Sledging is something of an Ashes tradition and, for Australians, sledging the poms is seen as a cross between a privilege and an art form for cricketers wearing the baggy green.
Little wonder then that the social media led Ashes campaign from Sportsbet.com.au aims to offer Australians the chance to mock the English from the comfort of their own couches.
After noticing something of a polite decline in sledging, Sportsbet decided to reinvigorate the nation’s appetite for the cutting put-down.
After all, Sportsbet believes that ‘sledging isn’t just a fun part of cricket, it’s integral to cricket’ and isn’t prepeared to let sledging ‘go the way of lunchtime beers and muttonchop sideburns’.
So, working with digital agency Loud & Clear, the bookie brand linked a pair of bowling machines to Facebook and Twitter which, when Aussie cricket lovers (and punters) tweeted or posted a sledge, fired a real-life cricket ball at a giant Pommy cricket box piñata draped with an England flag (created specially for the initiative).
The Pom bashing lasted a week as 70,000 sledges were fired at England in a campaign that ran through the seven days leading up to the first test.
The initiative was promoted through a spoof online sledging spot fronted by (fictional) born-sledger Henry.
Sledgers were encouraged by the spot, by social promotion and by PR work to send in their quips using the hashtag #Pommel.
Some of the entries were fairly sedate,
https://twitter.com/camkeoh/status/618632078339477504
while others were a bit closer to the bone.
https://twitter.com/camkeoh/status/618654055431180288
Sledging was incentivised by entering contributors into the betting brand’s competition to win a $10,000 prize pool and the brand also gave away dozens of eskys to spot prize winners and cash to daily winners.
‘Beating famous sledges such as the great Denis Lillee asking the portly Mike Gatting to move out of the way of the stumps because he couldn’t see them will be hard to beat, but if you want to have a crack at Joe Root’s surname or Alistair Cook’s dodgy batting, here’s your chance,’ challenged Sportsbet.com.au’s Will Byrne.
The online bookmaker also promoted its new ‘Cash Out’ feature in the sledging stunt and through a parallel campaign.
Comment
Cricket tends to unite Australians like little else – after all, much of the country’s sports lovers are divided between Australian Rules and the two main rugby codes.
And slagging off the English is another matter of national pride.
Unfortunately, the Australia team wasn’t spurred on by the fresh sledging material and lost both the first test and the Ashes series.
Nevertheless, the concept certainly connected with the contemporary ashes zeitgeist.
After all, in the lead-in to the Ashes the media on both sides of the world wrote copious stories about the art of sledging and – including The Mirror, The Telegraph and Fox Sports.
But sadly, the most memorable social sledging around the Ashes 2015 came from the victorious English fans.
Ashes – I've haven't enjoyed myself so much since my second divorce went through.
— Brian Moore (@brianmoore666) August 6, 2015
See the Lions over their hearts, Aussies? You should have this #Ashes pic.twitter.com/2tUABwzSYA
— Aaron Kearney (@aaronkearneyaus) August 6, 2015
POMICIDE!
#Ashes pic.twitter.com/zGiolDau9k
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 6, 2015
Links
Sportsbet website:
http://www.sportsbet.com.au/
Sportsbet YouTube:
http://bit.ly/SportsbetYouTube
Sportsbet Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/sportsbetcomau
Sportsbet Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/sportsbetcomau
Sportsbet Google+:
http://plus.google.com/+sportsbetcomau
