NatWest to look beyond cricket sponsorship ties

NatWest is to broaden its sponsorship activity beyond its traditional territory of cricket and is looking at both the sporting and non-sporting arenas.

The bank, which has been involved with cricket for more than 25 years, ploughs the vast majority of its sponsorship budget into the sport.

Its current tie-ups are handled by sports marketing agency Octagon, but the bank has called a pitch for the business, in a process being handled by creativebrief.

Last year NatWest extended its sponsorship of one-day international cricket matches in England by a year. The renewed deal took in this summer's NatWest series, in which England took on Pakistan and India.

This year the bank, which also sponsors the England team's Twenty20 matches, launched the NatWest Pro-40 county cricket competition.

Its other activity includes sponsoring the NatWest women's series as well as running a grass-roots CricketForce scheme for children.

The bank has built on its cricket sponsorship through a range of campaigns, including experiential activity. It operates a NatWest Interactive Roadshow, at which it has run a Speed Stars competition over the past five years, aimed at finding the country's fastest bowlers.