HSBC Leverages Sydney Leg Of World Sevens Partnership Via NZ’s Ruby Tui Bio Short Film

The choice of Tui as the subject for a campaign around the Sydney Sevens is apt was it was just 12 months ago, after a 31-0 defeat to Australia in the final of last year’s HSBC Sydney Sevens, where she found added motivation to redouble her efforts and redress the trans-Tasman rugby sevens balance of power.

Indeed, since that loss, Tui and the Black Ferns Sevens have won tournament after tournament: including the Commonwealth Games, the World Cup held in San Francisco last summer, as well as five consecutive HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series tournaments.

At this year’s HSBC Sydney Sevens the women’s competition takes place in parallel to the men’s event.

It was in Jul 2018 that long-time rugby supporter HSBC extended its sponsorship of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series for a further four years.

That new deal sees HSBC remain the title partner of both the men’s and women’s World Rugby Sevens Series until 2023 and also sees it become the Official Banking Partner of World Rugby.

As well as backing major tournaments, HSBC will continue to support grassroots initiatives that have already helped hundreds of thousands of young people to try the game and develop their skills.

“HSBC’s connection with rugby goes back to the 19th century,” said HSBC Chief Executive of Global Commercial Banking Noel Quinn when the deal was renewed.

“Over the past eight years we’ve worked with World Rugby to take the sport to new audiences and markets across the world. It has also allowed us to give customers and potential clients incredible experiences. We’re looking forward to another four years of working alongside World Rugby.”

HSBC’s choice to focus its brand partnership firepower around the fast paced sevens game is loinked to its Olympic status and to the fact that it is an accessible form of the sport played in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide.

The women’s game is growing particularly quickly: with more than 1.5 million women worldwide now taking part.

HSBC’s connection with rugby dates back to the 19th century when it started its first official employee teams.

Today, the bank’s support for the grassroots game includes backing a leading schools tournament in the UK as well as taster sessions for young people around the world.

Indeed, in 2017 HSBC helped to set up two new programmes – ‘Try Rugby’ in Hong Kong and the ‘Rookie Rugby’ programme in Canada – that give young stars of the future the chance to play. Rookie Rugby alone is expected to reach an additional 375,000 young people over three years.

Rugby is just one of the sports in HSBC’sw sponsorship portfolio: others include golf, badminton, cycling and tennis.