Worcestershire CCC are already reaping the benefits of the ITV 1 advert jointly promoting the county's Rapids brand and several iconic buildings in Worcester.
The county's commercial director Jon Graham revealed an unprecedented extra 1,000 tickets were sold for Sunday's televised NatWest T20 Blast match with Notts Outlaws AFTER the advert was first broadcast on Thursday evening during the 'Heathrow' programme.
It led to the game being a virtual 4,000 sell-out and the advert, featuring Rapids skipper Daryl Mitchell and paceman Jack Shantry, has also received positive feedback from other counties and brought a huge response via social media.
The venture has come about after Worcester City Council and Worcestershire County Council linked up with Worcestershire CCC to promote world class business, leisure and tourism under the #WorldClassWorcs banner during the club’s 150th anniversary year.
Graham said: "We've had not only good feedback but actual tangible results. After the advert went live on ITV on Thursday evening, we sold over 1,000 tickets for the Sunday game – which we don't do.
"When it's on Sky, sometimes people decide to watch it at home or in the pub, and don't always tend to come to the ground. Instead we had pretty much a sold out game, nearly 4,000 on Sunday. It's never happened before and I don't believe in coincidences.
"Yes, the weather did help and the fact the team are playing pretty well also helped, with a good result on the Friday night. But I do feel that extra bit of profile has really, really helped. The traffic on our website has doubled since the advert was live.
"That was always in the whole rationale behind why we did it, that people would see the advert on their tablet, IPad or smart phone, go to our website, see the advert again and hopefully say 'there's a game on Sunday, I'll buy a ticket.' That journey is happening.
"The advert is going to run for another nine days, ending the day before the Derbyshire Falcons game, so we'd like to see another healthy crowd for Derbyshire.
"The thing with TV is you do get a residual effect. People do remember the advert and we will back it up with a radio campaign at the end of June on Free Radio so people have always got it in their mindset.
"I'm pretty sure anyone who is a Worcestershire supporter would either have seen the add or someone who has seen the add would have mentioned it.
"That doesn't happen in any other media. You can be really dynamic on digital campaigns. You can do loads of press, radio which are all really important in the overall mix. But to get that cut through, TV makes a really massive difference."
Graham added: "As soon as the advert went live and we told the ECB and the other counties, we've had at least seven counties come back and say they are really impressed by the quality of the advert and the fact we got it on terrestial TV.
"A lot of them said they feel it is the way forward – as we do.
"I''m not saying it is something we can do every year because obviously we couldn't have done the ad without the relationship we've got with the council. We've got to be really thankful for that.
"But having said that the council are happy because the advert really does display some really iconic sites in the city and I think it gets the message over that we always wanted it to do.
"For us, it's always a bit of a leap of faith. The advert worked brilliantly and the buzz on social media since the advert has been on has been remarkable.
"The first ad went live on Thursday during the 'Heathrow' programme and Heathrow tweeted about the advert to 315,000 followers which got the hash tag WorldClassWorcs out there.
"That's all about promoting the city and you've got one of the biggest airports in the world promoting that hashtag. You wouldn't get that in other media. I hope it becomes a blueprint.
"By being on ITV Central West, it is the perfect fit for anyone that is going to come to Worcestershire and I'm sure there are other ITV channels that benefit maybe Somerset or Durham, counties that have only one club in one county.
"We are really happy. I know it sends out the right message. Although Sunday's result was disapointing, I'd challenge anyone who came on Sunday to say they didn't have a good time and ultimately that's it. People will come hopefully based on what they saw on Sunday."
