Branding News South Africa

Brand identity for ICC comes from SA teams

The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently contracted South African branding specialists HKLM Middle East and SA sponsorship marketing specialists Playmakers to create a brand identity for the 2010 event which reflects both the youthful energy and charisma of the host country and the ICC's brand objectives for the biennial event. The brief required brand strategy, logo and visual style for the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 Championships in the West Indies.
Brand identity for ICC comes from SA teams

"The new brand positioning goes way further than cricket,” said HKLM Middle East MD, Lawrence Flude. "Our strategic interpretation was that the brand is about heritage, flair, celebration and national glory - and we manifested this creatively with gritty, graffiti style visuals that reflect the demographics of the target audience and the culture of the Caribbean."

"There's no doubt that a client relationship based on trust, transparency and respect is reflected in the quality of the end product," said Playmakers MD, Richard Dunn. "Through the combination of brand expertise and sport marketing the team was better positioned to understand and connect with the visitors to the event. The ICC was extremely pleased with the result."

"The look and feel of an event is very important from a commercial and marketing point of view," said Campbell Jamieson, ICC GM - Commercial. "The ICC World Twenty20 is all about the excitement of nation-versus-nation cricket and we are keen for this year's version to be a real Caribbean celebration of all that's good about West Indian cricket. The visual style that the team has come up with is exactly in keeping with our vision for the event."

Captivating, contagious cricket

"As this is a regular event, we were mindful that the brand needed to be adaptable to subsequent events in other regions," Flude said. "Essentially, we distilled the brand promise into three words that became the event's tagline - 'captivating, contagious cricket'. This is aligned to our principle of creating long-term branding solutions for our clients."

"This format of the game is driven by the crowds and the brand needed to resonate with them as well as attract lapsed cricket fans. The edgy visual style has a contemporary appeal that contains many elements that will be recognisable to the 16 to 22-year-old target market. Hand-stencilled graffiti-style game action illustrations and the blue, orange and maroon colour palette add layers of texture and reflect the flair and flavour of the region and the game format."

Design guidelines

The project took three months and involved developing comprehensive design guidelines for a range of executions including co-branding opportunities, sponsor guides, advertising and marketing collateral.

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