Leveraging its role as the lead partner of the British & Irish Lions for the 2021 Tour of South Africa, Vodafone expanded its ongoing #UniteThePride activation around the early May squad announcement focused on boosting excitement and awareness, driving jersey sales and official app downloads.
This team reveal strand of the initiative, created in harness with agency Carat UK, was built around the theme of the pride and passion involved in wearing the Lions jersey and was structured in a three-phase approach prior to, during and following the squad announcement.
Beginning on 5 May, Vodafone rolled out an online video running across brand and team channels featuring ambassador and former England and Lions centre Jeremy Guscott and other rugby legends discussing how wearing the British and Irish Lions jersey is the honour of a lifetime.
This was followed 48-hours on 7 May later with a live stream of the squad announcement fronted by David Flatman.
Then, following the reveal of the names for the 2021 tour, the third phase saw Vodafone post a film called ‘Dedication’ starring one of the names chosen for the squad Stuart Hogg discussing how the path to wearing a Lions jersey takes a lifetime of dedication from players and their support network and sees the Scotland star thank his friend and coach for his journey to the jersey.
The content pieces all carry the #UniteThePride #Lions2021 hashtags and urge viewers to download the Lions app ‘to get closer to the tour than ever before’.
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It was back in July 2020 that Vodafone was announced as the lead partner of the British & Irish Lions for the 2021 Tour of South Africa in a deal which will not only see the brand on the front of the team’s shirt and across its other assets, but also sees Vodafone customers benefit from exclusive access to tickets, experiences and merchandise via Vodafone’s ‘VeryMe’ loyalty programme.
The sponsorship also sees the telco provide communications equipment to keep all those officially involved in the tour connected with one another, families and fans, as well as providing technical support for training and player performance.
A core pillar of the activation sees Vodafone create and curate the official, dedicated Lions app: which offers fans features ranging from exclusive content, news, experiences and interactive games.
The multi-platform #UniteThePride was launched back in October 2020 when the campaign leveraged the launch of the official 2021 Lions jersey.
This activation phase included working with ESPN UK to produce a one-off digital show to showcase the release of the jersey alongside the launch of the app and gave fans a chance to themselves become the faces of Vodafone’s #UniteThePride campaign.
Co-created and brokered by Dentsu agencies Carat and The Story Lab, the ongoing magazine show hosts are sports pundit and former rugby union player David Flatman and TV presenter Sarra Elgan who were joined by former Lions Sam Warburton, Jeremy Guscott, Sir Ian McGeechan, and Paul O’Connell, plus Maggie Alphonsi.
The app featured an AR Squad Slector tool and Vodafone’s Digital Lions (which calls on rugby union fans to create personalised avatars and become the faces of the Vodafone campaign to #UniteThePride).
The Lions partnership, Vodafone’s highest profile sponsorship in recent years, builds on Vodafone’s heritage in rugby, which includes existing partnerships with the IRFU and with Premiership Rugby side Wasps.
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