During the Rugby World Cup, Rebel Sport sought to leverage spiking interest in rugby around Japan 2019 and increased demand for All Blacks jerseys without any suggestion of an official association with the tournament.
The solution, developed in harness with New Zealand based agency Stanley St, was to claim arguably Japan’s biggest and most famous ambassador as an All Blacks fan and Rebel Sport customer.
The ‘Godzilla’ campaign provides an accessible, familiar link to Japan with a sense of gargantuan fun through a simple image-led print campaign (with a little social support).
The Briscoe Group sports retailer’s campaign ran through October in New Zealand.
The campaign was created for Rebel Sport’s Marketing Manager Liz Hanrahan and Gm Marketing & Strategy Fiona Stewart by a team at Stanley St which included Chief Creative Officer Regan Grafton, Creatives Sam Henderson, Kent Briggs and Tim Thach, Account Director Daniele Lowe, Retoucher Dan Florin Spataru and Photographer Luke Harvey.
Comment:
Simple, direct, memorable and smart – sometimes traditional print work can still stand out amongst the best in contemporary sports marketing.
Rebel Sport is one of the biggest sellers of All Blacks jerseys and admitted that during japan 2019 it underestimated the staggering for adidas’ New Zealand Rugby World Cup shirts.
Rebel Sport Group Managing Director Rod Duke said: “The popularity of All Blacks jerseys always surprises me, it’s huge, They redo it and do a subtle refurb, and it always seems to sell well, especially when there’s a major event.”
Duke reports that the NZ$150 version of the popular jersey is the most popular with fans and that sales are significantly stronger than 2015.
“The replica jersey is the biggest seller, by far and away,” Duke says. “We sell at what is most likely the best price in the country, and we don’t ever get people coming in saying it is too expensive,” said Duke.
“Quite the opposite, New Zealanders are quite attached to them.”
The volume of All Blacks replica shirts sold during the World Cup is not expected to made public by either New Zealand Rugby or Adidas (who’s $10m-a-year official kit supplier deal that runs until 2023).
Links:
Rebel Sport
https://www.rebelsport.com.au/
https://twitter.com/RebelSport_NZ
https://www.instagram.com/rebelsportnz
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwjqCPvS3blA_y_YfjN_Xw
Stanley St
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