Echoing the auto brand’s umbrella tagline ‘Always A Better Way’, Toyota is activating its England and Wales Cricket Board partnership with a new campaign revolving around children’s new ideas to improve the game called #BetterCricket.
The overall campaign sees the car company work with the ECB to debate the future of the game by posing the question ‘what could cricket be like in the future?’
The initial phase, fronted by England quick bowler Jimmy Anderson, encourages some of the country’s youngest cricketers to share their dreams and inspiration for the game through a series of #BetterCricket web films launched to coincide with England’s tour of South Africa.
The first videos feature under-11 cricket fans from the Sacred Heart School (in London’s Battersea) come up with imaginative and inventive ways of making the game even more fun and exciting.
The ideas range from stumps that explode in a shower of confetti, through introducing a new ‘blocker’ player wearing American football armour hampering batsmen running between the wickets, to doubling up of runs scored in a final over.
The kids are just some of the 2 million children across the UK learning to play cricket through the Chance to Shine charity.
A central 3-minute 30-second short film leads the initiative,
and it is supported on the ECB wwebsite by individual clips of kids and their ideas – including ‘Omari’,
‘Louis’,
‘Kyle’
and ‘Jessica’.
The spots are also being amplified across Toyota and ECB social platforms.
The film series are intended to act as inspiration and a kickstarter to encourage other youngsters around the country to spread their own ideas on the future of the game on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #BetterCricket.
@ECB_cricket A 5 Test 'series' played simultaneously at five grounds. Would be the @rydercup of cricket. #BetterCricket
— Tony Curr (@tonycvrr) January 28, 2016
The campaign will evolve through the year as Toyota and the ECB ask and encourages others to answer the same question.
‘I really enjoyed listening to their ideas. As you’d expect from young kids there have been some really off-the-wall suggestions, but they’ve also had some really clever ideas which wouldn’t look out of place in a real cricket game,’ explains England and Lancashire bowler Anderson.
‘There were some interesting suggestions, such as double runs in the final over of a day’s play, or higher scores for hitting the ball to certain parts of the field. I could definitely see ideas like that coming to T20 or one-day cricket at some point in the future.’
Toyota spokesman Stuart Sanders adds: ‘’Children are the future of cricket, so we thought that by encouraging them to think of ways they would like to see the game develop would give a valuable insight into how the sport might successfully change in the years ahead, while maintaining the qualities that make it so special for millions of players and fans around the world.’
Comment
As with most campaigns that open up a subject to debate on social media, a particular theme is emerging from the #BetterCricket comments – namely returning the game to its former ‘free to air’ status.
How about having the England team on free to air TV? #BetterCricket
— Oxenford CC (@OxenfordCC) January 28, 2016
#BetterCricket best thing that could happen to cricket is for it to be shown on terrestrial TV.
— jtsayers (@jtsayers) January 28, 2016
Nevertheless, this approach of this campaign (running under its ‘Toyota Future of Cricket Project’) dovetails with its company-wide pledge to discover new ideas and innovations.
Indeed, the campaign is part the ECB’s official car partner’s umbrella ongoing commitment to continual innovation and its belief that ‘engaging the right minds can produce some really creative, game-changing ideas’.
It was back in May 2015 that Toyota linked up with ECB – initially on a two-year deal that sees England’s cricketers drive a variety of Toyota models: from the RAV4 to the Land Cruiser.
In addition to having this kind of access to England players for a range of new marketing and publicity opportunities, the package sees Toyota get live and recorded brand exposure, plus in-ground advertising and a headline sponsorship deal with Channel 5’s international cricket highlights.
Amongst its international sports sponsorship portfolio, Toyota also includes deal with the International Olympic Committee, the IAAF and Cricket Australia.
Links
Toyota Cricket Web Hub:
https://www.toyota.co.uk/cricket.json
ECB Website:
http://www.ecb.co.uk
ECB Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/ECB_cricket
ECB Facebook:
http://www.fb.com/englandcricket
ECB Instagram:
http://www.instagram.com/englandcricket
