In addition to its standard rights package as primary sponsor of the England team – which includes rights to advertise at international cricket grounds, team image rights, ticketing, hospitality and access to England players for commercial and marketing purposes – Waitrose is running an integrated 2015 leverage campaign celebrating food and cricket which blends some fresh activation with work that continue its 2014 initiatives as outlined via an overview animation hosted on the brand’s cricket web hub.
As England Cricket’s primary sponsor, Waitrose leverages its rights through both the elite (all England teams) and the grassroots game with an activation programme that ranges from a web-based platform, digital content and social engagement, ticket competitions, an at-ground experiential hub, community cricket club financial/administrative/skills support, in-store events and offers, and online-shopping strand, customer rewards, plus a cricket ambassador programme that spans most of these elements.
Some of Waitrose’s major activation silos include ‘Waitrose Cricket Hub’, ‘Waitrose Boundary Fund’, ‘Inside The Ropes’ and the ‘Waitrose Non-Cricket Lovers Guide To Cricket’.
Waitrose Cricket Hub
The brand’s in-stadium focal point is the experiential Waitrose Cricket Hub – which follows the England Men’s and Women’s cricket teams across the country at all international matches.
The aim of the hub is to enrich Waitrose’s in-stadium assets by enabling spectators to experience Waitrose cricket-related events, content, competitions and produce and to offer a path for ‘myWaitrose’ customers to enjoy match day experience enhancements such as access to the brand’s exclusive in-stadium hospitality spaces and to participate in live cooking demonstrations with the Waitrose Cookery School.
The primary promotion mechanic for the myWaitrose benefits was via member emails and web work and the programme builds on 2014’s scheme which saw Waitrose welcome 20,000 fans and customers (and give away an impressive 20,000 pies) across 10 UK grounds.
Inside The Ropes
Waitrose’s digital cricket content engagement strand, hubbed around its site (at http://www.waitrose.com/home/inspiration/cricket.html) and led by ‘Inside The Ropes’ – which aims to ensure fans and customers engage with the brand and get closer to the action and discover more about the England Men’s, Women’s, Lions, Under 19s and Disability team players.
Again, this content approach is focused on ‘food’, ‘cricket’, ‘insight’ and ‘inspiration’ and mixes star interviews with tips, stories and cricket action news and features.
Other cricket content elements on the Waitrose website include the ‘The Non-Cricket Lovers (Online) Guide To Cricket’ – part of the brand’s event to expand interest to everyone.
This light-hearted and accessible guide, tagged as ‘everything you need to know about cricket but were afraid to ask’ includes a (very) brief history of cricket, a format and rules breakdown, showcasing the role of food (from lunch to tea) in the game, to exploring some of the more eclectic characteristics of the game such as
‘Five Things Everyone Should Know About Cricket:
1. Women and girls play too. England’s women’s team spent the winter winning The Ashes, unlike their male counterparts.
2. It’s normal to watch cricket on TV with the sound off and listen to BBC radio’s Test Match Special (TMS) at the same time. On TMS, they talk cricket, but also life and cake.
3. The Spirit of Cricket is the belief that cricket should be played in The Right Way. Players don’t always follow it, but they get stick if they fall short. Hence the phrase: it’s just not cricket.
4. You don’t have to watch every ball. It is quite acceptable to read the paper, sunbathe and glance at the action only when it sounds worth your while.
5. The Barmy Army are England fans who follow the team all over the world. They tend to chant loudly and bake in the sun. Players love them, quieter spectators less so.
The brand also uses its social channels to drive ongoing engagement – albeit with a fairly low-key approach – from an initial July ‘Good Luck’ tweet,
Good luck to the @englandcricket men’s team as they start the Investec #Ashes today. We’re all cheering for you! pic.twitter.com/eCWCjGVV9R
— Waitrose (@waitrose) July 8, 2015
to driving fan action-related social interaction,
Celebrate @StuartBroad8's incredible bowling yesterday by tweeting a pic of your own shocked face with #OhMyBroad! pic.twitter.com/gUG7iakVnB
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 7, 2015
through to an August Ashes congratulations.
Congratulations to @englandcricket on a fantastic victory in the #Ashes Series – we're proud to be supporting you pic.twitter.com/iw68ZOpM7X
— Waitrose (@waitrose) August 8, 2015
Ticket Competition
Waitrose is also running a list-building ticket competition through the summer which offers fans supplying contact details a chance of winning tickets to the Investec Test Series, Royal London One Day Internationals and NatWest T20 matches.
A parallel on-pack weekly ticket competition offers consumers a chance to scoop tickets by purchasing selected items from its ‘Good to Go’ range and entering an on-pack code into an entry form to enter a prize draw.
Grass Roots
Also hosted on its digital platform is the Waitrose Boundary Counter: which at time of writing (prior the the men’s Ashes fifth test) had ticked up to 281.
This device fronts a key strand of the supermarket’s grass roots programme which links the elite game to community cricket by Waitrose donating £100 for every boundary (six or four) scored throughout the Investec Ashes series and the corresponding Women’s Ashes Kia Test Match.
