Since the beginning of 2015 I’ve been given a weekly (and sometimes daily) countdown by my darling fiance about the #RWC2015. That’s Rugby World Cup to you non #social media types. The time is finally here, the final week before it kicks off (pun intended) on Friday.
As with all major sporting events, brands from all over the world fight for a chance to get involved, sponsoring various parts of the event where they can. Creating campaigns which will run for months before the event begins to build the excitement, brand awareness and association.
Some of the ads you may have seen:
- Land Rover. They are an official sponsor of the RWC2015, focusing on highlighting grass roots rugby, ‘We Deal in Real’.
- o2 has been an England Rugby sponsor for 10 years so we’ve been seeing adverts offering their support to the team and their campaign (cheesy adverts).
- Backing the New Zealand team is Steinlager, focusing on the first team to tour the UK, who believe it or not, were underdogs!
- My most recent favourite advert. Lucozade…What I like about Lucozade’s sponsorship is that it’s not just backing one team, it’s raising awareness of the event as a whole and backing the home nations. In ‘promoting’ all the teams (Wales, England, Ireland or Scotland – for those who don’t know) Lucozade are sending a clear message to consumers that it’s for the UK and Ireland only. Showing their backing to all the teams is great, but what they’re really doing is aiming to keep engagement levels up throughout the whole event, not just until a team gets knocked out, if they were to back one.
They’ve even gone as far as banning the drink to overseas teams! Dedication to a campaign.
The advert uses international rugby players from around the world, pretending to be from the home nations, creating the perception that Lucozade is Britain’s ‘secret weapon’.
https://youtu.be/TpSqEKpTLUI