Three-year WACA dig for MJB&B

MJB&B Advertising and Marketing has secured a three-year deal to spearhead marketing initiatives for the Western Australian Cricket Association.

The campaign will focus on attracting new members, boosting the profile of the Retravision Warriors, and promoting use of the WACA venue for activities other than cricket.

MJB&B pitched against incumbent TMP Advertising and Communications and The Brand Agency to win the account.

MJB&B is also Retravision’s advertising agency and played a significant part in arranging the Warriors’ sponsorship, which involved the name change from the Western Warriors to the Retravision Warriors.

According to MJB&B Advertising managing director Craig Billings, the synergies of the two accounts will benefit all parties.

“It’s a good fit. At the end of the day we do a lot of work for Retravision, and what one spends the other benefits from, and vice versa,” Mr Billings said.

WACA general manager business development Darren Beazley said the decision to put the advertising account up for tender was based on the need to adopt a more strategic creative branding and marketing approach.

“There are two elements of the tender,” he said.

“One is the WACA as a business entity itself and its membership and the other is the Retravision Warriors brand and repositioning them in the marketplace.

“We feel that over the past four to five years their position in the market has started to fall, although the performance on the field has been very good.

“Our competition is the Wildcats and the Glory and we felt that they had started to catch up or even go past us.

“We want to market the venue [WACA] as a multi-function venue and we are going after the concerts market. We are looking at hosting one-off sporting events and we’re also looking at getting a full-time winter tenant.”

Mr Beazley said that, even with plans mooted for a new stadium to house cricket and football, the WACA still had a job to do in the immediate future.

“If that does happen, it’s 20 years away,” he said.

Mr Beazley said a membership campaign would commence on August 1 this year.

He said a new corporate membership package would be launched in addition to new marketing programs for its younger members’ Long On Club.

Mr Billings said raising the profiles of Retravision Warriors players would form a component of gaining more members and boosting attendance numbers for the WACA.

“WA has a lot of great young cricketers but their profile is lacking,” he said.

“We want to let people know who they are because that is an important aspect to developing the profile of the team.”

Mr Billings said the WACA tender was a significant win for the agency, which lost major account Enjo late last year.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us to grow with the WACA and the Retravision Warriors,” he said.

Research by Market Equity on behalf of the WACA earlier this year showed the Retravision sponsorship was providing good brand awareness for the electrical goods retailer.

About six months after becoming the Warriors’ major sponsor, Retravision gained an unprompted awareness rate of 61 per cent.

According to the research, 26 per cent of spectators felt more inclined to buy Retravision products because of the sponsorship.