New Zealand Cricket (Inc.) Annual Report
New Zealand Cricket (Inc.) Annual Report
New Zealand Cricket (Inc.) Annual Report
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BUSINESS of cricketMatch attendance during the summer was up on budget and crowdsupport was strong, reflected in the more than 240,000 peopleattending international cricket during the season. Support for theBLACKCAPS was particularly strong in Auckland where the BoxingDay ODI against Sri Lanka attracted a crowd of close to 20,000. Thefirst international Twenty20 match against Australia was sold out andthe following week’s ODI attracted another 27,000 people.Interest in cricket was high throughout the summer. The sportdominated the sports pages of the major newspapers. More than 250hours of live television and radio coverage of cricket was deliveredduring the summer by NZC’s broadcasting partners Sky Televisionand The Radio Network (TRN).NZC upgraded the look, feel and content of the NZC website and aspart of the branding exercise around the BLACKCAPS launchedwww.BLACKCAPS.co.nz, a cutting edge fan site which is designed tobring BLACKCAPS fans closer to the team. NZC’s websites attractedmore than 54 million site hits during the summer, and 337,000 uniquevisitors with an average visitor length of more than 21 minutes.The National Bank’s support of cricket this year once again extendedto a preferential ticket sales offer to Bank customers and for the firsttime copies of the NZC magazine, Uncovered, were given to Bank staffat Christmas.The National Bank interactive cricket roadshow featured both atcommunity venues and at ODI matches for the second year. Theroadshow was well received by young cricket fans who eagerly tookpart in speed bowling and target throwing competitions. Thepromotions featured members of the BLACKCAPS at a number of thevenues. The National Bank also continued its sponsorship of theannual NZC awards evening which was televised live on Sky Television.State’s sponsorship of all men’s and women’s domestic seniorrepresentative cricket this year featured an integrated marketingcampaign which promoted local matches through local breakouts intelevision advertising. The campaign was built around the catch line“Your team, your day” and was successful in promoting local matchesand public awareness of State as the sponsor of senior representativedomestic cricket.32Commercial PartnersThe National Bank completed its second summer as the sponsor ofboth the BLACKCAPS and of the international home series.The Bank has been the sponsor of the international home series since1999 and became the sponsor of the BLACKCAPS in October 2003.NZC enjoys its commercial partnership with The National Bank whichincludes advice and support from the Bank and a close workingrelationship between those Bank and NZC staff involved in managingthe sponsorship.The Bank’s leveraging of its sponsorship included a high profiletelevision and radio advertising campaign which reinforced the brandvalues of the BLACKCAPS and which drove public awareness of theteam and cricket.In addition to the advertising campaign State produced a range ofsought after caps, T-shirts and backpacks for supporters of each of thesix Major Association men’s and women’s teams and branded keysales centers in each of the six Major Associations to support the localmen’s team.Samsung became the BLACKCAPS technology partner during the yearand will be providing the hardware for a new technology suite atNZC’s high performance center.NZC’s broadcasting rights holders, Sky Television and TRN, continuedto bring comprehensive coverage of men’s international cricket and aquality programme of men’s representative domestic cricket to thepublic.