Back in 2013, ANZ’s summer cricket spot was about as naff as you could get, with a few of the bank’s sporting ambassadors watching Eric Murray get a tennis ball beamer from Shane Bond. This year it’s taken a more serious approach for its naming rights sponsorship of the Sri Lankan series and its sponsorship of the upcoming Cricket World Cup by launching a campaign called Dream Big.
The 60 second ad, which was made by NZ Cricket’s agency True, travels the nation and gets cricket players/supporters/tragics young and old to read a line from a poem that focuses on classic banking themes like dreaming, achieving and supporting (but not huge profits). And with a moody track in the background, it’s definitely on the earnest side of the advertising ledger.
ANZ chief executive David Hisco said the company had been supporting cricket in New Zealand for 15 years, from the Blackcaps through to cricketing grants for local clubs and schools (on its anzcricketworld.co.nz site, the bank says it has awarded over $500,000 in cricket-related community grants to help players, teams, clubs and schools in the past five years and it has made a video telling the story of Otorohanga Cricket).
“We have also sponsored previous major events in New Zealand [including the Rugby World Cup in 2011], so with cricket’s most prestigious tournament in our own backyard we wanted to continue backing our team and our country,” Hisco said in a release. “We want to make this summer of cricket memorable for New Zealand fans, so to add to the tournament we’ll be running the ANZ Field Your Dream programme between now and the end of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.”
As it says on the site:
ANZ wants to help make New Zealander’s ultimate cricket dreams come true, whether it be as a fan, player, coach, manager, teacher, parent or team. Anyone with a cricket dream can apply. The believers. The dreamers.
Dream big. There are no limits to the types of cricket dreams you can apply for. It could benefit an entire community or just one family. Perhaps you need an extreme makeover for your local cricket ground or you want some help putting on the ultimate backyard cricket tournament. Whatever it is, ANZ’s big blue bus will be delivering dreams to communities around the country from January to March in this huge summer of cricket.
Think big, field your dream and ANZ just might make it come true.
As part of that campaign, 12-year-old ‘reporter’ Cullen O’Connor announced ANZ’s sponsorship of the tournament at the New Zealand final squad announcement in Christchurch last week.
He also announced the Blackcaps line-up for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 via social media and interviewed captain Brendon McCullum, coach Mike Hesson and other players.
