Australia, India and England—the Holy Trinity of international cricket—are serving up a feast of entertainment in Australia this summer. Kayo Sports is covering every single ball and advertisers cannot get enough.
At yesterday’s Kayo Sports Summer of Cricket launch, Foxtel promised more than 3,000 hours of live cricket action; kicking off with a 10-match white ball series between Australia and India followed by one of the most hotly-anticipated Ashes series of this current generation. There will be plenty of international women’s cricket and every Big Bash League game of the season.
Foxtel Media chief executive Mark Frain and chief sales officer Nev Hasan caught up with B&T to explain what one of the most highly-anticipated cricket seasons is delivering for Foxtel and its commercial partners.
“This has been our most successful cricket summer of advertising partnerships ever,” said Frain, who first arrived in Australia to watch his native England lose 4-1 in the 2003 Ashes series.
“As a business we have significantly grown our subscription numbers and due to the success of the AFL and NRL, we are coming off a much bigger platform. When you combine that with England and India touring, it adds something else to the conversations you have with clients. This is the best cricket offering we have had on so many different fronts.”
This summer in particular, advertisers have bought into Foxtel’s focus on selling business outcomes, rather than particular audiences or demos.
Foxtel partners with several companies, including Nature, Gemba, Adgile, Commbank IQ and a suite of research companies to measure success across various business objectives, whether its brand metrics, sales and acquisitions or other measures of success.
“If we go back a year or two, we have done so much work around how much value cricket brings to advertisers from an outcomes perspective. We talk to all of our advertising partners, almost irrespective of what their goal is, about proof points to show that cricket can deliver business outcomes.
“We have re-engineered how we’ve taken cricket to market.”
Clients bowled away
Foxtel is on track to increase its Summer of Cricket revenue by 25 per cent, while senior executives are confident its viewing audience will “grow by double digits”.
Chief sales officer Nev Hasan said that this is a combination of returning partners. Stepping up to the crease again with sponsorships across all formats are Toyota, McDonalds, Harvey Norman, Chemist Warehouse and Bunnings. Also returning are Ashley & Martin, Daikin to sponsor test matches, HostPlus for The Ashes, and Youi and CBUS for the Big Bash League (BBL).
Padding up for the first time for all the formats are BetR, Canadian Club and Westpac. Aussie Broadband and IG Markets are new sponsors for The Ashes test matches.
“We’ve not sold out, but we’re getting close,” Hasan said. “This has been the highest demand I’ve ever seen for cricket.”
Hasan reiterate’s Frain’s point that Foxtel is now able to prove the business outcomes it delivers and offer brands cut-through in a relatively uncluttered environment.
“We know through the Commbank IQ data that over summer our customers spend 109 per cent more. For example, when you look at categories like entertainment, it’s up 91 per cent; and travel is up 77 per cent,” he explained.
“When you overlay that with the lower ad load and higher engagement, they’re the reasons the clients are jumping on board to partner, because they know the outcomes that cricket can deliver.”
Aside from the mouthwatering prospect of an Ashes series and a white ball battle with India, Frain said Foxtel continues to push the boundaries of innovation in its coverage, and also boasts one of the strongest cricket commentary teams in the world, led by cricketing royalty in Adam Gilchrist, Ravi Shastri, Alan Border, Brett Lee, Mark Waugh, David Warner and Kerry O’Keeffe, among others.
Check out: Kayo Sports launches summer of cricket
The cricket pyramid
Foxtel is two years into a new rights deal with Cricket Australia, which includes coverage of state competitions such as the Sheffield Shield, the Marsh One Day Cup, women’s domestic T20 Competition and Women’s National Cricket League, all Men and Women’s Aus A matches, Prime Minister’s XI match and Women’s Governor-General’s XI match.
Foxtel Group Director of Content Acquisitions and Sports Partnerships Adam Howarth said this extensive investment should help elevate second tier competitions to the Australian public.
“What that does for us is help us to build profiles, build the athletes and their stories so that when these guys develop and put on a national jersey or a Big Bash League jersey, they are hopefully household names,” he said.
“This is one of those summers where we’re hoping that our customer base stays with us the whole way through. We’ve had some fantastic audiences for the footy finals, Bathurst yesterday was one of the best races of all time (and also broke Foxtel viewing records), and now we jump into 3,000 hours of live cricket on Kayo Sports. We’ve got every match of domestic cricket, and we just think it’s going to be wonderful for our subscribers.”
All three executives are hoping the Ashes will go down to the final day in Sydney with Hasan and Frain rooting for England, and Howarth going for the Aussies.
Whoever picks up the world famous come January 8, Kayo Sports, Foxtel and advertising partners are likely to be winners.
England will take on Australia for The Ashes Trophy from 21 November in Perth.
