Building the business
Doug Waller, ICC’s Business Development Manager, outlines how the ICC is looking to optimise and leverage new revenue streams for the benefit of the global game.
Why is ongoing business development important to the ICC?
Ongoing business development is important because the ICC needs to unlock the full value of its intellectual property rights. By intellectual property rights, I am referring generally to the rights to use ICC event logos and marks and video footage from ICC events. Sponsors, broadcasters and licensees want to use ICC intellectual property in an ever-increasing number of ways. If we only market this intellectual property in a handful of ways, it is a bit like a bookshop that only sells one genre of book.
The challenge is only partly focused on creating and growing new sources of revenue. It is also improving existing commercial activities so that the revenues and brand values derived from those activities are optimised. It is difficult for any business or organisation to come up with great new ideas for products and services. Revenue gains are most frequently achieved by asking the simple questions like ‘What are we doing now?’ and ‘How can we do it more effectively?’
What are the main current areas you are working on?
Since starting with the ICC in August 2007, my focus has been on 1) event licensing and 2) new media. Under event licensing, I have been responsible for establishing the ICC Official Licensed Merchandise and ICC Official Travel & Tours programs for the rights period from 2007 to 2015. Under new media, I have been soliciting a licensee for an ICC interactive cricket game and researching the best way to commercialise the video archives of past major events. For the most part, the ICC is already performing a certain level of this activity, using major ICC events as the primary windows of opportunity. Looking ahead, one of the key challenges for ICC and its selected commercial partners is to find ways to commercialise the ICC intellectual property outside of these event windows.
What are the benefits of these programs and how do they help the ICC better connect with its consumers?
I use the word ‘consumer’ very carefully in the context of sports fans. A person can consume an ICC cricket event passively by watching it on the TV without ever being converted into a customer – a person who actually buys products and services offered by the ICC or its commercial partners. Offering these programs on a continuous basis and working closely with sponsors, broadcasters and licensees enables more consumers to become customers.
Ultimately, it is what the ICC says and does and how it promotes the sport of cricket that determines the strength or weakness of its connection to cricket fans. However, the main benefit of these commercial programs is that they provide very visible branding for ICC and since the video, shirt or travel package purchased will be of very high quality, customers should build a positive mental association between ICC and the enjoyment of that product or service.
What has the ICC learnt from other sports in this area and in what ways is it leading the way in this field of work?
ICC utilises the services of outside experts in all of these business areas. For example, with respect to the ICC Official Travel & Tours program, we work with Cricket Logistics, a business owned and managed by Gullivers Sports Travel. Gullivers not only has experience of cricket having worked with the ICC at the Cricket World Cups in 2003 and 2007 but also works closely with the IRB and FIFA in relation to their major sporting events. Working with these experts allows the ICC to benefit from their learning from other sports. It also enables ICC to focus its efforts on the core objectives of staging events and servicing the needs of its sponsors and broadcasters. Where the ICC aims to lead the way is to ensure ICC event licensing and new media activities have the widest possible reach, so that they can be used as marketing tools for selling the sport of cricket globally.
