We’re push pull and we are here to get the WBBL out of the stands.
As one of our nation’s oldest pastimes with the highest levels of male participation in the country we believe that it is important to promote this great sport to young girls. There is such a high level of male participation in cricket - so why is there such little crossover to the women’s league?
The Women’s Big Bash provides a fun action-packed event for families to attend throughout summer.
It is a new and fast paced game and with a run time of 3 hours, is suitable to any audience, young or old.
Cricket successfully unites and inspires us as a nation multiple times a year - so why not broaden that momentum to young girls?
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS
There is already existing interest and support in the WBBL, however this could be higher. As the WBBL has a female focus it is able to provide a clear participation pathway for women to play elite sport. An assembly of some of the best female cricketers in the world provides a hoard of role models to young girls.
But you could have so much more.
You are able to promote healthy competition between women and open the doors to women’s sport for the next generation. Providing this ethos of healthy competition can motivate and increase the opportunities taken by girls to participate. The WBBL can fill the gap - it has the ability to provide role models and public examples for women of all ages while simultaneously providing an action-packed sport for the whole family to watch.
Considering these opportunities there is plenty more that could be done by Cricket Australia and the WBBL in order to increase awareness and promote participation.
Now imagine the possibilities that could come from an increased awareness of this league.
 role models for young girls |  community around women's cricket |  higher interest in young girls to play and watch |
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Australia is a sporting nation - so why such little interest in women playing one of our favourite national pastimes?
You tell us.
We want to emphasise the impact sport participation has on a community. Give these young girls something to build towards. There is a common misconception that women are not born as strong as men therefore we require more motivation and determination on the path to elite sportsmanship and on a more basic level to increased participation.
Participation in organised sport is over 13% higher in boys than girls so as you can see this issue is not solely related to cricket. This lack of participation and motivation needs to be fixed and we believe that the WBBL can help to bridge this gap.
These friendships and social interactions can yield young girls the confidence they often require. Therefore through motivating young girls to participate in cricket and form communities around WBBL we can fill the gap in motivation that young girls often lack. This will provide a more defined pathway to elite sportsmanship for the next generation.
We see the WBBL as a method for diminishing gender stereotypes in sport.
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Cricket has been a large part of Australian culture but prior to this league lacked emphasis on female players at an elite level.
THE ISSUE
“Absolutely delighted to see crowds across the country come out in force, with record attendances at our men’s and women’s Big Bash League matches”.
...said Mike McKenna, Executive General Manager of Cricket Australia on 5th December, 2015.
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While the support for the Women's Big Bash League was considered one of the high points for the season, statistics show there is a significant gap in support between the Men's and Women's T20 leagues.
After conducting thorough research, we have concluded that the main hurdle the WBBL currently faces is the lack of knowledge and awareness of the women's league.
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The BBL receives far more support than the WBBL in terms of viewership. From the graph, it is evident that the BBL corners a larger market share of overall cricket match viewers.
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Based on the statistics from the 2015/2016 season, the BBL successfully drew in around 1,100,000 viewers for the season, approximately ten times more than the 142,000 their female counterparts pulled in.
Match attendances were also significantly stronger for the BBL than the WBBL. The highest attendance for a WBBL fixture was 14,611 spectators for the Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Thunder game at Etihad Stadium on January 9th 2016.
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Given similar state representation, geographic location and time period during the season, the highest match attendance for a BBL fixture had 65,000 more spectators, with 80,883 spectators for the Melbourne Stars vs Melbourne Renegades game at the MCG on January 2nd 2016.
Furthermore, the WBBL's online presence is severely lacking. The BBL has a verified, official page with more than 1.7 million followers and regular activity, while the WBBL only has a community page with 1,209 people who follow it.
TARGET MARKET
At this age, most children play sport. Furthermore, our research has shown that the majority of parents want their children to be playing team sports.
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Since the lack of participation in cricket is due to the lack of awareness, it is imperative that we generate interest in the WBBL from an early age.
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Furthermore, an alarming number of girls stop playing sport when they hit puberty and through our campaign, we seek to decrease this statistic by encouraging participation in T20 cricket at all levels.
Australians are well-known for supporting home grown talent and are very supporting of our national sporting temas. Interest in female Australian athletes is at an all time high after success stories of female athletes clinching the Gold at the recent Rio Olympics.
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As mentioned earlier, the majority of parents want their children to play team sports. They are the main decision makers for our primary target market (6 - 12 year old girls) and have the ability to influence their children's activities until they are independent. If we can generate interest in parents for the WBBL, we will most likely be able to receive the attention of their children as well.
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Furthermore, we want to promote game attendance as a family outing and viewership as a family activity. Targeting these parents, especially mothers, are of utmost importance to us as they have the ability to influence their entire family's behaviour.
OBJECTIVES
1. Increase AWARENESS of WBBL by 45% in our selected target markets over the duration of 3 months with at least 5 successful impressions.
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2. Increase VIEWERSHIP of broadcasted WBBL games by 50% with at least 3 target market impressions during the campaign period through the use of a suitable media mix.
