Cricket Australia sponsor Victoria Bitter (VB) leads its summer Ashes campaign with live Ashes cricket scoreboards showing the real-time test scores
The Aussie beer brand is giving away the classic cricket scoreboards – which are wi-fi connected and not only display the real-time score, but also features commentary from former player Ian Healy – to cricket fans across Australia.
The scoreboard’s also remind consumers when it’s time to ‘knock off’ and watch the last hour of play by playing the Victoria Bitter theme song.
They will broadcast every official Australian game until March 2015.
The scoreboards are being given away in venues across Australia, through an on-pack promotional giveaway an via a set of partnerships: such as VB’s media partnership with The Daily Telegraph – which is giving them away to the cricket fanatics who send the paper their best fan pictures.
Through the interactive app, the VB Scoreboard can even be used to keep score for consumers’ very own backyard cricket matches on test match rest days or during an Australia match tea break.
VB marketers worked with creative product agency Buzz to create the scoreboard idea and technology.
VB’s campaign also twins these individual consumer boards with giant, live outdoor versions of the Ashes scoreboards ((which are more than six metres high and 15 metres wide) in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne
The campaign is being promoted via a YouTube film and TV ad:
‘Hard working Aussie blokes love their summer cricket and can’t wait for the Ashes but they may not have time to sit down and watch five days of Test Cricket,’ says VB general manager Richard Oppy. ‘So we have developed the Live Ashes Scoreboard.’
Comment
This innovative, big summer campaign aims to keep the brand’s sales momentum going on what it claims to be a solid sales performance for 2013 thus far and marks part of VB’s objective of turning around a decade of declining sales.
This isn’t the first time a VB campaign has had a high-tech twist.
Back in 2006, VB gave away promotional Talking Boony dolls which were programmed to respond to electronic triggers aired during television coverage of the cricket.
Then in 2011, the beer brand aimed to educate thirsty Australians as to the specific correct temperature for drinking VB with a summer by giving away home freezer timers which alerted consumers when their chilled beer in their freezer had reached the right drinking temperature via the brand’s well known theme tune.
This latest campaign is another example of the growing sponsorship trend for leveraging the ‘internet of things’ (web connected things and products – as opposed the people/computers and phones) in campaigns in order to link fans to the events they are passionate about.
A great sponsorship example of this tactic from earlier in the year saw Budweiser giveaway NHL red light ice hockey hooters which flashed and sounded off in real-time whenever a consumer’s team scored a goal (see case study).
Links
VB Live Scoreboard Campaign Website
https://www.victoriabitter.com.au/
VB Campaign Facebook Page
VB Campaign YouTube Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTkpmvzhUa0
Cricket Australia
