John Simmons is a former brand consultant and author, who back in 2005 was asked by our co-founder Lord Mervyn King to come up with a name for the campaigning charity he was setting up. The rest, as they say, is history…
Towards the end of last year John put pen to paper to tell us how he came up with the name Chance to Shine.
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I went to school in days when cricket was ‘the summer game’ – a restricted time but with less competition from other sports for that season. This meant cricket had the attention of schoolboys (it was ‘boys only’ then) as the most popular game. But things changed over time and cricket was pushed down the sporting curriculum.
That’s why in 2005 I was asked by Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, to help with a campaigning charity he was setting up. Mervyn and I knew each other from university, having gone to similar state schools, so we shared a belief that cricket was being ignored. Mervyn had the drive and the position to do something about the situation, but he needed help with marketing. In particular the charity needed a name – and during my time at Interbrand I had headed the naming department.
At school – William Ellis in north London, where England spinner Freddie Titmus had been a pupil – I loved the fact that I could enjoy the game even though I was never going to play for the first XI, let alone England. Mervyn at Cambridge joked about one day being ‘King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s’. Cricket, he argued, gave individuals the dream of sporting achievement within the ultimate team game.
Mervyn put me in touch with Nick Gandon who was director of the Cricket Foundation at Lord’s. Various names had been considered – the Howzat Appeal, for example – but they all seemed to be straining to be clever. I suggested that Mervyn’s brief focused on the idea of cricket creating opportunities. I scribbled down lots of possible names but eventually there was one that seemed absolutely right. Nick invited me to present it to the committee.
So I walked into the committee meeting with a PowerPoint presentation, a little daunted by the presence there of cricketing heroes like Mark Nicholas and Mike Gatting. Using ‘Wishing Well’ as an example of a simple, emotive phrase that made people feel good about giving, I suggested ‘Chance to Shine’. It embraced the maverick, the kid who’s a bit of an outsider; it took in all races and communities; it opened up to girls as well as boys. But rather than logical argument, I knew that stories are always persuasive. So I set out three scenarios, encouraging the committee to imagine similar situations from their childhoods.
For example:
“It’s the last over of a close-fought match. The opposition needs 6 runs to win, your side needs one wicket. Off the last ball of the match, only a couple of runs needed, the batsman slogs the ball in the air. It’s coming towards you. Catch it and you’re a hero. It’s your chance to shine.”
The committee loved the name. Everyone had their own cricketing memories that came from similar situations; now we wanted more children to have the chance to shine through cricket. Twenty years later I believe that aim has been achieved.
John Simmons is a former brand consultant and a writer whose most recent novel is Painting Paris