The donations go to the England & Wales Cricket Trust (EWCT) Small Grant Scheme through the Waitrose Boundary Fund and aims to bring grass roots cricket to the wider community.
Thus far, since it signed its sponsorship deal, the grassroots programme has seen Waitrose work with the ECB to support more than 900 cricket clubs in hosting ECB Club Open Days.
These events encourage community cricket involvement through volunteering, playing and social activities, plus facilities improvement grants and see Waitrose help lay on activities such as special matches, masterclass training sessions, coaching for kids, food and drink, fund-raising activities and England player appearances.
Clubs signing up to host Open Days at www.ecb.co.uk/clubopendays are offered support for a range of activities and will benefit directly from:
– £100 worth of food and drink available to be redeemed in your local Waitrose store
– Access to an online toolkit to help publicise the day
– A banner to place outside your club and 10 x t-shirts for event organisers
– Welcome new members, players and volunteers to your club
– Free entry into a PRIZE DRAW to win an appearance by 3 x England players representing the current men’s and women’s teams! The players will take part in a training session with your team and spend time signing autographs and meeting and greeting.
Waitrose Head of Marketing, Rupert Ellwood said: ‘Open Days are the perfect way to find out what your local club is all about. Last year we were lucky enough to support 900 open days, experiencing the passion for cricket at a grassroots level,’ comments Waitrose marketing head Rupert Ellwood.
‘An integral part of being sponsor of England cricket is to help develop cricket in our communities and once again we are delighted to be supporting events up and down the country with food and volunteers.’
Last summer saw Club Open Days welcome 9,000 new members, players and volunteers and the 2015 programme was launched by England fast bowler Steven Finn at a coaching session for kids at Brondesbury CC.
‘I’ve got great memories from the time I spent at cricket clubs; they are the lifeblood of the sport and can act as a real social hub in the local community. I urge anyone who is interested in cricket to visit their nearest club and find out how they can get involved,’ said Finn at the event.
‘Our Club Open Days initiative has been hugely successful in driving participation at grassroots level,’ adds ECB CEO Tom Harrison. ‘We want to build on the success of last year by inspiring even more players, volunteers and social members to come together at their local club.’
In-Store
Throughout 2015 individual Waitrose shops are supporting the brand’s cricket activity through several in-store strands.
From promotional stickers on several million ‘Food To Go’ products and ticket competitions, to the cricket arm of the Waitrose Community Matters green token scheme and even visits from England cricketers.
Online Shopping & Deliveries
To help promote Waitrose’s online shopping and delivery scheme, England bowler Stuart Broad surprised online shoppers by making personal grocery deliveries in his home city of Nottingham.
The England vice-captain personally picked and packed food orders at Waitrose Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, then then travelled in the van to help deliver food across the local area with delivery driver Patricia Poole.
In tandem with this initiative, Broad also offered thoughts on his earliest memories of cricket in Nottingham, plus his feelings on The Ashes and how he fared on his delivery trip (see Waitrose film).
Comment:
It was back in May 2013 that the premium supermarket was unveiled as the England team’s primary sponsor from 2014.
The three-year deal, which was widely reported to be worth around £20m, saw Waitrose’s logo replace that of Brit Insurance on all England kit.
The move from a financial brand to a familiar, quality high street sponsor was seen as part of the ECB’s aim of increasing exposure among the general public.
Something that many feel has been in decline since it signed a broadcast deal with pay-TV giant Sky and live England cricket was no longer free to air.
At the time of the announcement ECB chief executive David Collier said the deal would help English cricket to ‘engage further with a mass, family audience’.
While Waitrose, which had a limited heritage of significant sports sponsorship (it did partner with Reading FC), aimed to use the partnership to consolidate its premium, quality positioning and to build its brand globally.
‘We currently export our products to a quarter of the world’s countries and associating Waitrose with this great national and international sport will enable us to build our brand globally,’ explained Waitrose managing director Mark Price at the time the deal went public.
Our research and analysis of Waitrose’s 2015 cricket activation, however, sheds little light on how the brand is leveraging its rights specifically in terms of global brand building (other than through vanilla logo and branding coverage on TV match broadcasts).
Back in that first year of its deal in 2014 Waitrose leveraged its cricket rights heavily through online video – with YouTube series ranging from a ‘Waitrose Cricket Cookoff’, which saw 10 chefs from the UK grounds that hosted International fixtures take each other on in a competition to find the best food in cricket.
Each chef produced one of their favourite recipes and fans were given the opportunity to vote on their dish.
and food-focused films featuring famous cricket faces such as Ian Botham,
and Eoin Morgan.
As well as pieces built around food and specific grounds – including Trend Bridge,
and Headingly.
Links
Waitrose Website:
http://www.waitrose.com/home/inspiration/cricket.html
Waitrose YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Waitrose
Waitrose Twitter:
Waitrose Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Waitrose
Waitrose Instagram:
https://instagram.com/Waitrose
Waitrose Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/waitrose/
ECB Website:
