Shane Warne returns to front News Corp’s fantasy sports competition, SuperCoach BBL
‘Cricketing mastermind’ Shane Warne is back to front News Corp Australia’s Supercoach BBL fantasy league for a second year, signing on as ‘coach’ of the event for 2019-20.
The major marketing campaign is a subscriber push for the publisher, with a quarter of the content delivered as part of the campaign exclusive to subscribers only.
The fantasy sports competition launched across News Corp Australia’s key metropolitan and regional mastheads this morning, and will be supported by high impact placements and double page spreads throughout the campaign.
Shane Warne is again the face of News Corp Australia’s Supercoach BBL fantasy league
The campaign was again created by The Works for News Corp Australia and will begin on television, radio and social media on Friday, ahead of an integrated campaign that will ramp up throughout the pre-season through to December 17 when the BBL begins.
The campaign will follow last year’s theme of Play for Keeps with the tagline Batting, Bowling, Banter matched with advertisements that feature plays on Warne’s iconic on-field banter. Players will also be able to compete against Warne’s Club 23 Legends team.
The Works’ creative director Nathan Bilton said the campaign gave the agency a chance to use some of Warne’s signature flair in its creative.
“As the SuperCoach Coach, Warnie is here to take your game to the next level; and part of that is raising the bar when it comes to banter.
“We were able to create a whole season of Shane-worthy sledges and content for multiple channels and formats.”
Warne said: “SuperCoach BBL is back for 2019-20 which means the Club 23 Legends are ready to take down all comers.
“And if not, I’ll certainly win the commentary box banter.”
The campaign will also feature close collaboration and integration between News Corp’s mastheads and Fox Cricket, where Warne is a regular guest. He will also contribute articles and social media videos during the pre-season.
The goal of the campaign is to generate player registrations, before moving to a player engagement focus during the season. Overall, the core focus is to drive News Corp’s digital subscriptions.
Audience data analysis will be used to send emails from Shane Warne to previous Supercoach players, from the entire suite of sports, to help generate player registrations.
Players returning to Supercoach BBL will receive Warne’s personalised words of encouragement, whether to pick up their game for those who struggled last year or to keep up the good work if they had a good season.
Players will be in the running for a weekly $1000 prize while the competition winner can look forward to a $25,000 payday.
News Corp Australia’s general manager of digital consumer revenue, publishing, Brendan Collogan, said the promotion was a key plank in the broader campaign to produce high-quality content to drive subscriptions.
“With Shane Warne once again leading our integrated campaign, along with our continued collaboration with Fox Sports, we’re expecting to hit a six or three this season.”
