September 27, The Cricket Paper

One of the major moans of County Championship devotees is that the red-ball game is never marketed.

“OK, it is not well attended,” they say, surveying the wide-open spaces in the stands. “But there is no promotion at all and, these days, little media coverage. How are we sure if people don’t like it or they just don’t know about it?”

A month ago, there was hope of the Bob Willis Trophy changing this situation with a high-profile, televised showpiece final at Lord’s collecting eyeballs from the passionate and those… ahem… ‘working from home’.

The tournament had been excellent and, as it transpired, the cream rose to the top to set up a final that promised quality, tension and just a little needle.

But, as the game approached, where was the promotion? Where was the television coverage? Where were the adverts and emails telling me what I had to do to watch or building the story?

The ECB peppered my in-box this week to push the England women’s T20 games meanwhile the Hundred started spamming me a full year before the bloody tournament was set to begin. I have never bought a ticket to either yet I was clearly on a mailing list somewhere. As a ticket-buying, merch-purchasing, home-and-away travelling Essex member, I got an email on the morning of the final but that was merely preaching to the converted. Surely this game was about widening the audience.

Less than 24 hours from the first ball at Lord’s there had been deafening silence.

So I decided to market the game myself.

I set up a page on my website aggregating all the major stories and videos I could find ahead of the final. You can still see it at www.Bit.ly/MrRCBWT. Then I went into Facebook and quickly cobbled together a very simple slideshow advert. It was rushed, beyond basic and only targetted to those people who ‘follow’ the County Championship and the first-class counties. I budgeted a nominal £10 in the 24 hours between noon on Tuesday and noon on Wednesday, just after the final had begun.

And my clunky, hurried, poorly-cropped advertisement delivered.

It was shown to over 2000 people on Facebook who had ‘liked’ the County Championship and the first-class counties. Precisely 207 people went to my page, that’s a very economical 5p per click. The demographics say 97% of these were men, 33% were 25-34 years-old and 29% were 35-44. Only three per cent were over 65, although this may be a result of the age range using Facebook.

This was not a scientific experiment, I am no guru on Facebook advertisements and my artwork disappointed even me. However, my £10 did suggest there is more interest out there than you might think. What would have happened if I was a proper designer, copywriter, had produced a page full of stunning videos or could throw in more budget?

Two hours after the advertisement went up (and less than 24 before the game would begin), it was announced that, although the Bob Willis Trophy final would not be on television, there would be a strong array of streaming options, including BBC iPlayer and Sky Sports’ YouTube channel. All very heartening but very, very late.

Modern sport needs a narrative built over time. In the frantic world of football, big games are flagged up weeks in advance and a crescendo is carefully constructed. In boxing, the story is even more layered with the fight announcement, press conference and weigh-in all helping to create a grudge match.

Essex and Somerset have been bashing away at each other for a few years now with the pride of Chelmsford normally taking the spoils. Revenge or repeat, redemption or confirmation - there was a story to create but no-one decided to do it so I had a go.

It proved nothing except maybe, just maybe, the moaners are right - a little marketing could go along way.

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