Marketeers cash-in on the Ashes

As the battle for the Ashes takes hold a number of brands including Tourism Australia, Orange and brewer Marston's have launched campaigns to try and capitalise on cricket fever.

Tourism Australia, famously known for its controversial "where the bloody hell are you?" marketing campaign, signed up Shane Warne and Phil Tufnell to make video diaries taunting each other over the Ashes series.

The video has been released virally on the likes of YouTube.

The viral video has no Tourism Australia branding, however both Warne and Tufnell make references to the infamous "where the bloody hell are you?" tagline. The film has been created jointly by M&C Saatchi's advertising and specialist sport and entertainment division.

Marston's, the official beer of the ECB, has also launched a viral video campaign featuring classic clips of cricket matches featuring Australian batters taking a direct hit "down under" by fast balls.

The clip, created by Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners, ends with the tagline "ball-tampering. Marston's style."

And mobile phone operator Orange has just launched a video and blog by England footballer Frank Lampard of all people to help promote its coverage of the Ashes.

Lampard is featured in a video batting in the nets and reveals, in his blog, that he played cricket for Essex schoolboys from the ages of 11 to 15 years old.

In December last year Lampard launched a series of video diaries for Orange in the run up to the World Cup including a clip from his living room when the World Cup draw was announced.

And in October England cricketers Michael Vaughan and Freddie Flintoff signed on to star in an exclusive made-for-mobile TV show fronted by ex-Sky Sports presenter Mark Durden-Smith.

However with the Ashes off to a rocky start for England, marketers may find that this series is less feverish and more damp squib for cricket fans in the UK.