Beats Br Dre’’s latest sports property ambush is a three-market, three-spot, three-endorser campaign leveraged the Rugby World Cup called ‘The Game Starts Here’.
The title references its FIFA World Cup ‘The Game Before The Game’ initiative (see case study) and the approach follows a similar thematic path – one focused on pressure and training.
The first phase of the campaign kicked off simultaneously in three core rugby union markets: England, France and New Zealand.
England captain Chris Robshaw fronts that host nation commercial with narrative built around following his physical and mental tournament preparations and challenges (from press conferences and media doubts, to fan passion and even personal family insights).
True to Beats form, music plays a pivotal role, with the 3-minute and 9-second English ad played out to a stirring soundtrack of hymn Jerusalem performed by 20-year-old music prodigy Jacob Collier.
A parallel 3-minutes and 26-second New Zealand commercial is led by Beats athlete ambassador (and All Blacks captain) Richie McCaw.
Called ‘We Belong Here’, again the narrative follows the flanker preparing for the Rugby World Cup away from the stadium lights and the glamour in gyms, locker rooms and local fields.
This film debuts a bespoke Haka written exclusively for Beats By Dre by Kapa Haka leader and Haka composer Inia Maxwell.
A similarly structured 2-minutes and 57-second spot in France stars Wesley Fofana.
All three ads, which feature Beats Studio Wireless and Powerbeats2 Wireless products, drive viewers towards further branded content and encourage them to uncover the stories behind #TheGameStartsHere online at the campaign microsite http://beats.is/TheGameStartsHere.
Beats is new to rugby as a sport and a marketing space and the brand’s team worked with a set of 12 rugby experts to provide relevant insights.
The creative was developed in harness with agency R/GA London where the art direction was by Ciaran McCarthy hand copywriting came from Edwin Latchford.
Andre Stringer directed the English and French ads, while Twin directed the New Zealand TVC – all through Reset.
Comment
It’s not surprising that Beats has set its guerrilla sights on the Rugby World Cup as it seeks to inspire both core fans and causal supporters to try its products.
Indeed, surely it was inevitable that Beats would sign up a set of star rugby players to ambush the tournament.
After all, despite not being official rights holders, Beats has done just that at pretty much every major sporting event or property in the last few years.
The IOC, the NFL and FIFA have all tried (and largely failed) to stop the Beats ambush onslaught.
So what chance for World Rugby?
Not only is the Beats’ tactic all too familiar, but so is the understandable approach to music, the narrative ‘training’ theme and the creative approach.
Indeed, Beats has become synonymous with campaigns focusing on the way athletes prepare in the moments before a big game or tournament: from Neymar and co at the Brazil 2014 World Cup (see case study), to Serena Williams at the 2015 US Open (see case study).
In fact, we’ve seen it so often that despite the benefits of creative consistency, Activative’s feeling is that this rugby work doesn’t quite have the same creative freshness as the approach has had in much of Beats’ previous work.
This is probably exacerbated by the presence in all three ads of so much imagery and symbolism based on national stereotypes and clichés: from St George and Shakespeare in the England ad, to cockerels and berets in the French spot
Despite its best efforts, perhaps this is one sign of the brand’s lack of familiarity and heritage with the sport.
‘Making spots about basketball and football isn’t always easy but they’re so popular,’ comments Beats CMO Omar Johnson.
‘Rugby is niche. We wanted to create something that reflected that it’s a sport not just about the player or the team; it’s about national pride. We weren’t the experts here so we had players and former players helping us. We don’t walk into a room with a script. Instead, we work with these guys to find interesting stories. You find that’s where the magic happens because once they discover you’re cool with how they operate then they tell you things that nobody knows.’
All three ads were launched in the three countries on the same day, 17 September, and in terms of YouTube views the score so far is close:
Chris Robshaw – 5,403,683
Richie McCaw – 3,605,978
Welsey Fofana – 3,396,261
Whether that’ll be the order if the teams face one another on the field remains to be seen.
Links
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Shop Beats:
Jacob Collier ‘Jerusalem’ On Apple Music:
R/GA London
http://www.rga.com/offices/london
