The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) launched a multi-platform campaign, called ‘Express Yourself, a week ahead of the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup that focuses on ‘excitement’ of cricket and aimed at attracting younger fans to the sport.
The ECB is looking to the long-term health of the game so the core objective behind the ‘Express Yourself’ campaign is to encouraging 16 to 24-year-olds to get involved with the sport and this it places a heavy media and creative focus on social media content and digital advertising.
The activity targets core fans too, but the ECB sees this summer with a home World Cup and home Ashes tour for both the women’s and men’s teams as a key moment to talk to newer audiences.
The campaign was developed in harness with ECB agency of record Matta: which has previously worked on marketing campaigns for the England Women’s football team and the last Ashes campaign for the England men’s team.
‘Express Yourself’ is spearheaded by a hero 1:17 minute film that focuses on the players and the excitement of the one-day format that is played in the World Cup.
The video runs across earned and paid channels, digital platforms and also nationwide in UK cinemas and across YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter,
We're just going to leave this here.#ExpressYourself pic.twitter.com/O2aLRdL7YR
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 23, 2019
and Instagram.
It is supported by both static and digital outdoor creative.
While running alongside, the ECB is rolling out content created by its own in-house digital team and rolled out in tandem with an influencer thread developed with Freuds communications and public relations agency.
This phase is led by a co-create a series of videos pairing influencers with members of the team with shared passions off the field with the intention of finding people the players are going to connect with, and that feel authentic, but also having the connection through their own audiences that reflect the audiences we are trying to target with this campaign.
Thus, amplifying the content pieces through a team of influencers, this strand of the campaign shows batsman Jason Roy with a drone racer as he has a keen interest in drones and keen snapper and bowler Tom Curran with a travel photographer.
The marketing team has worked closely with the players, and particularly captain Eoin Morgan, to create a campaign that highlights the diverse nature of the team and build excitement among young cricket fans ahead of the first World Cup in England for 20 years.
Indeed, ECB head of marketing Jenny Smith first sat down with captain Morgan 18 months ago to discuss the team’s ‘philosophy, culture and transformation to ensure the campaign was authentic and reflective of the side and its approach.
England go into the tournament as the top ranked One Day team in the world and, with a tournament played on home soil, the 2019 tournament is seen as England’s best ever opportunity to win a competition they have only previously managed to come runners-up in.
But Smith says the campaign steers clear of speaking about tournament expectations or piling more pressure on the players.
“The campaign was designed to bring to life [the team’s] journey, philosophy and culture. The way we have built this campaign it is not about the success of the team, it is about communicating their approach to cricket and them as people. That insulates us against whether they win or lose, although of course we would love them to win” Smith explained.
“What we are trying to do is communicate the diverse nature of the team and the exhilarating cricket they play. We want to make people think differently about cricket through the lens of this exciting, diverse England team.
“Among people further from the game there is that perception [that cricket might not be as interesting]. We have a huge base of fans who know just how exciting cricket is. That perception is rooted in some of the historic associations of the game. Part of this is us presenting [cricket] to them in a manner that might not be expected.”
Comment:
There is little doubt that this is an important campaign for the ECB as it aims to leverage a huge cricketing year both on the domestic and on the global stage as its hosts both the 2019 One Day World Cup and The Ashes.
The rights-holder will hope not just to boost excitement levels around the tournament and to inspire youngsters to take up the game and form the next generation of England cricket fans and players.
It will also hope to help the ICC boost some tickets.
After all, a week ahead of the start of the tournament, hosts England have failed to sell out any of England’s ICC World Cup 2019 matches except for the game against Australia and the Lord’s match on 26 June.
No other home team game is fully sold out as yet and tickets in some categories for England’s opening encounter against South Africa on 30 May at The Oval are still available.
Despite the best efforts of the ICC and its ‘Are You In’ ticket campaign launched back in August 2018 (see case study).
Links:
ECB
https://www.facebook.com/englandcricket
https://twitter.com/ecb_cricket
https://www.youtube.com/user/ecbcricket
https://www.instagram.com/englandcricket
Matta
Freuds
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