On a very rainy Thursday in January, Synergy launched RBS RugbyForce at Twickenham Stadium with ambassador Tom Wood and NatWest RugbyForce at WaunarlwyddRFC in Wales with George North.
RugbyForce is a nationwide community volunteer programme which helps local rugby clubs improve their facilities and safeguard their long-term future. Last year the programme helped more than 400 clubs in the UK and Ireland and it is testament to the initiative’s development that RugbyForce now exists across all four Home Union territories – Ulster Bank RugbyForce in Ireland, NatWest RugbyForce in Wales, and RBS RugbyForce in England and Scotland.
Our role was to maximise PR exposure from the launches in order to drive more clubs to sign up for the programme before registration closes at the end of March. At Twickenham we were also launching a special initiative giving English clubs, who sign up before England’s RBS 6 Nations games at Twickenham, the chance to have their names printed on the steps of the famous stadium.
The ambassadors were chosen to demonstrate the link between grassroots and elite rugby, emphasising RBS Group’s commitment to the sport at all levels. Both took every opportunity to explain to the media that they were promoting RugbyForce and delivered all our key messages about the importance of the programme and the fantastic impact it has on local rugby clubs.
At Twickenham, Tom Wood spoke to a number of different media, including an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph and a live appearance on TalkSport, as well as branded pieces in the Birimingham Post and Sunday Mercury, and a host of other online and radio interviews. The campaign was launched with the names of three lucky clubs, and representatives from each were at Twickenham to provide further online media content and enable us to target local press from across the country.
Tom Wood and the lucky club members
Meanwhile in Cardiff, WaunarlwyddRFC turned out in force to see George North, with around 100 kids and 60 adults attending. Media interviews went ahead with Swansea Sound radio, Scarlett FM radio, the Press Association, the South Wales Evening Post, the Daily Express, Rugby World and BBC Wales Radio & TV.
With the aim to raise exposure of the programme and ultimately drive registration, the day was a great success, generating significant coverage that really delivered on the RugbyForce messages.
All in all it was a hectic and sodden, but ultimately incredibly successful day in both England and Wales, showcasing the RBS Group’s commitment to community rugby. The day drove coverage that will encourage clubs to register and help them to help themselves become more sustainable businesses through the RugbyForce programme. For more information go to www.rbs.com/rugbyforce.
Over a month on from the Rugby World Cup Final and the post mortems are just about complete. Global TV audiences of 4 billion have been reported, social media round-ups published, teams of the tournament have been selected by all and sundry, and the New Zealand Herald has discovered some other sports to write about. Only England seems relentlessly stuck in review and recrimination mode, with new personnel and processes being announced on a weekly basis. While the RFU sifts through the carnage of dwarf-throwing, ferry jumping, ball-swapping and under-performing, here’s a slightly lighter examination of the brand marketing activity that surrounded the world’s third biggest sporting event.
In the previous Synopsis, Synergy’s new head of content, Colin Burgess, outlined the key ingredients for successful content that will illicit the deepest audience engagement: authority, authenticity – and the holy grail of all marketing – making it memorable. Applying those criteria to sponsor content during the Rugby World Cup goes a long way to explaining why activity might or might not have resonated with rugby fans.
Authority first. This is largely determined by the content’s provenance – it needs to be produced and delivered by a trusted and credible source. Some brands activating around the Rugby World Cup have a natural advantage in the authority stakes for various reasons:
1) Their inherent role in the game and on the pitch (the likes of adidas, Nike and Gilbert)
2) Through their long-standing presence as a rugby sponsor (see O2, Guinness and Heineken)
3) By their connection with the host nation (for example Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand)
Throwing in a few brand ambassadors is another well-trodden path to creating or supplementing a brand’s natural authority and giving the content a credibility boost. A great example of this, and fantastic use of owned media, came from Air New Zealand, who painted their fleet black and produced a safety video featuring members of the All Blacks team. Nearly 1m online views for a 4 minute safety video. Job well done.
