US insurance heavyweight and New Zealand Rugby Union shirt sponsor AIG has activated its All Blacks and Black Ferns partnerships for a new values-based, anti-discrimination campaign in Japan.
Part of its umbrella ‘Diversity Is Strength’ initiative, AIG continues its campaign to call out discrimination and prejudice of any form with a new campaign and kit redesign.
AIG worked with the NZRU and kit supplier adidas to develop a new twist on the team’s iconic black shirts: the new jersey is black on the surface, but reveals the colours of the rainbow when it is stretched.
The campaign, which was developed in alliance with creative agency TBWA/Hakuhodo, spans both the All Blacks (the New Zealand men’s national rugby team) and the Black Ferns (the New Zealand women’s national rugby team).
The campaign is led by a hero film, called #DiversityIsStrength, which debuted on 22 April.
The spot is amplified across AIG’s Japanese and global channels,
We believe diversity leads to new ideas and new thinking. Discrimination is the enemy to this innovation. It’s why we teamed up with the @BlackFerns and @AllBlacks to tackle discrimination. #DiversityIsStrength pic.twitter.com/6GVcNoDbzr
— AIG (@AIGinsurance) April 23, 2018
and across all the All Blacks digital and social channels ( including Facebook, YouTube,
Twitter,
We are proud to team up with @AIGRugby as we tackle discrimination together! #DiversityIsStrength pic.twitter.com/iOITBOIfx5
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) April 23, 2018
and Instagram).
“Our creative challenge to TBWA/Hakuhodo was how do we combine AIG, the All Blacks/Black Ferns and diversity in a relevant and impactful way that reflected our common values and aspirations?” explains AIG Japan’s regional chief marketing officer Matthew Walker.
“From TBWA/Hakuhodo’s initial organizing idea of ‘If you combine all colours of the rainbow, you get black’ through to their fabric innovation and film integration to achieve that promise, we knew it was a big idea. Building on the success of our #TackleTheRisk film last year, we really wanted to work with TBWA/Hakuhodo and the All Blacks again to tackle the bigger social issues in Japan – starting with diversity.”
Comment:
The social engagement statistics for the first 24 hours since the spot was first posted show the clear benefits of a sponsor amplifying its content across the rights-holders channels as well as its own.
As, unsurprisingly, it is the All Blacks platforms that generate the biggest engagement.
One day after the video made its social debut, it had notched up 18,352 YouTube views, 146k Facebook views, 59K Twitter views and 19.7k likes on Instagram on the All Blacks own channels.
This compares to the 3,592 YouTube views, 260 Facebook views, 865 Twitter views and 833 Likes on Instagram across AIG’s platforms.
This campaign follows on almost a year after the joint AIG/All Blacks ‘Tackle The Risk’ campaign in Japan (see case study), as the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and its shirt sponsor AIG built towards the Rugby World Cup in Japan in Autumn 2019.
It was in November 2016 that AIG extended its multi-million partnership with the All Blacks by penning a six-year renewal that saw the US-based insurance firm continue as the front-of-shirt sponsor of New Zealand’s world champion senior men’s team.
AIG also supports New Zealand’s other representative sides such as the All Blacks Sevens, the Maori All Blacks, the Black Ferns women’s team, the Black Ferns Sevens and New Zealand’s under-20 teams.
The deal sees the insurer have a strong ad presence at New Zealand home games and All Blacks players continue to lend their images to AIG advertising campaigns.
While the financial terms of the renewal were not publicised, the previous 2012 deal was reported to be worth NZ$80m (US$59m).
Links:
AIG
https://twitter.com/AIGinsurance
https://www.youtube.com/user/AIG
https://www.facebook.com/AIGInsurance/
https://www.instagram.com/aigrugby
New Zealand All Blacks
https://www.youtube.com/user/nzrugby/
http://www.facebook.com/allblacks
http://www.twitter.com/allblacks
http://www.instagram.com/allblacks
TBWA/Hakuhodo
http://www.tbwahakuhodo.co.jp/en/
