a photo and see themselves virtually placed alongside leading Mumbai Indians players.
Stadium based engagement: The activation converted the bank’s team sponsorship into an interactive experience at the Mumbai Indians’ home ground.
Built for Sharing: The final image was designed to be shared with friends and family, extending the experience beyond the venue.
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank’s association with the Mumbai Indians gave the brand a visible place within one of India’s most passionate sporting environments. The opportunity, however, went beyond conventional sponsorship visibility. The bank wanted to turn that association into a direct, on-ground interaction that fans could experience for themselves during the 2026 cricket season.
Fugu developed an AI-powered activation that transformed a familiar fan wish into an immediate digital experience: the chance to appear alongside favourite players from the team. Visitors stepped up to the touch-screen installation, took a photograph and received a personalised composition that virtually placed them next to leading Mumbai Indians cricketers.
The result was a simple but emotionally relevant brand interaction. It used technology to reduce the distance between spectator and team, while giving every participant a personalised piece of content they could keep and share.
Sports sponsorships provide reach, recognition and association, but the branding can remain passive unless audiences are given a reason to participate. At a busy cricket venue, Utkarsh Small Finance Bank needed an experience that was easy to understand, fast to complete and strong enough to compete with the energy surrounding a live match.
The activation needed to:
Convert the Mumbai Indians sponsorship into a tangible fan experience rather than a static branding presence
Attract attention and encourage participation within a high-footfall stadium environment
Create an emotional connection by placing fans closer to the players they support
Deliver a personalised output that participants could access easily on their own mobile phones
Encourage sharing and word of mouth after the physical interaction had ended
The campaign was built around a direct proposition: let fans become part of their own Mumbai Indians moment.
Rather than asking visitors to watch a standard branded video or pose against a fixed backdrop, the experience used AI-assisted image creation to place each participant virtually beside leading members of the team. This shifted the brand’s role from sponsor in the background to enabler of a memorable fan interaction.
The personal photograph became the centre of the experience. It carried the excitement of the team association, the participant’s own identity and the bank’s presence within one shareable visual.
The activation was designed to feel immediate and intuitive, with minimal steps between participation and reward.
A fan approached the branded installation positioned within the stadium activation area.
The participant used the touch-screen experience to capture an image.
AI platforms and supporting technology were used to virtually transpose the participant alongside leading Mumbai Indians players.
Once the personalised fan photo was ready, the participant scanned a QR code to retrieve it.
The image was delivered to the participant’s mobile phone, making it easy to share with friends and family.
The experience combined physical presence, a touch-screen interface, photography, AI-assisted image transformation and QR-based mobile delivery. Each element served a clear role in keeping the journey accessible within the fast-moving environment of a cricket stadium.
Key execution elements included:
The design of the journey was important. AI remained behind the experience rather than becoming the message itself. For the user, the value was not the technical process; it was the feeling of becoming part of the team image and being able to take that moment away.
According to the campaign presentation, the activation generated substantial word of mouth and received coverage from a number of publications for its innovative approach to consumer engagement. The source material does not provide verified participation totals, scan volumes or social-sharing figures, so the impact is best understood through the quality and reach of the interaction rather than unsupported numerical claims.
The campaign delivered value in several ways:
It gave the bank a more active and memorable role within its Mumbai Indians sponsorship
It created a personalised reward rather than a generic promotional takeaway
It encouraged organic conversation as participants shared their fan photographs
It extended an on-ground stadium moment onto personal mobile devices
It positioned the campaign as an example of technology-led fan engagement
Most importantly, the activation connected the bank’s sponsorship with a moment fans genuinely valued. The brand was present not simply as a logo around the experience, but as the facilitator of it.
The sponsorship became an experience
The campaign gave supporters something they could do, rather than asking them only to notice branding.
The fan remained the hero
The participant’s own image sat at the centre of the output, making the content personally relevant.
Technology served a clear purpose
AI was used to fulfil a recognisable fan desire: appearing alongside favourite players.
The journey was easy to complete
Touch-screen participation and QR delivery kept the experience direct and mobile-friendly.
The content travelled beyond the stadium
The final fan photograph was designed for sharing, giving the activation a life after the physical interaction.
The Utkarsh Small Finance Bank cricket activation shows how a sponsorship can become more meaningful when fans are invited to participate in it. By combining an on-ground touchpoint with AI-assisted personalisation and mobile delivery, the campaign turned team association into an individual fan story.
The idea was straightforward, but the emotional payoff was strong: step in, take a photograph and leave with an image that placed you beside the players you came to support. For Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, this created a distinctive way to activate its Mumbai Indians partnership while encouraging engagement, sharing and word of mouth.