On to authenticity and content that connects through personal or social relevance. To get the kitemark of rugby authenticity, sponsors adopted a variety of techniques:
1) Showing an understanding and empathy for the particular humour, culture and spirit of rugby fans
2) Playing on the history and heritage of the game and previous tournaments
3) Tapping into events as they happen in the tournament to become part of the narrative of the Rugby World Cup
Below are Synergy’s nominations for the brands that most successfully delivered authentic content during the World Cup, embodying those three techniques. But in keeping with rugby’s community spirit, please add your own nominations for the best brand content around the 2011 Rugby World Cup in the comments section below:
O2, with a tradition of giving free pies and pints to customers at Twickenham, adapted their customer proposition to fit early morning rugby viewing. Ashton donning an apron, Jonny making tea (after numerous practice sessions, no doubt), and Jonno with the control (no comment…). Relevant content from a long-standing rugby sponsor. If only it had been Guinness not Greene King in the breakfast packs…
Steinlager proved that an ambush marketer can still exhibit authority (what is more relevant to All Blacks supporters than beer, and a Kiwi brand at that?), authenticity (connecting through the collective anguish of New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup chokes) and a brilliant creative idea (reviving the Steinlager white can)…
Wilkinson Sword showed their quick thinking and wit by creating a pre-Final advert encouraging Lievremont to shave his ridiculous moustache.
It was precisely the fact that these campaigns came from a place of authority and authenticity that made them the most memorable.
But, all in all, the Rugby World Cup will not go down in the Sponsorship Hall of Fame as a high-water mark of sponsorship activity. So what was missing from sports marketing activity and particularly content around Rugby World Cup 2011? The answer is ‘just about everything’ from the 4th Era of Sponsorship: interactivity, genuine collaboration and contribution from fans within brand campaigns (beyond the standard encouragement to tweet a hashtag…), exciting use of mobile, and memorable, game-changing innovation.
Let’s hope brands were keeping their powder dry for 2012, and the unprecedented marketing spend we are going to see around the Olympic Games. And let’s also hope that by Rugby World Cup 2015, we’ll be seeing more innovative, truly engaging and memorable content than this:
It is not all glamorous PR launches, trips to film festivals, attending world-class sporting events or managing photo shoots of beach volleyball players with QR codes on their derrieres. Alongside the visible perks of the job there is a whole host of unseen administrative rigour that goes into ‘what we do’ for our clients.
Take the Powerade account team. A fundamental part of our role is meeting the hydration needs of every Powerade sponsorship asset, be that all 72 Football League clubs, Jessica Ennis, or the England, Ireland and Wales Rugby Union teams.
For the Football League alone, each season we manage the supply of enough Powerade and Powerade Pro (powder sachets) to fill over 600 baths. But it is not just Powerade product we deal in; over the course of the year, we oversee the delivery of about 4,000 Powerade sippers bottles – which if stacked from end to end, would tower over the of the world’s tallest building – amongst other Powerade branded hydration equipment.
Just last month, 2,000 sachets of Powerade Pro (which is only available in the UK) safely made it through customs, to help ensure that throughout the Rugby World Cup, on the pitch at least, our rugby boys didn’t go thirsty.
With London 2012 on the horizon, plans are taking shape to supply Powerade product to every single Olympic and Paralympic participant.
Synergy, working as part of a cross agency team, has developed a rugby campaign this autumn to activate the GUINNESS brand’s rugby partnerships with the RFU, WRU, Scottish Rugby and the IRFU. Synergy contracted GUINNESS rugby ambassadors Lewis Moody, Lee Byrne and Sean Lamont (alongside Irish winger Tommy Bowe) to create an integrated campaign across TV, print, digital and PR targeting international rugby fans.
The ambassadors featured in print ads showing them flying the GUINNESS flag and giving their all for their country, in doing so proving that they themselves are made of more. Point-of-sale creative was rolled out in pubs and supermarkets across the country offering fans the chance to win tickets to the RBS 6 Nations (of which GUINNESS are Official Beer Partner).
Synergy secured national and regional press, broadcast and online coverage across England, Scotland and Wales through interviews with the players. Dynamic action shots of the players accompanied the interviews linking their national flag with the flag featuring in the TV ad campaign and reinforcing the brand’s support of the home nations.
