Green Flag has kicked off a new two-year partnership with Premiership Rugby by engaging English rugby fans through free vehicle ‘health-checks’ in club car parks to help fans reduce the risk of breaking down.
In addition to the on-site match day vehicle maintenance programme, the new league sponsor is also providing fans with free travel advice in the form of real-time alerts – providing away fans with live travel updates for their game journeys.
The UK breakdown service provider’s objective for the rugby partnership is primarily to raise awareness of its services in local conurbations by delivering on-the-ground initiatives right across the Premiership Rugby experience.
The deal will give Green Flag an experiential and logo presence inside all 12 grounds in England’s top domestic rugby union competition.
The alliance opens at Bath RFU’s Recreation Ground this weekend where Bath host the Saracens and the stadium will be the first in a series of fixtures featuring Green Flag in-stadium branding.
Additionally, the company will work with the competition’s local media partners to arrange a series of exclusive ticket competitions and giveaways.
The activation, which will dovetail with Green Flag’s umbrella ‘No Matter What’ marketing message, will be developed with Green Flag agencies MediaCom Sport and MediaCom Beyond Advertising (while PR is being run by Frank PR).
Comment
One interesting aspect of the deal is that Aviva – which has been the competition’s title sponsor since the beginning of the 2010/11 season, and indeed only signed a three-year extension in May 2013 to take their sponsorship deal through to 2017 – is one of the major UK competitors of GBreen Flag parent company Direct Line.
‘We are delighted to become an official sponsor of Premiership Rugby, continuing our proud tradition of supporting the best of British sport. We understand how important it is for fans to see their favourite sports and heroes and we know there is nothing worse than breaking down on the way to see your favourite team play,’ outlines Green Flag director Mike Bowman.
‘We hope this will raise further awareness of our commitment to getting people to their destinations, no matter what.’
The deal comes at an interesting time for rugby union in England.
The domestic league has recently signed a major new broadcast rights deal with new sports TV entrant BT, while the future of the elite European competition remains in doubt with English club sides leading others in an attempt to form a breakaway tournament (or at least gain more control over the existing structure).
Plus the national team building up to hosting the sports flagship event – the Rugby World Cup – in 2015.
‘Our new partnership with Green Flag is a clear demonstration of the tremendous growth in interest in Premiership Rugby as we enter a golden era for rugby union in England,’ comments Premiership Rugby commercial director Dominic Hayes.
‘This season we have seen a huge rise in audiences on both ITV and BT Sport and, in addition to this, our online traffic and social media interaction are also at record levels.’
Links
Green Flag Blog
http://blog.greenflag.com/2014/premiership-rugby-sponsor/
Green Flag Website
Premiership Rugby Website
http://www.premiershiprugby.com/
