Closing date: 18th January 2016

Reporting to: Director of Participation & Growth
Location: Strong preference for London based candidates

The England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales and has recently shared our exciting vision to make Cricket a game for everyone – played, watched and loved by more people. A key element of this strategy is to significantly grow and diversify participation in the game.  This includes a focus on attracting new players and participants, both female and male, across a variety of formats and wider participation opportunities.  Critically, this will also demand a focus on inspiring children to take up a lifelong association with this game that so strongly fosters both their personal and physical development.

In order to deliver this, and in line with our values to “push new boundaries” and “be the best”, we are undertaking a significant restructure of the Participation and Growth department and its management team.

As a result, we are looking to appoint a Head of Customer Marketing and Systems (Participation). This newly created position will play a critical leadership role in connecting the consumer marketing and communication departments of the England and Wales Cricket Board with our core customer, the participation delivery partners. It will also be required to lead the development and adoption of the support systems that foster the simpler administration of the recreational game.
 

Job Purpose

Lead the “enablement” function of the recreational game that focuses on uniting local participation delivery partners (County Cricket Boards, Leagues, Clubs and Schools) through the development of:

• A clear and coordinated customer marketing and communication plan that supports the recreational game strategies developed by the Participation and Growth functional teams
• Strong support systems that simplify the administration of the recreational game and facilitate performance management reporting
  
• Market insights to support strategic and timely decision making
  
• Be the key point of contact between the Recreational Game and other ECB support departments, who are ultimately accountable for the end consumer (the player),  in supporting the “More Play” strategy - including marketing, communications, commercial, IT and England Cricket
  
• Foster a strong partnership with Sport England, overseeing the delivery of mutually beneficial outcomes through complimentary strategies across both businesses
  
• Actively contribute to the senior management team within the Participation and Growth function and across the wider ECB business
  

 
Key accountabilities and responsibilities

• Lead a team in the development of a long term customer marketing and communications plan to engage all participation stakeholders and deliver a consistent message to our delivery partners
• Create a clear communications policy into clubs ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities between the ECB and CCB
• Support the wider Participation and Growth function by creating assets and resources to deliver the key messages to their audiences such as new programmes and campaigns. This will be achieved through a strong collaboration with ECB support functions who will ultimately “own” the end consumer of cricket participation
• Create an ongoing communications programme for leagues and clubs, coaches, teams, players and volunteers, in collaboration with CCBs and the ECBs communications department to ensure clarity of roles and responsibilities. This communication programme forms a key part of the overall activity planner overseen by the Head of Regional Operations.
• In collaboration with the ECB Digital team and delivery partners, review all digital platforms that support participation and develop a vision for transforming cricket’s digital engagement through website (desktop & mobile), apps and social media. Combining the objectives of better connecting Crickets participation partners as well as minimising administration burden
• Use insight and research to create a detailed understanding of all forms of cricket participation across the Country and cascade this information across the division to inform functional strategy and operational plans
• Partner with Sport England and DCMS in order to understand overall policy direction involving sport and also leverage the research and insight available from these bodies in order to inform both the ECB and CCB development plans
• Create a simple performance management tool to track delivery of the Participation and Growth strategy through a series of key metrics. These metrics, particularly participation targets, should be agreed after consultation and collaboration with Sport England
• Support other stakeholders within cricket to ensure a ‘joined up approach’ so messages to key groups are consistent and aligned where appropriate. Where feasible offer marketing support to emerging market such as Last Man Stands.

 
What we are looking for?

Our ideal candidate will have a diverse background that will include:

• Channel marketing and communications experience that  leverages consumer marketing campaigns to tailor a customer engagement strategy
• Digital systems development and implementation experience
• Skills in gathering the most appropriate market insights and data analytics to form logical and succinct strategic recommendations
• Strength in quickly developing strong, mutually beneficial partnerships across a varied stakeholder base
• Ideally this candidate would have experience working with Sport England
• A collaborative and instinctive leader, highly accountable, with the energy and proven experience to drive a change agenda
• A detailed understanding of the game of cricket is not a prerequisite

 
So if you are keen be a part of a global game that still maintains a strong sense of community and belief that the game of Cricket can genuinely make a difference in people’s lives, we would love to hear from you.

Click here to apply