FIGARODIGITAL.CO.UK
f there are three things every marketer wants associated with their social media campaigns, they’re passion, content and meaningful interaction. The first and the last of those rely on
audience engagement. But it’s content that drives users to your brand. “You’ve got to give people an outlet for
their passion,” says Will Collinson, Head of Marketing at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). “That’s what joins the online and the offline. You need to let people say what they think, feel or support about your brand. You’ve got to have the right content. And when you’re talking about something like cricket, the passion is already there.” Anyone who spent the summer of
2013 rooting for Cook, Pietersen, Anderson and co. will know all about the extraordinary level of passion cricket generates in the UK. At the heart of the online activity was the ECB’s successful #Rise campaign. The project was built around the hashtag #RISE which, despite marketing budget restrictions, captured 168,000 Tweets - more than 10 per cent of all global Twitter discussion of the Ashes. So how did the campaign work and what was it designed to achieve?
PITCHING UP “Our role at the ECB is to get more people to play, follow and attend cricket matches,” says Collinson. “So when there’s a big event like the Ashes, we’re looking to get people inspired. That was the basic premise behind this campaign.” Over the last five years, explains
Collinson, the ECB has transitioned from a B2B to more of a B2C organisation. With over a million customers in its databases, it makes full use of email, social media and other online channels, as well as outdoor advertising. “Our
The England and Wales Cricket Board used Twitter to break down the boundary between online and offline activity during the 2013 Ashes. Will Collinson, Head of Marketing, talks to Figaro Digital about a campaign on the #RISE
objective,” says Collinson, “is to build on that and have more direct contact with people. Then we engage with them on an ongoing basis. That sets what we do in context. We’re in the fortunate position of not really having to sell tickets to an event like the Ashes. Instead, for 2013, we thought we’d do more to exploit general interest and grow our online communities.” The project went out to tender in late
2012. The task, says Collinson, was “to come up with an inspirational, image- based campaign. We wanted a message that would galvanise support for England and build Ashes hype.”
With the campaign’s
creative partners - including agencies Anonymous Fox and
Recipe with support from Earnest – on board, attention turned to coming up with innovative content. This included player imagery used for still and video content, and an official Ashes poem entitled ‘#Rise’. (“They’ll deliver the fight, session by session/The nation’s pride their only obsession.”)
BREAKING BOUNDARIES In the run up to the Ashes, users were encouraged to congregate around #RISE, and the hashtag served as a bridge between online and offline activity. The imagery and video content was shown on outdoor screens near the grounds in Manchester and Nottingham, which in turn directed fans back to the hashtag. Significantly, notes Collinson, none of this outdoor space was paid for. Once play got underway at Trent Bridge in July 2013, the news agenda naturally provided the campaign with additional momentum, meaning Collinson and the ECB team only had to take advantage of promotional
ARTICLE JON FORTGANG
ACROSS
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