To get fans closer to the action, we sponsored the Lewis Moody app to deliver an exclusive blog. GUINNESS fans who left messages of support for both Lewis and Lee on the brands Facebook page had the chance to receive personalised messages back from the players.
For those fans that haven’t been able to follow their team out to New Zealand, our man “Hutch” has been supplying a weekly video diary of his travels and meeting the home nations’ supporters.
To engage fans offline we took England pace man Ugo Monye to Asda in Gloucester to meet fans and staff at the supermarket, allowing them to have their photo taken with the rugby star and take part in the GUINNESS Rugby Reflex game.
Finally, the campaign’s TV ad, directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper and produced by ad agency AMV, sees our intrepid hero overcome an army to prove that he and his team are made of more. Check it out below.
Three cheers, then, to the IRB for publishing a weekly round-up of Rugby World Cup-related social media activity by fans. As I tweeted yesterday, all rights holders should be doing this – a point echoed by numerous sponsors, who contacted me to say they’d now be making the same point to the rights holders with which they contract.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with the IRB describing the tournament as the world’s third biggest sporting event behind the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup (which it routinely does – see the penultimate paragraph here for example).
It’s a very clever marketing soundbite (which many rugby journalists now routinely repeat) but it doesn’t stand up to detailed analysis.
The IRB anchors this claim primarily on those old chestnuts of cumulative TV viewers and TV footprint, but those are currencies which only matter to sporting officialdom: most brand marketers aren’t remotely interested in them as a measure of either audience engagement or value.
The reality is there’s a vast chasm on this notional list between the top two and the Rugby World Cup in terms of audience criteria that really matter to brands: things like the number of unique viewers, the number of fans engaging online, and the number of countries in which the event/sport has salience (mass appeal).
And against these more meaningful criteria, there are plenty of sporting events which have a bigger reach and/or footprint than the Rugby World Cup. To quote just a few examples, the F1 World Championship, the Indian Premier League, the NFL, and the UEFA Champions League.
And none of this should be a surprise because when you consider rugby’s footprint.
It’s salient in only eight major markets (the IRB Tier 1 countries Argentina, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa) with a combined population of 309 million (4.4% of the world’s population) in only one of which (New Zealand, the smallest market at 4 million) it is the number one sport.
All of which is illustrated nicely by this IRB infographic, showing the location of the last 1,000 Tweets mentioning #rwc2011 during the Rugby World Cup opening ceremony.
So, hat-tip to the IRB for blazing a social media trail among rights holders. But please, don’t play the ‘biggest’ game – play the best.
August proved an exciting month for the team here at Synergy, as after months of planning, energy brand SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) was announced as a National Community Partner of the RFU.
Working with some of the most talented and charismatic England rugby players of the past 15 years, from England international Tom Croft to former World Cup player Danny Grewcock and former British Lions player John Bentley, community clubs Bracknell RFC and Percy Park RFC played host to two launch events that brought SSE to the very heart of English rugby.
The three year partnership with the RFU will see SSE invest heavily in supporting community rugby in England by taking on the title sponsorship of the National and Divisional Leagues, as well as providing much-needed funding for the RFU’s programme, Community Rugby Coaches (CRCs).
With English community club rugby at the very core of the sponosrship, Synergy was tasked with creating a campaign helped SSE make a tangible difference to the grassroots game. And what better way to do this, than to ask every rugby player in England what they think their club needs.
Synergy launched the new partnership by asking that very question and creating the “What Clubs Need” survey at www.sserugby.com. Whether it’s bibs, balls or floodlights, the results will be absorbed into a wider campaign of rewards and opportunities for clubs, giving them access to the resources that will benefit their club the most.
The launch event was held at Bracknell RFC on Monday, August 8th, with England flanker and new SSE ambassador Tom Croft leaving the squad’s World Cup training camp for the evening. He provided a huge draw for everyone at the club, joining in a coaching session with an enthusiastic junior team, before assisting in drills for the senior 1st XV.