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3. Increase PARTICIPATION of girls aged 6 - 12 years old in T20 cricket by the end of the campaign period through an emphasis on parental support and grassroots community engagement events.
THE BIG IDEA
Never too early...
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The options are endless.
This message will have the ability to attract attention from both target markets.
The younger audience will be reached through the visual aids
The older parent audience will be targeted through a more emotional and cognitive appeal about what participation or interest in this sport can offer their family.
Through this campaign we want to instil a sense of pride and develop an intrinsic motivation in young girls for participating in or watching cricket.
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“Never too early” will create emotional responses in adults, hoping to give their little girls all possible opportunities.
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The WBBL and our campaign will go hand in hand to promote the importance of women in sport - at all levels and ages.
CREATIVE EXECUTION
The main aim of our creatives is to invoke emotions, be inspiring and inclusive, and present opportunities to everyone.
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All print ads will include a tagline that starts with never too early and ends with a different message or objective with a corresponding visual. For consistency, all print ads will include #nevertooearly and the WBBL logo, with the main slogan across the top of the visual.
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Visuals will come in both landscape, and portrait, and other smaller sizes for digital media.
Billboards, Bus Stop and Magazine Ads
We propose to reveal our main billboard in halves a week apart. This will create anticipation amongst our audience. First, only our catch phrase "never too early" and some cricket gear will be in view. Viewers will be able to make the connection between the slogan and the cricket wickets, this will build anticipation for the full reveal of the advertisement.
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Similar advertisements will be used in magazines and at bus stops.
 Never too early to leadTo encourage female youths that they too can be at the forefront of women's sport. |  Never too early to improveCommunity and sharing experiences with your loved ones, further emphasising that cricket can be played and practiced in the backyard of your own home. |  Never too early to startTo show young girls that they can start as early building their future as early as they want. |
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TV CAMPAIGN
FRAME 1:
Time: 2.5s
Visual: 360 degree shot of audience from player's point of view
Music: Crowd cheering intensely
FRAME 2:
Time: 2.5s
Visual: 360 degree shot of player from audience's point of view
Music: Crowd cheering muffled
FRAME 3:
Time: 2.5s
Visual: 360 degree shot of audience (toys) from player's (little girl) point of view
Music: Crowd cheering intensely
FRAME 4:
Time: 2.5s
Visual: 360 degree shot of player (little girl) from audience's (toys') point of view playing out her winning shot fantasy
Music: Crowd cheering muffled, heart thumping overlay
FRAME 5:
Time: 1.5s
Visual: Line appears, hashtag fades in at the end of the frame
Voiceover: It is never too early to be a part of the action
Music: Background music
FRAME 6:
Time: 1.0s
Visual: Line fades out at the end of the frame
Music: Background music
FRAME 7:
Time: 1.0s
Visual: Hashtag stays on frame
Music: Background Music
FRAME 8:
Time: 0.5s
Visual: Logo slams down onto frame
Music: Background music
FRAME 9:
Time: 1.5s
Visual: App store logos appear
Voiceover: So start by downloading our app today
Music: Background music
Our Facebook posts seek to be shareable and heavily reliant on visuals over words - as visual content is more likely to catch a Facebook user's eye.
Both the artwork and the post copy will include #nevertooearly so that people can click on it and follow through the tag to see similar posts.
Types of possible posts:
1. Mini posters
2. Buy tickets
3. Get the app
4. Player of the week profiles
5. Channel 10 game reminders
6. Channel 10 ticket draw reminders
7. Discount codes for merchandise
8. Promotion of other social media channels
We will include our hashtags in the post accompanying the picture, and will encourage them to visit the profile page for WBBL instead where we can include more information in the progile description. We propose to do Instagram picture grids which encourages people to click into the WBBL profile page.
Snapchat
Snapchat geofilters, available only at the games, will be used to interact with the brand. For example, for a match between the Perth Scorchers and the Sydney Sixers, the geographic filter will only work around the perimeter of the stadium.
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Die hard fans will have the opportunity to stay loyal to their team while advertising to their friends. We have given people the option when they find themselves sitting with opposing team fans a chance to enjoy the sport together.
We also propose a Snapchat takeover to show a day-in-the-life type videos of upcoming female cricket players. These players will essentially take over the WBBL Snapchat account and show what they are doing throughout their day.
App
We have designed an app that will be available on both the Google Play and Apple App store.
The first screen of the app will show two options. A pop up will open if the user is using the app for the first time or not logged into their account. They can choose to close to close the pop up or sign up. They’ll be led to a data collection page and they would just have to enter simple details that would help us make their ticket purchases and coupon redemptions more seamless.
They can choose to Play or Watch.
Play will lead to a simple game that involves tapping the screen to control the bat and to rotate their phone left and right to control the movements of the ball. Highest scores of the week will have coupons sent to their account which will be available for redemption at stadium games only.
Watch will lead them to a second menu where they can read up on cricket related news, get tickets, get more information about the games, look up player statistics and check their collected coupons.
EDM
Our EDM will include as much information deemed relevant for the week and will work on an opt-in/opt-out basis. There will be various call to action capabilities such as web browser viewing, ticket purchase, social media connections, app download and website access.
