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

"Thank you for your tremendous support this year, especially during the last few months as we pulled more rabbits from hats, fixture/season structure changes and unknowns than I think any of us has ever seen in sport. You helped us achieve a result that we are so immensely proud of, and have built a platform that can take us to heights that we thought impossible some 6 months ago. The WNBL is ready for lift-off! We broke the ECAL record for a season easily, and I can’t wait to see subscriber numbers jump again in 2021."

Rob Flude

Head of Digital Services @ Basketball Australia

"ECAL has proven to be a great channel for us at AVFC, benefitting sales and fan engagement more and more each season whilst providing data and insight for us to improve the fan experience as a whole. With the successful integrations of Women and Youth team schedules this season, we’re looking forward to what’s coming next!"

William Street

Digital Marketing Executive @ Aston Villa FC

"The ECAL solution allows Formula E fans to sync their local race or the full season race calendar to their personal calendars. The platform ensures that fans can easily find out where to tune in and watch Formula E live in their territory and it also gives us the ability to deliver targeted messages to users, based on location and behaviour. The team at ECAL are a great bunch and are always at hand whether through their fantastic support team to day to day management of our account and sharing new ideas. I would have no hesitation in recommending them. "

Tecwyn Davies

Senior Digital Project Manager @ Formula E

"ECAL has been a very effective tool for the England and Wales Cricket Board. Our audiences can download full competition schedules or individual team calendars for domestic competitions, as well as the England Men’s and Women’s fixtures. The events within the calendar provide information on where / when to tune-in to follow matches, and can also be used as a reminder for important ticket on-sale dates. The process to set-up was very straightforward and the support we receive has been great. We look forward to continuing to work with ECAL."

Rebecca Maskrey

Head of Marketing @ England and Wales Cricket Board

"We've engaged ECAL to deliver Fox Sports TV programming direct to our subscribers' calendar. It's a cool feature, and we believe our customers will really enjoy this service. They should never miss their favourite sports team again! We're also working with the team at ECAL to look at additional ways we can leverage the platform commercially."

Barney Glover

Head of Digital Delivery @ Fox Sports