The four-year major sports event cycle can be a very long time in the sphere of sports marketing and nowhere is this theory more clearly illustrated than at the Rugby World Cup.
In terms of sponsorship campaigns and ambush activity, the last tournament (New Zealand 2011) was perhaps most notable for work that was often sex-themed or sexist (depending on your perspective) that tightly targeted the traditional, core rugby supporting male demographic.
Remember that controversial RWC 2011 campaign from All Blacks sponsor Telecom NZ ‘Abstain For The Game’ (see case study) and ambusher Lynx’s racy ‘Rugby Rules’ viral (see case study)?
But four years later and the activation around England 2015 is very different indeed. The tournament has grown up and the marketing is more mature – aiming to engage the mass market rather than just the classic rugger bugger.
Already it has included washing lines, kids cartoons, comedians, Hollywood blockbusters and even Take That – can you get more everyday, everyone, mass market mainstream? Perhaps the whole activation landscape has become more enlightened since 2011, or perhaps the massive financial sums now needed to secure rugby rights necessitates that brands’ maximise reach across all consumers to justify their vast investments.
From the multi-phased, expansive activation of the ‘big six’ RWC worldwide partners who are reported to have paid more than $10m for their packages (DHL, Emirates, Heineken, Land Rover, MasterCard & SocGen) and initiatives from official partners in other sponsorship tiers (like Canon and Duracell), through the campaigns from the big brands backing the host team England (O2 and Samsung for example) and the current champions New Zealand (see work from Air NZ and Steinlager), to the businesses activating entire sets of rugby rights (such as Home Nations sponsors like Dove Men+Care, Guinness and Lucozade) – it seems almost al of the targeting strategies at this year’s tournament aim to engage the masses not the niche.
Keep up to date with all the most innovative and most important RWC sponsorship activation and tournament ambush activity right here at Activative.
