New Zealand Rugby Union sponsor ASB Bank is giving away the All Blacks, the Black Ferns and the Māori All Blacks to small and medium sized businesses in a new activation called ‘Borrow Rugby’s Most Famous Teams’.
The finance brand, which has had a partnership with the NZRU since 2015, is offering up its New Zealand Rugby Union rights to 100 SME businesses to help them drive new custom.
The surface objective is to support businesses though the economic uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic and to support the bank’s recently launched ASB Business Hub (an online resource providing SMEs with tools to help manage the pandemic’s impact).
The secondary objective is to position the bank as an SME supporter, market to the SME sector, add new customers and drive awareness of its All Blacks partnership.
Under the new initiative, businesses can apply for the opportunity to create personalised video ads starring one of 50 New Zealand rugby union players and have those ads distributed through digital media, billboards and social media.
The activation, developed in harness with create agency WiTH Collective New Zealand, was first teased across the bank’s online platforms from 3 July, before the hero launch spot rolled out on 6 July.
The spearhead video stars a group of All Blacks players urging potential partners/participants to ‘imagine rugby’s most famous teams fronting an ad for your business to help you bring in more business’ and encourages them to apply through the businesshub.asb.co.nz.
According to Tim Deane, ASB Executive General Manager of Business Banking, the bank is committing a NZ$3m (€1.7m/$2m) to create and produce 100 ads along with the purchase of media placements.
The businesses will also gain access to the services of ASB’s advertising agency, WiTH Collective.
Deane said: “We want a range of businesses from right around the country, but more important than anything else, we need to support those businesses that need it most,” explained Deane.
Comment:
We this approach now and we liked it the last time we saw the strategy when logistics giant DHL did the same thing with its Premier League sponsorship rights of Leicester City back in 2017 (see case study).
The initiative follows in the footsteps of previous ASB All Blacks initiatives which followed a similar approach such as its campaign helping out first time home buyers.
Based on the insight that the entire process of buying a first home is full of stress and confusion, this saw ASB leverage its partnership with the All Blacks – no strangers to stress and performing under pressure – and ASB’s own expertise to help the first home buyers of New Zealand feel cool, calm and confident at every stage of their home buying journey. This was spearheaded by a series of videos starring the players and highlighting a specific ASB service directly addressing common customer pain points and promoting confidence in first home buyers.
ASB – Call on Calm from WiTH Collective on Vimeo.
ASB Home loans – Drop Into Serenity from WiTH Collective on Vimeo.
ASB – Have Harmony from WiTH Collective on Vimeo.
The latest activation comes at a time when New Zealand Rugby itself is searching for a new principal shirt sponsor to replace AIG’s whose contract expires at the end of 2021. According to media and several sports marketers and rights brokers, the rights-owner is weighing up the potential benefits of selling its shirt sponsorship rights package – from the All Blacks through to the U20 team – to a private equity investor or single agency who would have the rights to split/sell on the rights to various brand sponsors.
Links:
ASB
https://www.instagram.com/asbbank/
https://www.facebook.com/ASBBank/
https://www.youtube.com/c/asbbank
New Zealand Rugby Union / All Blacks
https://www.instagram.com/allblacks/
https://www.facebook.com/AllBlacks
https://www.youtube.com/user/nzrugby
WiTH Collective New Zealand
https://www.withcollective.com/
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