(Cricket news) With a unique and unplanned consumer-facing event, hosted by sports brand PUMA India as part of its Let There Be Sport programme, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma stunned the city. To encourage the incorporation of sports and fitness culture into daily life, the brand ambassadors paid an unexpected visit to a coworking facility and a residential complex, sparking a stir in the neighbourhood.
Virat and Anushka interrupted a meeting at the coworking space and encouraged the participants with on-the-spot physical challenges.
They went to Mantri Espana, a posh neighbourhood in Bengaluru, and on the spur of the moment formed a friendly mixed doubles badminton team to compete against two fortunate members of the neighbourhood.
When Virat and Anushka visited the PUMA headquarters to meet with the staff earlier in the day, the entire course of events was put in motion. There were many other activities planned, such as games and rapid-fire questions.
In a thorough tete-a-tete with Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director of PUMA India and Southeast Asia, Virat and Anushka also covered a lot of ground regarding the value of sports and fitness as well as the need for them to be a regular part of life.
PUMA India and Southeast Asia’s managing director, Abhishek Ganguly, stated, “Sports and fitness must be integrated into our culture, curriculum and everyday lives as a valuable and critical life skill. As a brand, PUMA constantly creates fresh and offbeat ways to connect, engage and inspire audiences in a deeper way. Our event today brought Virat (Kohli) and Anushka (Sharma) and consumers up, close and personal. Virat and Anushka are youth icons and their on-the-spur interactions today will create awareness and encourage people of all ages to take up sports and fitness,”
He also added, “As a leading sports brand in the country, it is our responsibility to create a purpose-driven platform such as Let There Be Sport to further the development of sports and fitness culture that India has witnessed in the last 5-10 years. We have received a great response for the initiative so far and we hope to achieve our goal of building a fit India,”
Regarding the event, Virat stated “Sports has to be an integral part of everyone’s life. I’m glad that PUMA recognised the need and came forward wholeheartedly to highlight the importance of making it an essential just like other necessities. It was great fun taking time out from our schedules to interact with locals and crashing a meeting at the co-working space to get employees to do fitness challenges. I hope many will be motivated and inspired today and take up sports and fitness as a life skill.”
Anushka said, “PUMA’s Let There Be Sport campaign was the need of the hour. There should be equal importance given to sports in schools and colleges because pursuing sports at a young age will keep you fit in the longer run. It was wonderful taking up these fitness challenges and interacting with the people of Bengaluru where I have spent a significant amount of my growing years. I also thoroughly enjoyed playing a spontaneous badminton match with Virat and the residents today,”
An exclusive survey done by Nielsen Sports demonstrated India’s lack of motivation and involvement in sports and fitness, prompting PUMA India to develop the Let There Be Sport platform. Let There Be Sport challenges the widespread belief that sports are a distraction from academics and encourages people to incorporate them into their daily lives as vital life skills that should be taught as part of the core curriculum.
As part of this campaign, Virat recently participated in PUMA’s ‘Let There Be Sport’ Conclave with star player Sunil Chhetri. The two discussed the importance of sports and health while also sharing moving tales from their individual journeys. The conclave streamed the most recent 90-second digital PUMA film, which also includes regular athletes and brand ambassadors Virat, MC Mary Kom, Sunil, Avani Lekhara, and Bhagwani Devi.
With its #LetThereBeSport campaign, PUMA has started a much-needed movement to inspire people to engage in sports and physical activity, proving that only sports have the ability to break down socioeconomic and gender boundaries and bring people together,
