NZ-Cricket-White-1

New Zealand Cricket

New Zealand Cricket unlocks the future of sport with digital innovation.

“Cricket, a game for all New Zealanders, a game for life”. That’s New Zealand Cricket’s ‘true north’, the vision that’s being driven forward by its digital technology journey.

So, Qrious migrated NZC’s on-premises data to the cloud and acquired new data sources to enrich it. This enabled NZC to automate the collection, cleaning and integration of multiple data sets and store them in a single platform. It offers a richer picture of external factors that might affect performance, such as ball-tracking, weather, injury and training workloads.

“We bring it all together around team and player performance, and look for cause-and-effect relationships. This influences what else we may need to bring into the training environment to ensure that we can perform. Winning is a given, but performance is about executing the things we’ve worked on in the moment,” says Warren.

“Qrious has an ability to take what we want and create a solution. It’s amazing to have an external provider that can so quickly become aligned with what you are trying to achieve. They just get it.”

The digital platform offers a scalable solution. So, as NZC gains access to more data sets, it can simply integrate these into the platform and gain even deeper insights.

Qrious has the ability to take what we want and create a solution. It’s amazing to have an external provider that can so quickly become aligned with what you are trying to achieve. They just get it.
— Paul Warren, Performance Analysis Manager, NZC

NZC saw the power of the technology inside the high-performance game and is applying it to both improve fan engagement and grow the grassroots game. 

But how do you create a consistent yet contextualised experience for fans in line with how they’re engaging with the sport, be that playing, volunteering, watching or simply seeking news and information? 

“Being digital-led is absolutely critical,” says Geraghty.

So, having established a modern data platform capability within NZC, Qrious has now migrated its fan-engagement data from disparate data sources to provide a holistic view of engagement across several metrics, including email campaigns, traditional and social media, ticketing, merchandise and community registrations. All of this can be benchmarked against population and demographics, providing a view of participation and engagement nationwide. NZC can now better target its resources to improve fan engagement and grow participation.

Geraghty says that three years ago NZC fan personas were developed on assumptions. “We are at the other end of the spectrum now; we understand fans much better. Ultimately, we want to understand the behaviours and interests of those across the whole ecosystem of cricket.” 

We want to empower fans to experience the sport on their own terms. It’s about providing a more consistent and personalised experience so that they’re able to engage with the sport in new ways
— Stacey Geraghty, Head of Marketing, NZC

Since Netflix entered the New Zealand market in 2015, it has transformed the television-watching landscape and ignited a streaming migration. Today, Netflix is the most popular pay-television service in New Zealand.

Its popularity is fuelled by how accessible streaming technology has become. From 2019 to 2020 alone, an additional 181,000 New Zealanders gained access to a streaming service in their home and these services now reach over 3.2 million people – a massive 82% of the population.

“The research and the statistics are undeniable,” says Bain. “We are confident that the strategy we are jointly implementing with NZC is the right one.”

Geraghty says it’s important to NZC that Spark Sport engage with the cricket community at the grassroots level and show them the platform’s capability. “How accessible and easy it is, and how it can help them bring their community together.”

The research and the statistics are undeniable,” says Bain. “We are confident that the strategy we are jointly implementing with NZC is the right one.
— Matt Bain, Marketing Director, Spark
Let's find the right solution.
Ready to see how a modern data approach could transform your organisation? Let us know, and a consultant will be in touch.