Carter & Habana Help RWC Partner Mastercard Give Pirates Women’s Rugby Club A Priceless Surprise

Mastercard athlete ambassadors Bryan Habana and Dan Carter paid a surprise visit to pirates Women’s Rugby as part of the payment’s brand’s ongoing programme of supporting women in sport through its umbrella ‘Start Something Priceless’ global platform.

Timed to leverage spiking interest in the sport ahead of the autumn’s Rugby World Cup in Japan, the campaign launched in South Africa in celebration of women’s month.

12 August saw the two legends of the sport travel to the Pirates Women’s Rugby Club’s home in Johannesburg for a surprise visit and to hold a ‘priceless team talk’ and run an ‘on field coaching session’.

The team were actually watching a Dan Carter tutorial video as part of their usual training session, when the New Zealand super star and three-time winner of the World Rugby Player of the Year award and South Africa record try scorer Habana walked into the change room.

Habana and Carter shared their own rugby and personal playing experiences, offered support, encouragement and motivational tips on the importance of club rugby and then ran an on field coaching session.

The initiative was promoted through PR and a video amplified across Mastercard’s digital and social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The best thing you will see today.

This is what happened when Dan Carter and Bryan Habana showed up in the Pirates Women’s Rugby Club changing-rooms.

Good grief. All the feels. And absolutely priceless!#PricelessRWC2019 https://t.co/8TlQbsKsdI

— Brent Lindeque (@BrentLindeque) August 15, 2019

“The team was caught completely off-guard, and immediately started screaming and cheering when they saw their heroes in the flesh,” said Pirates coach and team founder Chanel Alberts.

“Meeting these rugby legends was not just an unforgettable experience, but truly a Mastercard masterclass. We have incorporated one of their plays into our game plan, which has become the recipe for of our success,” says Alberts.

This aim of this initiative was for Mastercard, a Worldwide Partner of Rugby World Cup

2019, to further strengthen its commitment to women’s rugby in South Africa.

Part of Mastercard’s ongoing ‘Start Something Priceless’ initiative, the two-player surprise appearance set out to show how rugby 9and Mastercard) empowers women players at a grassroots level and how passions like sport can help people overcome personal challenges, confront bias to pursue their dreams and transform adversity into strength.

“Rugby is a passion that has the power to transcend boundaries and bring us together – as a nation, as proud fans and as players of a sport,” commented Beatrice Cornacchia, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Middle East and Africa at Mastercard.

“As a proud partner to Rugby World Cup 2019, we are looking to Start Something Priceless in South Africa, and what better way to inspire, and change the lives of these inspirational women, by delivering unexpected experiences delivered by these rugby superstars themselves. And as a long-standing advocate of the importance of diversity and inclusion, Mastercard believes this is an opportune moment to invest in grassroots clubs and players, as this is the most direct way of putting much needed resources into women’s sports. We believe that brands that connect to the passions of their audience become more relevant, trusted and integrated into people’s lives,” says Cornacchia.

The Pirates Women’s Rugby club was founded in 2017 with the aim of making rugby more inclusive for players from different backgrounds, as well as making the women’s game more professional and accessible to South African fans.

Since it was set up the team has gone from strength to strength and recently won the Jozi Women’s League final.

“As a historically male-dominated contact sport, women have until recently not considered rugby as a career option. But the benefits of the organised game are hugely beneficial for women, who have throughout history felt disempowered due to their gender. Rugby is extremely empowering and liberating for women as it gives you the freedom to be yourself and that’s powerful. The game specifically emphasises mental resilience, courage in the face of adversity, and camaraderie,” says Alberts.

Mastercard is sponsoring the Pirate’s Women’s Rugby club to participate in the 50th Dubai Rugby 7s Invitational Tournament taking place from 5 to 7 December 2019.

The Pirates club had previously been invited to play, but lack of funding prevented them from doing so.

Comment:

From official World Rugby partners like Mastercard, teams like England (see case study) and team sponsors such as Ola/Rugby Australia (see case study) and Air New Zealand/All Blacks (see case study), to kit suppliers like Asics/Rugby Australia (see case study) and Asics/Springboks (see case study), the summer has seen a wave of pre Japan 2019 rugby marketing.

Interestingly, both Mastercard and Guinness with ‘Liberty Fields’ (see case study)

have focused on the women’s game in August.

According to World Rugby, women’s rugby is one of the fastest growing team sports in the world with more than 2.7 million women and girls playing the game.

“The growth of women’s rugby globally has been absolutely phenomenal,” said Habana.

“The beauty of rugby is that if we were all the same, it would be an unbelievably boring sport.”

In May 2019 World Rugby itself launched a new women’s rugby brand identity called ‘try And Stop Us’ (see case study).

Links:

Mastercard

https://www.priceless.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Mastercard

https://twitter.com/Mastercard

https://www.instagram.com/mastercard

https://www.youtube.com/user/MasterCard

MasterCard Rugby Website:

http://rugby.priceless.com/en/.

Rugby World Cup

https://www.rugbyworldcup.com

https://twitter.com/rugbyworldcup