11/05/2017

NatWest’s Diversity Led #NoBoundaries Cricket Campaign Launches Its New ECB Partnership

NatWest has further extended its long running association with cricket by becoming a principal partner of the England And Wales cricket Board (ECB) and is celebrating its latest alliance in the sport with a campaign focused on diversity called ‘Cricket Has No Boundaries’.

 

The RBS owned bank, which believes that ‘pride’ is now returning to the brand (after the 2008 crash), is rolling out a cricket campaign that looks to promote and showcase diversity and inclusion.

 

The initiative aims to celebrate ‘modern’ cricket and to link the sport’s values to its own brand and its own commitment to diversity.

 

The campaign uses authentic, genuine examples of the diverse range of those who participate in cricket throughout England and Wales and communicates this with work based around powerful imagery.

 

The campaign is primarily led by an outdoor poster campaign that aims to celebrate cricketing inclusion and inspire people to participate via billboards featuring inspirational messages that utilise inspirational figureheads such as Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent, the first black cricketer to play for the England women’s team.

 

 

The practical strands of the initiative will also be amplified with in-stadium messaging, events and experiences at cricket grounds across England and Wales through the summer season which will invite fans to get involved with the project.

 

The campaign, which is being backed by several England stars,

 

 

was unveiled at an 8 May launch event

 

 

 

which included a player Q&A session.

 

 

The initiative is built around a bespoke NatWest digital hub at https://cricket.natwest.com/no_boundaries.htm while in addition to the PR and media launch work the campaign (developed in harness with M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment) is also being activated via an immersive, at-ground virtual reality experience at selected games.

 

It is being amplified across both NatWest and the ECB’s digital and social platforms with all ad executions, creative assets and online content pieces linked through the #NoBoundaries hashtag.

 

 

 

The campaign emerges from recent ECB research which shows how cricket continues to be played and enjoyed by people from all walks of life right across the UK: for example, 30% of recreational cricketers are of South Asian heritage, 5% are registered disabled and the last 15 years have seen an eight-fold increase in the number of cricket clubs offering women and girls cricket.

 

It also runs in tandem alongside NatWest’s new partnership with Chance to Shine (https://www.chancetoshine.org/): the ECB-backed charity which uses cricket to increase aspiration, promote social cohesion and create opportunities for young people in communities and schools across the country and which aims to use cricket to help create job opportunities for inner-city youths.

 

NatWest has become Chance to Shine’s first ever Official Partner and this tie-up aims to further reflect the bank’s own values and commitment to fairness and inclusion.

 

 

The RBS banking brand will provide funding and support to the charity to extend its reach and expand the impacts of its programmes.

 

“We’ve been supporting cricket since 1981, so we’re delighted to extend our partnership to become the principal partner of the ECB,” said NatWest Chief Marketing Officer David Wheldon.

 

“Diversity, inclusion and doing the right thing are extremely important to us and that’s why we’re partnering with the ECB as we work together to make sure it’s a sport open to anyone and everyone.

 

“We’re bringing this to life through the ‘Cricket Has No Boundaries’ campaign and we’re delighted to become the ECB’s principal partner, working with them to make cricket even more accessible to all,” adds ECB CEO Tom Harrison (of NatWest’s new Principal Partner role).

 

“NatWest have been one of cricket’s biggest supporters over the course of four decades, putting their weight behind a range of competitions and programmes. This new partnership will see us working even more closely together, with NatWest our Principal Partner supporting cricket from grass roots to international level. They have a deep knowledge of the sport, a respect for its traditions and the drive to help us to further develop cricket as a game for everyone,” he adds.

 

Ebony Rainford-Brent, Director of Women’s Cricket at Surrey County Cricket Club and the first black female cricketer to play for England, also added: “Cricket has made great strides to broaden the range of people accessing the sport. The NatWest partnership is a fantastic way to ensure this great work continues.”

 

Activative Comment:

 

Following the 2008 financial industry led downturn and a series of NatWest scandals, the bank now believes that pride is returning to its brand and this partnership aims to consolidate the turnaround.

 

In mid 2016, Wheldon drove a major NatWest rebrand which featured real, genuine staff in its adds and invited consumers ‘to hold it to account for its actions – whether good or bad’ and the signs are that the campaign achieved some level of ‘restoring internal pride’

 

“Our staff have had to suffer a lot from the reputational damage we inflicted due to the sins of the past, but the campaign has started to restore some internal pride. It now feels like we’re moving towards optimism as a brand,” admits Wheldon.

 

The 8 May announcement that NatWest was extending its 36-year association with the sport by become the ECB’s principal partner aims to further drive this process.

 

Translating the inclusion facts and the idea of diversity from the sport to the marketing arena, admits Wheldon, still has a “long way to go”, but he points to campaigns such as Sport England’s award-winning #ThisGirlCan (see case study) to demonstrate the potential success of similar initiatives.

 

“If I look at the marketing team I had when I arrived, there was not a single direct report who was a woman. Now my team has a 50/50 split for male and females, and the business has a vibrant LGBTQ and BAME community. I guess the agency sector has always had a better balance but client side is catching up quickly when it comes to having a more diverse voice,” he explains.

 

“We have a really long heritage with cricket. By putting our new 3D logo back on the England team’s shirts and aligning with a diversity message that ties into our new “We Are What We Do” slogan this feels like a slam dunk of a campaign.”

 

Probably our favourite NatWest cricket campaign of all time is the Michael Vaughan fronted ‘Secret Cricketer’ stunt from back in 2011 (see case study).

 

As the new 2017 cricket season accelerates into top gear, this campaign follows hot-on-the-heels of the recent ECB and New Balance’s ‘My Future Self’ kit launch campaign (see case study), as well as its youth-aimed ‘All Stars Cricket’ participatory programme (see case study), not to mention a wave other cricket campaigns leveraging the new English season such as GM’s heritage and craft-focused ‘Made By England’s Best’ initiative (see case study).

 

Links:

 

NatWest

https://cricket.natwest.com/no_boundaries.htm

https://twitter.com/NatWest_Cricket

https://www.facebook.com/NatWest/

 

ECB

https://www.ecb.co.uk/new-balance

https://www.facebook.com/ecbcouk/

https://twitter.com/englandcricket

https://www.youtube.com/user/ecbcricket

https://www.ecb.co.uk/

 

M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment

http://sportandentertainment.mcsaatchi.com/

 

Chance To Shine

https://www.chancetoshine.org/

 



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