New Balance has released a follow-up phase to its youth-focused #TrainingDay campaign, which first began back in late 2016, and which activates its Cricket South Africa partnership via a competition for South African school kids to win a unique national cricket team experience that put them under ‘Protea conditions’.
This one-day participatory experience gave 11 young players an insight into the life of an international cricketer at Bidvest Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.
Starting in the home team’s dressing room, where they found national team kit in lockers that bore their own personal name tags, the kids were taught skills, disciplines and pro cricket culture by the national team’s professional coaches (led by head coach Russell Domingo, assistant coach Adrian Birrell, abtting coach Neil McKenzie, conditioning coach Greg King and media manager Larato Malekutu) and took part in a net session with some of the side’s star players (including Hashin Amla).
Following the previous #TrainingDay phase which promoted the competition and drove entries from across the country (see case study), the post-event campaign strand is spearheaded by a hero film which rolled out in late January 2017.
The video features the Proteas’ coaching and fitness team putting young cricket fans (and New Balance #TrainingDay competition winners) under professional international cricketer conditions: spanning training exercises and fielding drills, to batting techniques and bowling mechanics, as well PR skills in the press room and learning about the history and culture of the national team.
The sportswear brand’s #TrainingDay campaign, developed with sports and entertainment agency Levergy, was initially launched with a competition, hosted on a digital hub (at http://www.feelthefire.co.za/) and promoted by a spearhead video,
The experience itself was then filmed and photographed and then released across the social channels of both Cricket South Africa and New Balance.
The core spot is not only posted on New Balance’s South African YouTube page and amplified across its other social and digital platforms,
#TrainingDay A host of Proteas have popped in to run a net session with the boys. #FeelTheFire pic.twitter.com/zBJPtFXuje
— New Balance Cricket (@NBCricket) January 8, 2017
#TrainingDay Our final session of the day lead by @leratomalekutu on pressures of dealing with media and social media in sport #FeelTheFire pic.twitter.com/g1qwRm96jO
— New Balance Cricket (@NBCricket) January 8, 2017
#TrainingDay – that’s a wrap. Thank you @OfficialCSA and the Proteas for a great day. What an experience for these young boys! #FeelTheFire pic.twitter.com/t6tE4x0pik
— New Balance Cricket (@NBCricket) January 8, 2017
but it is also currently being run as on-air, non-paid filler on SuperSport (South Africa’s paid equivalent of Sky Sports) which is providing New balance with significant media value.
Activative Comment:
The #TrainingDay initiative has racked up some solidly impressive engagement statistics thus far.
The campaign’s total online views across Facebook and YouTube currently stand at 513,079, while more than 718,000 South African cricket fans have been reached thus far through #TrainingDay campaign content.
And, in terms of the competition-led initiative’s core target demographic, #TrainingDay engaged with more than 13,200 South African school children between the ages of 13 and 17 on Facebook alone.
#TrainingDay is part of the sports apparel brand’s ongoing, umbrella ‘Feel The Fire’ South African Cricket activation platform which was recently nominated for the campaign of the year at the 2017 Discovery Sport Industry Awards.
.@NewBalance_SA Feel the Fire nominated for campaign of the year at 2017 #DSIA @SportIndustrySA #AlwaysInBeta pic.twitter.com/ufKHF8wf3Y
— LEVERGY (@levergy_sa) February 27, 2017
Links:
New Balance
http://www.feelthefire.co.za/
http://newbalance.co.za/
https://twitter.com/newbalance_sa
https://www.facebook.com/NewBalanceSouthAfrica
https://uk.pinterest.com/newbalancesa/
>https://www.youtube.com/user/newbalanceSA
https://www.instagram.com/newbalanceza/
Cricket South Africa:
http://cricket.co.za/
Levergy:
www.levergy.co.za
