The International Cricket Council (ICC) has kicked off its initial wave of promotional work for the 2019 World Cup, which will be held in England and Wales between 30 May and 14 July, with a new ticket campaign fronted by Freddie Flintoff called ‘Are You In?’
Timed to promote the launch of the tournament’s ticket ballot, the new work reflects the ICC’s wish for next summer’s Cricket World Cup to have ‘a carnival atmosphere’.
The objective is that the event and its associated marketing will connect with not just existing, hard core cricket fans, but also those less-engaged and also non-cricket fans.
Thus the campaign is fronted by former England all-rounder Freddie Flintoff: an iconic cricketer, bit also a celebrity who transcends the game and reaches out to more general sports and popular culture and entertainment.
Flintoff stars in the first of a series of films created to encourage people to come to the festival and enter the ticket ballot – with a question based call to action that asks simply ‘are you in?’
The campaign was initially socially teased on 1 August with a 15-second edit,
before the full length, 1-minute 40-second hero film was launched on 7 August.
This spot is an upbeat, musical style, celebratory commercial which sees a growing collection of fans from all over the world follow Freddie through well-known English settings and past national landmarks in pied piper style.
The supporters are all singing and dancing to the Imagine Dragons track ‘On Top Of The World’.
As well as former Engand skipper Flintoff, the spot also stars Radio 1 DJ Greg James, cricket legends Charlotte Edwards, Phil Tufnell, Kumar Sangakkara, and influencers such as Josh Pieters, ReevHD and Danielle Haden.
The ad closes with the copy line: ‘The carnival is on its way – who’s in?’
In addition to its YouTube launch, the spot is running across the ICC’s other social channels including Twitter
@flintoff11 is on top of the world – the @cricketworldcup carnival is coming! Are you in? #CWC19 ticket ballothttps://t.co/FOCEXRs6TH pic.twitter.com/ObSWpDTBLz
— ICC (@ICC) August 7, 2018
and Facebook.
The campaign, which was partly shot at Surrey’s The Oval (which will host games through the tournament) was created in harness with agency MATTA and it was produced by Academy Films and the spot was directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Peter Cattaneo (of ‘The Fully Monty’ fame).
Comment:
This is an update, celebratory, positive feel good spot that certainly feels accessible to all.
Creative agency Matta continues to build its cricketing credentials and this IIC initiative follows on from its 2017 ECB ‘Go Boldy’ women’s World Cup campaign (see case study),
as well as its recent ‘Pure Hockey Gold’ World Cup work (see case study).
Links:
ICC
https://www.instagram.com/icc/
https://www.youtube.com/user/CricketICC
MATTA