The media descended on Bracknell RFC, as Tom carried out interviews with The Times, The Sun, The Rugby Paper, leading to standout coverage, thus maximising the launch of www.sserugby.com
Not prone to resting on their laurels, Synergy set about on the preparations for the second launch event, this time at the picturesque Percy Park Rugby Club in North Shields, Newcastle. On this occasion the full junior team were out in force, an impressive 80 children taking part in some high quality training. The seniors got their turn as well, with 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Danny Grewcock and the legendary ex-British Lion John Bentley, putting them through their paces for 90 minutes.
SSE will continue to support both Bracknell RFC and Percy Park RFC with the resources they need. It is part of the brand’s bigger commitment to support all those rugby clubs who are ensuring that grass roots rugby stays at the very heart of English communities.
Like the vast majority of sports fans watching the events unfold at Royal St George’s, I found myself willing a Darren Clarke victory – this despite a fairly uneducated £5 pre-tournament punt on Phil Mickelson. The emotional pull of seeing a people’s champion claim the Claret Jug was stronger than the rational tug of reversing my losing streak on Betfair. Sport has a particular ability to evoke strong emotions through its personal stories of courage, inspiration and determination, through its inherent unpredictability, excitement and drama.
Those emotions are an essential component of successful sponsorship – and are as relevant across other sponsorship platforms (music, film, fashion, art) as they are in sport. How often do we hear rights holders, brands and sponsorship agencies (guilty as charged) talk of ‘engaging consumers through their passion points’ to justify sponsorship investments? It has become the de facto rationale. But what substantiates that principle, and are sponsors embracing it to make a genuine connection with consumers?
Shared Passions
The stated ambition of many sponsors is to create that emotional connection with their target audience through a shared passion. The theory goes that an emotionally engaged audience – whether they are football fanatics, art lovers, bog snorkelling aficionados, or Gaga’s ‘little monsters’ – is an audience that will be more receptive to brand messages, and more likely to think positively about a brand associated with their passion.
Sound thinking or codswallop? Well, there is plenty of research supporting the notion that the higher a consumer’s emotional engagement with an event, the more effective their recall of sponsors. If you want proof, just read Bal, Pascale and Plewa’s research study in the Sept 2009 Journal of Sponsorship (Volume 2, Number 4). Or take my word for it. Their analysis of the emotional response elicited by a sponsorship event confirmed what we would probably all take as read – that ‘positive sport-related emotions contribute to sponsorship efficiency, favouring the recognition of sponsors’. Which makes sense – an emotional experience is more likely to crystallise into memory than an experience without emotion. I remember where I was when Wilkinson dropped THAT goal in 2003 with patriotic emotions riding high, but have no recollection where I watched the 2010 World Cup Final as an impartial observer.
Sponsor Engagement
But how do sponsors get in on the act, and stake a claim to those memories? Being visible within a passion point might increase the chances of being in a consumer’s mind, but it doesn’t win a place in their hearts. There has to be active emotional involvement, not just proximity or visibility. Engagement not impressions. Too many sponsors assume that an increased awareness of their sponsorship, and that magical associative power alone, will alter consumer perceptions. Perimeter boards, media backdrops, shirt sponsorships and the like certainly have a reinforcing role to play, but I’m yet to hear a sponsor say “that perimeter board really helped me emotionally connect with my target audience”. The abundance of advertising we are seeing in the run up to 2012 that says ‘I’m an Olympic sponsor’ is failing to tap into the rich emotional tapestry of the Olympics.
So what should sponsors do to capitalise on their consumers’ emotions beyond just ‘being at the party’? To start with there needs to be some sense of brand relevance to the passion point. How else can a brand claim to ‘share’ that passion? Authenticity could be driven by brand characteristics, product relevance, company heritage, or geography. Lack relevance, and brands risk looking as incongruous as Budweiser’s relationship with that king of soccer competitions, the FA Cup. The central thought in Neill Duffy’s book Passion Brandingis another worthwhile principle: leverage the relationship between a brand and its consumers around a consumer passion to create value for all involved in the relationship. Sponsors need to think beyond their brand to deliver a benefit for consumers – be that entertaining content, a unique experience or simply a memorable emotional pay-off.