Website
For better overall brand recognition, we propose having both logos on the current website. The site currently on will have a highlighted logo, with the other dimmed.
MEDIA STRATEGY
The channels and touch points incorporated throughout this campaign will complement and enhance one another to maximise impressions on both spectator and player target audiences.
The media mix will showcase a combination of channels such as television, billboards, radio and magazines.
- To address the lack of awareness of the WBBL, high frequency of print, TV and radio messaging is incorporated
- Viewers’ opportunity to see the message throughout this campaign increases through the media mix chosen
- To avoid overexposure, we will exploit intrinsic creative advantages provided by numerous forms of media
Social Media and Digital channels will ensure maximum impact on audiences through multiple social media touch points.
Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook, along with Google AdWords, an App and EDMs to help maintain connection and communication with audiences throughout the campaign.
Events such as an October long weekend community cricket day (which will feature as a live cross on The Today Show), and in-school sponsorship programs will add a personable, face-first dimension to the media mix.
While not saturating our audience, we will inform and enlighten them to see the WBBL as both beneficial to the lives of young girls and the greater Australian community.
MEDIA OBJECTIVES
TV - To increase awareness of WBBL and increase viewership of broadcast WBBL games by achieving four successful impressions to the target market of young girls aged 6-12, parents, and spectators, progressing the target markets to awareness, prior to the conclusion of the campaign.
Billboards - Increase awareness of WBBL and to support TV and Radio by further reiterating the messages to the target markets to increase viewerships in WBBL games (both live and broadcast) and to encourage girls to participate in cricket as a team sport, by progressing target market to a preference for WBBL.
Magazines - Better homes & gardens, total girl and women’s weekly advertisements will increase opportunity to see and create more guaranteed impressions. This print element of the media mix will diversify our channels, resulting in an increase in awareness, viewership and participation.
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Long weekend event - To encourage engagement of 1% of the target market of parents and young girls to participate in games and activities that highlight the community aspect of the game, to increase youngs girls participation in cricket as a team sport and progress parents and girls to have a preference for WBBL.
Facebook - To increase WBBL Facebook page likes by 70% in the target market of spectators and parents of young girls to increase awareness, viewership and participation through social media communication with target audiences.
Instagram - To increase WBBL Instagram page followers by 70% in the target market of spectators, parents of young girls and young girls of the older spectrum of the 6-12 year old demographic. This will increase awareness, viewership and participation through social media communication with target audiences.
Website & EDM’S - Increase website registrations for users receiving EDM’S by 30%, to ensure a more constant communication pathway with the target audiences of spectators and parents of young girls. This will increase awareness, participation and viewership.
MEDIA METRICS
Metrics are in place to allow clear methods of tracking and evaluating the campaigns’ success.
Social Media and Online channels will be tracked through monitoring both paid and organic content in aspects such as engagements per week in views, shares, downloads, click-throughs, comments, likes, and mentions, along with monitoring and re-posting the organic content created by our target audiences. Social Media channels will also act as ongoing platforms for feedback and conversation with audiences as a form of campaign evaluation.
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Website success will be monitored through the amount of subscribers for our EDM’s, along with measurement of click throughs and content being downloaded. This will provide a clear understanding of individual subscriber value aspects such as revenue per subscriber and revenue per email.
School visit and community events are based on altering perception and increasing awareness, aspects that will be measured through gauging public reaction while the events are taking place and the guaranteed resulting social media and press conversation created by the events. These forms of measurement will be running throughout the campaign.
Contingency plans are in place if more efficient media channels are needed through re-evaluation, as market opportunities may become evident. These will be addressed as soon as insights become clear; therefore there is contingency budgeted to address these opportunities necessary to successfully reach target markets.
For more detail on how metrics will be used, please click below.
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MEDIA SCHEDULE
Our campaign will run from October until the end of the season. We will start our ads on all media platforms from October. Television ads will run for the entire period. Radio and magazine ads will run from October to December only. Billboard ads will run in October and November only, while bus stop ads will run in October only. We will have our one-off event on the first, long weekend of October and have school presentation running throughout November. Digital media will run throughout the entire campaign, with EDMs being sent out every alternative week. For a more comprehensive overview, please click below.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY PLAN
As stated earlier, the objectives for this campaign are to increase awareness, viewership and participation.
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For a more detailed customer journey, please click below.
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The media objectives include creating at least 5 successful impressions in our two selected target audiences to increase awareness.
Viewership will require 3 successful impressions, and increased participation will be achieved as a bi-product of these impressions combined with event strategies.​
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For a more detailed customer journey, please click below.
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The customer journey process shows how customers will form impressions while encountering the channels and touch points that we have tailored to what forms of media are most relevant to them.
This will eventually result in a purchase decision.
For a more detailed customer journey, please click below.
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BUDGET
As per the brief, we have allocated 43% of the budget to Television. Followed by 18% for Magazines, 12% for the Creative, 7% for Billboards and 4% for Radio and Facebook and Instagram. Leaving 3% for Bus Stops and Google AdWords, 1% for Snapchat and 5% remaining for contingencies.
For a more comprehensive budget breakdown, please click below.
