eventCricket Australia is using NFTs (digital assets representing ownership of a piece of content) to draw an emotional connection to an older audience and also engage younger fans, AdNews Sydney L!VE was told.
The sports body is building a dedicated cricket NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace. At the moment, registering an interest in a cricket NFT can be done HERE.
A big part of the program will be a form of trading cards and moments, mining cricket's long history.
“We have a very strong archive and we have a very big fan base that wants to engage with that older cricket so that that will be a pillar of our program,” says Abhi Arunachalam, Cricket Australia senior commercial advisor – media rights.
“But the focus we have now is actually about building community and building engagement.
“Bridging that in real life experience with the digital experience is where this program is.”
Arunachalam says cricket is an international sport that's arguably the second most popular sport in the world behind football.
“And Australians are very key part of the fabric of cricket in that global landscape,” he says.
“So we always continually look for ways to talk to our global audience or engage in global audience whilst also catering to people in Australia.”
Cricket Australia looked at other sports largely in the US and found an extensive level of engagement for a very low cost.
“We set out on this journey in about March 2021 and we thought we'd be done and dusted by about April 2021 but it took us till about April 2022 before we actually announced our program.
“As we learn more, we found that there were better ways to engage that audience.”
Sydney L!VE is powered by supporting partners Dentsu, LiSTNR, Pubmatic, Foxcatcher and Boomtown as well as associate partners Piano, Amobee and Resolution Digital.
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