Many brands are successfully engaging consumers on an emotional level, in a relevant passion point, and contributing to their enjoyment of that passion. Some capitalise on a moment of high emotion, some tap into the core emotional sensibility of the passion point. Whether anchored in anticipation, pride, patriotism or celebration, they all exhibit genuine empathy and understanding. A few examples below…
In the build up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Carlsberg’s Old Lions campaign tapped into England fans’ anticipation of the tournament through a nostalgic lens and a pitch perfect creation of pub football camaraderie.
Fast forward four years to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and Coca-Cola’s activation single-mindedly focused on football’s moment of greatest emotion – celebrating a goal. From reliving the greatest celebrations in World Cup history, recording a World Cup celebration song, to touring the FIFA World Cup around the globe, they fuelled fan emotion with the ‘What’s your Celebration’ campaign.
Talking of celebration, O2’s Rugby World Cup victory parade in 2003 gave rugby fans the opportunity to express their support, their joy and their pride to the returning heroes. Not only that, O2 armed all England players with mobile cameras to record the experience and share it with consumers, and gave some lucky fans the chance to win a place on the parade bus.
But not all emotional engagement is grounded in joy and positivity. Bupa’s activation of their Great North Run focuses on the participants’ moments of greatest physical and emotional need. The Bupa Boost Zone at the typical ‘low’ point for runners 80% through the race, and at the finish, provides massages, sustenance and music to inspire and re-energise runners.
What next?
Social media is making the emotional engagement opportunities around sponsorship that much more immediate, and much more of a dialogue opportunity. The response to celebratory moments in particular is now fairly instantaneous, and can propel brands to the heart of the emotional moment. Harness the emotions correctly, and your consumers will add the catalyst of conversation. After all, people are more likely to talk about things that illicit an emotional response. As a final plea to sponsors, I defer to Mark Harrison, Chair of the Canadian Sponsorship Forum:
‘You can’t manufacture emotion. It’s already there. When you find it – just find a way to trigger it; tap into it; fuel it; and watch it grow into something remarkable.’
How often do you hear the words ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’? It can be a bit of a cliché but in fact there are certain things that really are once in a lifetime…
This month Synergy has been working with clients GUINNESS and Betfair to offer rugby and football fans a dream come true scenario, the chance to play on the hallowed turf at Twickenham and Old Trafford.
GUINNESS, through their community programme Club Together, gave Birmingham Barbarians the chance of a lifetime to play on the pitch at Twickenham ahead of this year’s Aviva Premiership Final. Synergy was responsible for building a dream day the entire squad would never forget. Their day began with England coaches Brian Smith and Mike Ford putting the team through their paces in a dedicated training and warm-up session in Richmond. It was on to Twickenham and from two England coaches to the next as Graham Rowntree greeted the team bus. The teams walked through the Lion Gates and into the changing rooms where Graham lead a rousing team talk. Then it was through the infamous Twickenham tunnel and onto a pitch in perfect condition for the pros – Birmingham Barbarians were ready for the rugby match of a lifetime. Thirty minutes later the final score was a 5-5 draw. The lads came running off the field pumped full of adrenalin and buzzing after playing at the 80,000 capacity stadium knowing that an hour later the Premiership Final showdown would be kicking off.
As Birmingham Barbarians departed Twickenham it was onto Old Trafford for Synergy to create the ultimate experience for any football fan. With 16,069,210 Facebook likes to date Manchester United has one of the largest global fans bases of any football team and as official betting partner of the club, Betfair had invited 32 very special VIP guests from across Europe and the UK to enjoy the ultimate Theatre of Dreams experience…
Our guests were collected by a chauffeur driven car upon arrival into Manchester, and dropped off at the 5* hotel the Radisson Edwardian for lunch and the chance to meet their fellow team mates. Betfair’s guests donned their training kit and head to Manchester United’s exclusive training facility, Carrington, where the world class Manchester United Soccer Schools coaches and Manchester United legends, Brian McClair, Gary Pallister, Clayton Blackmore and Andy Ritchie where waiting to greet them and test their skills.
