In praise of the ECB's digital Ashes campaign

It’s been a fantastic winter for England’s cricketers, who as you can’t fail to have noticed, recently triumphed in an Ashes series in Australia for the first time in 24 years.

But for the England Cricket Board (ECB), success has come away from the pitch as well as on it. I’m referring of course to the digital campaign that has helped bring the Ashes to life for thousands of fans not able to make the pilgrimage Down Under.

With most of the action taking place through the English night time, the ECB took advantage of a number of online platforms to bridge the potential disconnect with fans, held together by a dedicated Ashes section on ECB.co.uk as the hub.

An integrated approach to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was key, keeping fans up to date with all of the latest news, interviews and match highlights and supported by creative hooks such as ‘The Fans Ashes’, a collaborative competition with Cricket Australia to see whose page could gain the most new fans during the series (England triumphing 65,000 to 47,000).

In particular, the decision to allow the players to remain active on Twitter during the tour proved a masterstroke. With a number of high-profile gaffes from the likes of Kevin Pietersen earlier in 2010, the governing body might understandably have decided enough was enough.

But Twitter has become an essential tool for the discerning sports fan, allowing a sense of familiarity and personal connection with top stars that is completely at odds with today’s tendency towards carefully scripted sound bites and media training.

Aware of this, the ECB chose to show trust in the players, believing in their ability to recognise the boundaries. The light-hearted interaction between players including Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad gave fans an unprecedented insight into the mood within the England dressing room, so impressive that Cricket Australia subsequently told its players to take to Twitter more themselves.

However, the icing on the cake was surely ‘Swanny’s Video Diary’, a series of short clips following England’s prankster-in-chief Graeme Swann throughout the tour. Giving yet more candid insight into the camaraderie and banter amongst the squad, the diary is chiefly responsible for giving birth to the now-infamous ‘sprinkler’ dance – which fans recreated in their hundreds for a follow-up episode.

Allowing such access to the England players was not just a PR win in terms of engaging fans either. By showing the squad to be relaxed, confident and united the ECB also helped send out a very public message to Australia that this was an England team that was ready to defy the stereotypes of old and create history.