Shorts: Cricket World Cup, Stormzy, Mclaren

Digital financial services provider Remitly and UK mattress business Simba have been named as co-sponsors of Channel 5’s daily highlights of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

The new partnerships, which were announced by Sky Media, the advertising arm of Sky, on Thursday 5th October and will run for the duration of the tournament, which concludes on Sunday 19th November.

Remitly and Simba’s 15-, 10- and 5-second sponsorship idents will run alongside daily one hour round up shows across Channel 5, My5 and Sky On Demand, including at least nine England games scheduled at 7pm.

Debarshi Pandit, Head of Multicultural Business, Sky Media, commented, “Cricket as a sport elicits a totally different unprecedented level of passion, especially within the South Asian communities that form a significant base of Remitly’s clientele. And casting the net wider and further in terms of audience reach, through Channel 5, both Remitly & Simba stand to get the best of both mainstream and multicultural audiences.

Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) has appointed IMG to ‘drive the development of its new digital and content channels strategy.’

The partnership will focus on growing the digital audience for the Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby competition and the Allianz Cup, with the aim of increasing engagement of both Premiership Women’s Rugby and its 10 clubs in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup 2025 in England.

As a strategic partner, IMG’s digital team (formerly known as Seven League) will analyse Premiership Women Rugby’s existing social media platforms to create a full-service digital strategy across its owned channels, including recommendations on channel identity, content creation and distribution, and community management. 

IMG will also advise and guide Premiership Women’s Rugby on integrating next-generation data and analytics tools to effectively measure campaign success. 

Launched in July this year, Premiership Women’s Rugby was established to deliver a 10-year strategy for women’s rugby in England as a partnership between the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the 10 clubs participating in the Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby competition and Allianz Cup.

Premiership Women’s Rugby Chief Executive, Belinda Moore, commented, “We have ambitions to grow Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby as we build towards Rugby World Cup 2025, and to achieve this goal we need significant and mutually beneficial partnerships with brands like IMG. 

“Following a competitive process, with some impressive companies, we are delighted to appoint such an experienced team to create a new plan for the Premiership Women’s Rugby digital and social media channels. IMG have a great pedigree in women’s sport and we have full confidence in Stephanie and her team to deliver the platform for significant growth in engagement with our fans.”

adidas and UK artist Stormzy have launched the next phase of the #Merky Football Careers partnership, the national programme created to enhance and protect diverse representation in football.

The pair have announced that the programme will now broaden its scope and impact by tripling the number of roles available.

First established in 2022, with an ambition to affect change across the football community by addressing the lack of diversity off the pitch in football, the initiative provided 15 people with roles within the industry.

This year sees #Merky FC increase the number of off pitch roles from 15 to 50, with 25 leading brands supporting the project to form part of the careers programme kick-starting in January 2024. This includes Manchester United, Arsenal, Sky Sports, LADbible and Electronic Arts.

Each placement will provide work opportunities spanning operations and community to creative and marketing, in a bid to change the game for Black and Black mixed heritage youth.

Stormzy commented, “We launched #Merky FC last year to help level the playing field off-the pitch by providing career opportunities for young Black people. I am so pleased that we’re back this year with the same focus but with an increased recognition that there is still a lot of work to be done. This requires a collective effort from the whole football community and it’s the reason we published this report – we want to show how everyone can do their bit.”

McLaren Racing has announced an expansion to its deal with Japanese multinational information technology service NTT Data.

The UK-based motor racing team confirmed that NTT DATA branding will feature on the McLaren’s  MCL60 Formula 1 race cars for the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, and for the remainder of the season, as part of NTT DATA’s existing partnership with the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team.

NTT DATA has been Arrow McLaren’s official IT services partner since 2022.

NTT DATA branding will be represented on the halo of the McLaren MCL60 race cars until the end of the 2023 season.

Gallagher Premiership rugby union club Bristol Bears has extended its partnership with healthcare product specialists, Physique Management.

As well as becoming a supporting partner of Bristol Bears, Physique Management brand Tiger Tapes will maintain its position as the official supplier of taping and strapping products to the team.

Additionally, the pair will collaborate on educational content, such as videos on taping techniques to ‘benefit the wider rugby community.’ 

Kevin Peters, Managing Director at Physique Management said, “We’re more than happy to be working with Bristol Bears again and to be providing their medical teams with the supplies they need to look after the players’ wellbeing. We’re confident that our range of products will help the players feel right and feel ready on the field. 

“The educational content we created with Bristol Bears last season was excellent and really gave something back to the rugby community, so we’re excited to see what we produce this time around.” 

Adam Roberts, Head of Medical Services at Bristol Bears, added, “Working with Physique last season was fantastic and we’re really happy to see this continue. 

I found ordering with them was a much simpler experience because their customer service team are so helpful, and delivery is so quick. The team has loved using Physique’s Tiger Tapes range and the players are very happy with the products as they’re stronger and more durable, so will last throughout a game once applied.” 

Last week, Physique Management also renewed its partnership with Bristol City FC for a fifth consecutive year. 

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) has announced the appointment of Joanna Coates as its part-time interim CEO.

Coates has previously held roles in sports organisations across netball and athletics.

She was recently interim CEO at British Wheelchair Basketball and is a Board member at the Youth Sports Trust.