AI-Powered Fan moment: Fans could take a photo and see themselves virtually placed alongside leading Mumbai Indians players.
Stadium based engagement: The activation converted the bank’s team sponsorship into an interactive experience at the Mumbai Indians’ home ground.
Built for Sharing: The final image was designed to be shared with friends and family, extending the experience beyond the venue.
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank’s association with the Mumbai Indians gave the brand a visible place within one of India’s most passionate sporting environments. The opportunity, however, went beyond conventional sponsorship visibility. The bank wanted to turn that association into a direct, on-ground interaction that fans could experience for themselves during the 2026 cricket season.
Fugu developed an AI-powered activation that transformed a familiar fan wish into an immediate digital experience: the chance to appear alongside favourite players from the team. Visitors stepped up to the touch-screen installation, took a photograph and received a personalised composition that virtually placed them next to leading Mumbai Indians cricketers.
The result was a simple but emotionally relevant brand interaction. It used technology to reduce the distance between spectator and team, while giving every participant a personalised piece of content they could keep and share.
Sports sponsorships provide reach, recognition and association, but the branding can remain passive unless audiences are given a reason to participate. At a busy cricket venue, Utkarsh Small Finance Bank needed an experience that was easy to understand, fast to complete and strong enough to compete with the energy surrounding a live match.
The activation needed to:
Convert the Mumbai Indians sponsorship into a tangible fan experience rather than a static branding presence
Attract attention and encourage participation within a high-footfall stadium environment
Create an emotional connection by placing fans closer to the players they support
Deliver a personalised output that participants could access easily on their own mobile phones
Encourage sharing and word of mouth after the physical interaction had ended
The campaign was built around a direct proposition: let fans become part of their own Mumbai Indians moment.
Rather than asking visitors to watch a standard branded video or pose against a fixed backdrop, the experience used AI-assisted image creation to place each participant virtually beside leading members of the team. This shifted the brand’s role from sponsor in the background to enabler of a memorable fan interaction.
The personal photograph became the centre of the experience. It carried the excitement of the team association, the participant’s own identity and the bank’s presence within one shareable visual.
The activation was designed to feel immediate and intuitive, with minimal steps between participation and reward.
A fan approached the branded installation positioned within the stadium activation area.
The participant used the touch-screen experience to capture an image.
AI platforms and supporting technology were used to virtually transpose the participant alongside leading Mumbai Indians players.
Once the personalised fan photo was ready, the participant scanned a QR code to retrieve it.
The image was delivered to the participant’s mobile phone, making it easy to share with friends and family.
The experience combined physical presence, a touch-screen interface, photography, AI-assisted image transformation and QR-based mobile delivery. Each element served a clear role in keeping the journey accessible within the fast-moving environment of a cricket stadium.
Key execution elements included:
The design of the journey was important. AI remained behind the experience rather than becoming the message itself. For the user, the value was not the technical process; it was the feeling of becoming part of the team image and being able to take that moment away.
According to the campaign presentation, the activation generated substantial word of mouth and received coverage from a number of publications for its innovative approach to consumer engagement. The source material does not provide verified participation totals, scan volumes or social-sharing figures, so the impact is best understood through the quality and reach of the interaction rather than unsupported numerical claims.
The campaign delivered value in several ways:
It gave the bank a more active and memorable role within its Mumbai Indians sponsorship
It created a personalised reward rather than a generic promotional takeaway
It encouraged organic conversation as participants shared their fan photographs
It extended an on-ground stadium moment onto personal mobile devices
It positioned the campaign as an example of technology-led fan engagement
Most importantly, the activation connected the bank’s sponsorship with a moment fans genuinely valued. The brand was present not simply as a logo around the experience, but as the facilitator of it.
The sponsorship became an experience
The campaign gave supporters something they could do, rather than asking them only to notice branding.
The fan remained the hero
The participant’s own image sat at the centre of the output, making the content personally relevant.
Technology served a clear purpose
AI was used to fulfil a recognisable fan desire: appearing alongside favourite players.
The journey was easy to complete
Touch-screen participation and QR delivery kept the experience direct and mobile-friendly.
The content travelled beyond the stadium
The final fan photograph was designed for sharing, giving the activation a life after the physical interaction.
The Utkarsh Small Finance Bank cricket activation shows how a sponsorship can become more meaningful when fans are invited to participate in it. By combining an on-ground touchpoint with AI-assisted personalisation and mobile delivery, the campaign turned team association into an individual fan story.
The idea was straightforward, but the emotional payoff was strong: step in, take a photograph and leave with an image that placed you beside the players you came to support. For Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, this created a distinctive way to activate its Mumbai Indians partnership while encouraging engagement, sharing and word of mouth.
