Mid August sees the launch of the England Hockey (with global governing body support) ‘Pure Hockey Gold’ campaign which aims to initially drive awareness of, then build support for the team and drive tickets sales around the 2018 Women’s World Cup.
The first part of the host national and the Federation International Hockey (FIH) campaign, launched this week, promotes the ticket ballot for the tournament (which is set to be held in London next summer.
Creatively it centres on the theme of gold, which nods to the memory of the home nations’ gold medal-winning players at the Rio Olympics last year.
The client and agency’s brief was to make the Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018 in London a success and the initial approach is to remind people of the host nation team’s incredible Olympic victory in order to create anticipation for the world class hockey arriving next summer.
So the campaign mixes a look back to a golden moment from the past, and a look forward towards exciting golden occasions still to come.
The multi-platform campaign, developed by agency Matta, is spearheaded by a hero spot,
running across England Hockey’s digital and social platforms including Facebook and Twitter,
Pure Hockey Gold is here!#HWC2018 ticket ballot is now open
Enter here https://t.co/Wz3aI0JFOl pic.twitter.com/zGeb0cqIwp— England Hockey (@EnglandHockey) August 19, 2017
with further amplification across the FIH’s channels,
which also promote their home ticket sales focused creative assets.
Don't forget to buy your tickets for the Hockey Indoor World Cup @DHB_hockey https://t.co/QCgc1eUv2p pic.twitter.com/UG1GSyNt3W
— FIH (@FIH_Hockey) August 25, 2017
The ‘Pure Hockey Gold’ campaign also spans outdoor (including an OOH transport phase), print, online and targeted digital media.
As it evolves, the campaign will run beyond the ballot, and raise awareness in the run up to the competition.
“A year out from the event, we have experienced a phenomenal response to the campaign and massive interest in the Hockey Women’s World Cup ticket ballot, so we’re really pleased,” comments England Hockey head of sales Andy Brown.
“Pure Hockey Gold really helps transform the image of hockey – it’s fantastic, we’ve had some really positive comments from fans, and we can’t wait to roll it out further.”
MATTA’s executive creative director, Matt Campbell said he always wanted to work with England Hockey on this piece, ever since that moment in 2016, adding: “When the GB team got the gold in Rio, it was imprinted on my mind as one of THE moments of the Games. The players were so focused and determined, we’ve used that performance as the inspiration for the campaign as a way to excite fans about the golden hockey they will see next summer. We’ve used ‘Everywhere Live’ by George Stephenson which gives modernity to the film, and the montage of hockey scenes with golden elements builds with the track.”
Comment:
Building off the record breaking viewing figures and the emotions generated around England Women’s hockey gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games certainly seems sensible to us.
After all, in the UK it was one of Rio’s peak moments: mesmerising, breathtaking and spine-tingling.
Team GB’s women’s team won its first Olympic hockey gold medal when it beat defending champions the Netherlands in a dramatic penalty shootout: the match finished 3-3 in normal time and Britain’s keeper Maddie Hinch made a string of remarkable saves during the game and in the shootout – which Britain won 2-0.
It was a relatively rare moment when the sport of hockey was suddenly propelled into the British public’s consciousness and around 9 million Brits watched the game live on BBC television.
A further marketing boost for the sport sees the new ‘Pure Hockey Gold’ campaign roll out in parallel with England Hockey sponsor’s Investec’s digital/social women’s team campaign called ‘X’.
This is being led by a series of online short films running under the umbrella title #InspiringWomen.
This also marks the second England sport governing body campaign developed by agency Matta in the summer and follows on from its ‘Go Boldly’ cricket initiative for the ECB around the ICC Women’s World Cup (see case study).
According to digital agency WePlay, the campaign to drive ballot ticket applications helped deliver more than 100,000 ticket applications in the public ballot for the 2018 Hockey Women’s World Cup (which will be held at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in July and August in 2018).
Within a month of the campaign being launched, a total of 105,000 tickets were applied for – with ballot purchaser data showing 50% of all registrations were made by new fans of the sport.
Andy Brown, head of sales & marketing at England Hockey, said: “WePlay have supported the Hockey Women’s World Cup ballot campaign superbly and their online marketing has been an important part of the campaign’s success. They have immersed themselves in our world in order to explore all avenues of targeting hockey audiences.
“This sort of activity is essential to achieving directly trackable targeted marketing which can be refined for every subsequent campaign to drive greater ROI. WePlay have clearly demonstrated that they know how to get through to sports fans.”
Kenny Ager, client services director at WePlay added: “Before general sale even begins the organisation has sold over 100,000 tickets. This achievement demonstrates our ability as an agency to deliver high commercial returns through digital.
“We are now seeing more ambition from forward thinking organisations like England Hockey to invest their marketing budgets into digital, rather than taking the traditional marketing approach.”
Links:
England Hockey
https://www.youtube.com/user/EnglandHockeyTV
http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/118023168953716381917
https://www.facebook.com/EnglandHockey/
https://twitter.com/englandhockey
https://www.instagram.com/gbhockey/
FIH (International Hockey Federation)
http://www.fih.ch/events/world-cup/world-cup-2018/hockey-world-cup-london-2018-w/
https://www.instagram.com/fihockey/
https://www.facebook.com/fihockey
https://twitter.com/FIH_Hockey
Matta
Investec:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaf0NSmUWMHVQQd090tt3NA
