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It’s Just Not Cricket

January 29, 2025 | General

Blog Post In Brief:    As a summer of cricket disappears in the rearview mirror of the year, in this article we look at the three forms of the game, and if they reveal anything about what our marketing approach is – and what it could be.

The (Cricket) Pitch

As summer slowly fades, we leave behind days and nights in front of screens watching cricket.

Which has nothing to do with marketing really…but gives us a different way to look at how brands advertise, and what that means.

Cricket’s three forms – Test, One Day and T20 – offer a framework to appraise the rhyme and reason

behind the messaging being put to market.

Each has a reason for existing, but its on us to work out if it’s right for what we want to achieve.

 

Test Cricket and Branding

The boring one where everyone looks the same and nothing happens; or five days of intense mental and physical exertion?

However you look at Test cricket, what it absolutely needs is patience, and a strong sense of self.

 

In that sense it’s the equivalent of a branding campaign.

Take your time, understand your tactical approach and continue to fill the marketing bucket.

It’s rarely flashy, but a smart branding campaign can underpin generations of success.

If your current approach isn’t delivering ROI, talk to your media partners about how you can utilise long-term branding.

 

One Day Cricket as Brand-Action

The shorter more colourful form of cricket was a revolution once,

but looks increasingly tired and uncertain of what it’s supposed to be.

In marketing, it has parallels to brands who aim for the best of both worlds.

It can deliver, but is often weakened by its own determination to not be one thing or the other.

 

An attention-grabbing call to action is incredibly powerful.

A lukewarm call to action, further diluted as the message switches to a wider branding approach is not going to land as well.

There may be reasons you take this route – co-op dollars helping fund a campaign is common

– but make sure it doesn’t simply peter out into a nothing spot.

 

T20 as Call To Action

This leads us to the loudest kid on the cricketing block.

The twenty over form of the sport can be headline grabbing, ostentatious, and a lot of fun.

Audiences are usually keen to get involved and give it a chance, so there is clearly appeal.

For all that, it feels of the moment. It comes, it goes, it starts again; from The Big Bash, to the Indian Premier League, to The Hundred

…what does anyone actually remember of it?

 

It’s obviously the call to action approach in marketing. But as we said above, the offer has to be worth it.

Your target market must be both reached, and then activated to ensure you see a return.

Otherwise you risk it just being more marketing added to the piles of marketing that’s already been – and is about to come.

Call to action marketing isn’t mean to last – but it is meant to have an impact.

Never lose sight of that.

 

Don’t Get Caught Out

It’s nothing like a perfect science, but considering your marketing against the three forms of cricket

is a way to appraise what you’re doing, versus what you want to achieve.

In the modern world it’s easy to get caught up in the fireworks and music and lose sight of the fact that what you really need

is some clean whites, and to take time to recalibrate what it is you’re doing – and why.

 

Article By:  Wade Howland