On the eve of the final England v Pakistan Test, Vitality, which has sponsored UK cricket test match grounds since 2014, launches a new cricket campaign on social media led by ambassador and England batsman Joe Root.
The campaign revolves around a set of short film cricket skills and drills demonstrations and the twist is that the exercises are based around using simple, easy-to-hand objects in everyday surroundings.
From public parks to back gardens and gardening forks to just a group of friends, each episode aims to use cricket to inspire and motivate the viewer to develop a lifestyle to enhance lifelong wellness using what is readily available to everyone.
The opening episodes are launched via Root’s own personal Twitter feed and Vitality’s YouTube channel,
These content pieces are supported by a #WheresYourWicket social competition that sees the England vice captain and Vitality encourage Britons to get out and exercise by playing cricket with friends and family.
This social competition, also running across Roots Twitter, challenges the public to send in images of themselves playing cricket along with the campaign hashtag to enter a prize draw to win one of a set of Root related prizes that range from signed bats and England cricket tickets.
Share a pic of where you play cricket using #Wheresyourwicket to win prizes with @Vitality_UK! T&Cs apply pic.twitter.com/qoqtlsaWBk
— Joe Root (@root66) August 8, 2016
This ambassador led social campaign runs under Vitality’s nationwide ‘Everyday Athlete’ initiative – which sees the brand aims to inspire the public to make minor changes to their daily behaviour in order to realise long term health improvements.
Did you know our housework is actually an #EverydayAthlete housework-OUT! Find out how: https://t.co/hBzAGNZvJW
— Vitality UK (@Vitality_UK) August 11, 2016
Vitality, an insurance business that helps people understand how they can improve their own personal health, carried out its own research shows improvements to activity levels can make a positive difference to people’s long-term health and through the extra nudge of incentives and rewards they can be encouraged to make healthy choices every day
‘I’m really excited to collaborate with Vitality on the #WheresYourWicket campaign. Vitality shares my belief that everyone can take small steps today to dramatically improve their wellbeing over the long-term, regardless of their current state of health,’ said Root at the campaign launch.
‘I’m looking forward to seeing the entries and continuing to encourage the UK to play cricket and make positive lifestyle changes.’
Nick Read, commercial director, Vitality added: ‘Joe is one of the world’s top sportsmen and is an inspiration to people of all ages. We are delighted to join forces with Joe on this campaign as he shares our passion for healthy living and will help us encourage and motivate people to be active in a really fun and engaging way.’
Vitalty has worked with Root before on circket marketing initiatives – such as this bio style spot from earlier in the summer.
Root also fronted a series of a series of idents for Vitality Health and Life Insurance that appeared on Sky Sports’ winter 2015 live cricket coverage.
Comment
While YouTube views for the previous Root-led Vitality social campaign were stuck in the low hundreds, Root is certainly the man of the moment when it comes to England cricket.
Indeed in the current test series his test run total has broken the record for most runs against Pakistan in a series – so Vitality’s choice of athlete ambassadors is well timed.
His 361k Twitter following is bigger than than @Vitality_UK’s 15.9k, but still dwarfed by cricket superstars such as England cricket’s top Tweeter Kevin Pietrson/@KP24 (3.15m) and T20 super star Chris Gale/@henrygayle (3.1m).
In May 2016 Vitality announced it had signed a new ambassador deal with Root and explained that the partnership would see Root use his passion for healthy living to inspire people to get active and make positive changes to their health by offering practical advice and motivating everyone to take achievable steps towards lifelong wellness.
Plus, anyone who’s followed the BBC’s live text cricket coverage knows that Brits love sending in random photos of themselves playing cricket in obscure locations – so this campaign mechanic is encouraging cricket fans to do something they enthusiastically do anyway.
Although listeners to the BBC’s iconic Test Match Special programme also know cricket lovers are very fond of their cake – something vitality surely isn’t trying to associate with healthy lifestyles.
This tactic continues Vitality UK’s series of partnership activations with leading British sports stars that in the past has ranged from athlete Jessica Ennis,
to footballer Theo Walcott.
As well as Walcott and Ennis-Hill, Lord Sebastian Coe and Jonny Wilkinson are other Vitality ambassador role models who the company believes embody the values of Vitality.
Vitality is also the Official Wellness Partner of Arsenal FC, AFC Bournemouth, Liverpool FC, Manchester City FC, England Rugby, Scottish Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union, Cricket’s UK Test Match Grounds and England Netball, as well as title sponsor of the Vitality Run Series and Official Partner of The Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards in association with Vitality.
Links
Vitality UK Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Vitality_UK
Vitality UK Web:
Vitality UK Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/VitalityUK
Vitality UK Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/vitality_uk/
Vitality UK YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/livewithVitality
Vitality UK Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/vitalityuk/
Vitality UK LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/vita…
Joe Root Twitter:
