Customer Stories - ECB launched The Hundred!

Case Studies, Sports Jun 09, 2020

Customer Stories - ECB

Challenge

Engage cricket lovers and general sports fans to help launch England’s new domestic and international season fixtures, including The Hundred!

Solution

ECAL was quick to build a large community of passionate cricket fans, and drive immediate response around ticket release dates for The Hundred, driving high demand for early ticket sales.

1. Introduction

England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales.

The Hundred is a new professional franchise tournament run by the ECB, scheduled to start in July 2020. It plays a new 100-ball game format, in a round-robin tournament with eight city-based franchise teams. Each franchise will field a men’s and women’s team.

2. Objectives

Launch England’s new season cricket fixtures using ECAL, to connect and engage cricket lovers, general sports fans and social groups.
Use ECAL to schedule the competition and team fixtures directly into the calendar of users.
Leverage the connected calendar audience to deliver important ticket release details for The Hundred, to drive early sales and stimulate demand.

3. Strategy

A. Create

Multiple ECAL button displays were created for all cricket competitions, incl. The Hundred, International Men’s / Women’s, County Championship, Vitality Blast, and Royal London Cup.
These buttons were integrated into the ECB website and a link on their mobile app.

B. Connect

ECB executed an integrated launch campaign around the release of The Hundred fixtures, to drive strong user adoption.
Promotion included web ad (home page), site article, social campaign and email.

C. Activate

With a large, connected audience, ECB can then deliver important ticket release dates directly to an engaged audience, to stimulate sales and interest.

ECB Activation

4. Results (at end of Feb)

Timeline

15 Nov: ECAL Launch
26 Nov (7am): The Hundred Fixture Release

International user subscriptions

ECB user subscriptions

With very strong local adoption

ECB user subscriptions

Timeline

12 Feb (10am): Priority Ticket Window Open
Next: 17 July (6:30pm): First Game

Definitive response to ticket release

Drives significant purchase intent

Testimonials

“We welcome around 750,000 visits to our Bins, waste and recycling section on our website annually. Implementing ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ service, has not only significantly reduced the average website visit, but residents can now receive dynamic bin collection reminders in-calendar. When collection days change, as do the entries and reminders in our users calendar. We are proud to be the first council in the UK to provide this innovative service for our residents and are thrilled to see this as just the start of a great journey and synergy with ECAL”.

Tariq Gangari

Senior UI Designer

Fixture release day is a key moment in the Premier League’s calendar. It signals the start of our new season and provides an opportunity for us to onboard new fans. ECAL’s platform provides a powerful communication channel for us to deliver against our key objectives – driving tune-in and referrals for our clubs and broadcast licensees.”

Chris Archer

Head of Digital Operations

“Fixture release day is a highly anticipated event in the EFL calendar. ECAL's excellent support, from technical to strategic, allowed us to focus on maximising reach and delivering a timely and engaged service to our fanbase.”

Matt Hudspeth-Lamb

Senior Data, Research and Insight Manager

“The build up to big days like the fixture release day can sometimes be stressful hoping that everything runs smooth and the fans get the best customer experience. Needless to say, this release day was the smoothest and most successful yet seeing our subscribers increase by over 50%. We are very thankful to have ECAL onboard providing a great service to us and our fans. The simplicity of the platform is extremely easy to use and their team is on hand for any help that is required.

Liam Sisterson

Email Marketing and CRM Executive @ Newcastle United

“We couldn’t be any happier with the help, support, and advice from the team at ECAL, who went above and beyond to ensure that one of the biggest events in our calendar – Fixture Release Day – was as successful as possible. The guidance stretched from technical to marketing, which was of great use to the club, and we look forward to developing our channel on the platform further.”

Billy Taylor

Director of Strategic Operations & Communications @ Millwall FC