Following a solid three hour training session the teams were picked and team managers Brian McClair and Gary Pallister were ready to go head-to-head at Old Trafford the following day. With a big match ahead it was back to the hotel where guests would find their very own personalised 2011/12 season’s kit in their rooms, literally hot off the press as the kit had only launched the day beforehand!
Match day…with their new kit in tow Betfair’s guests were escorted to Manchester United’s home changing room where United legends and the Premier League trophy were awaiting their arrival. After an eagerly anticipated photo opportunity the teams lined up with team managers in the tunnel. As the Champions League music echoed through the tunnel our excited and nervous guests were lead through the Red Devils tunnel – an experience to never forget.
A full 90 minutes on the pitch at Old Trafford and a 9 – 4 victory for Gary Pallister’s away team over Brian McClair’s home side saw the teams exhausted but buzzing from the experience. After some down time for the guests there was one last surprise in store, dinner at Old Trafford overlooking the pitch hosted by none other than footballing legend Denis Law.
So there you have it, two of sports ultimate experiences delivered with every detail planned to the minute by Synergy’s experiential team. If anyone asks you ‘Do you know anyone who can make dreams come true?’ you know where to look…
My mobile rang and a voice said ‘Is that Fiona?’. 'Yes...' I said. This was followed by those immortal words ‘This is Seve’. Wow I thought! But before I could gather my thoughts and reply he said ‘Where’s my driver? I am in the arrivals hall at Gatwick and there is no sign of her...’
A brief conversation followed about how drivers were not permitted in the baggage hall, but safe to say she was definitely waiting for him in arrivals...
There will only ever be one Seve. Everyone who was lucky enough to see him play or meet him will always remember that day.
adidas launched what its calling its ‘largest ever brand marketing campaign’ and the first to feature adidas Sport Performance, adidas Originals and adidas Sport Style sub-brands together.
By using a number of their most popular personalities from across sports and culture adidas has created an impressive campaign which leads off with this ad featuring David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Katy Perry, basketball player Derrick Rose, gymnast Louis Smith, the All Blacks, musician B.o.B and top skateboarders including Silas Baxter-Neal. The spot aims to promote the idea that when you love your game, whatever that game may be, you put your all into it.
On top of this they have delivered an integrated campaign using ground breaking 3D projection mapping at the launch and including different TV and online versions of the film.
adidas have used their YouTube channel and Facebook page to seed engaging digital content including some individual films of their ambassadors including Messi and the musician B.o.B. The video was seeded on Messi’s new Facebook page which launched on 7th April and achieved a remarkable 7 million likes in 7 hours. On their campaign website www.adidas.com/areyouin fans of football, skating and music can win prizes and in the US win the chance to feature in their next version of the ad to air during the MTV Movie Awards.
Why we like it?
Rather than a sport specific campaign that we often see from brands such as adidas they have utilised so many of their assets in this campaign and across a wide spectrum of sports and culture from football to skateboarding to Russell Brand‘s missus. The campaign therefore appeals to a huge audience across many different markets. By using the impressive 3D projection at launch and using their various digital channels adidas are showing they are at the forefront of technology, are maximising their assets and are taking their (obviously pricey) ATL campaign many steps further.
What the brand says:
From the campaign press release:
The brand’s largest marketing campaign in history showcases adidas’ distinctive presence across different cultures and lifestyles fusing the world of sports, music and fashion and is the first time the company features adidas Sport Performance, adidas Originals and adidas Sport Style sub-brands in a single campaign.
“Today’s consumers are not one-dimensional,” said Patrik Nilsson, president of adidas America. “They live across the cultural spectrum and that’s where adidas has its edge. The adidas brand extends beyond sports and ‘all adidas’ celebrates this breadth of passion from athletes, musicians, artists and beyond. The new campaign allows us to create stronger, truer connections with the consumer by encouraging and celebrating a mix of interests and passions central to their lives.”
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