How National Governing Bodies should use the Rugby World Cup as an example of commercial success.

Having been fortunate enough to get tickets to watch the All Blacks play Argentina at Wembley during the opening weekend of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, it was difficult to not get caught up in the hysteria that comes with England hosting the sport’s most prestigious event. It was also pretty much impossible for the 89,019 fans in the stadium – which incidentally broke the record for the biggest ever crowd at a Rugby World Cup match – to not notice the names of sponsors being branded around the pitch, on the screens, on the tickets and all over the merchandise. It is by these means that sponsors have traditionally gained most value form supporting large events, as well as games being broadcast on television.

The sponsorship offer at this Rugby World Cup, however, has been very different to previous tournaments and many other sports can learn from how they are succeeding in making it a commercial triumph. Firstly, rather than simply having ‘official partner’ or ‘sponsor’, Rugby World Cup Limited ring-fenced specific tournament and match elements to each sponsor for use in brand activations. Land Rover, for example, has been transporting the Webb Ellis Cup around the world with the logistical support of DHL, the coin toss belongs to Heineken and MasterCard exclusively sponsor the Man of the Match awards. This segmentation enables the rights holder to maximise the commercial income from partners, knowing that the activation lasts primarily in the lead-up to, and for the duration of the tournament.

Although world cup rules do not allow teams to wear sponsors on their shirts, mobile telecoms group, O2 (England’s official team sponsors) is estimating that up to 20 million fans will be drawn to the World Cup, which doubles Britain’s regular rugby union fanbase. They have set about achieving this by tapping into the emotional consciousness of the nation with O2’s #WearTheRose campaign having already received 3.25 million acts of support with the strap line, “Your support makes England bigger and stronger than ever before. So show it. Wear it. Share it. Make them giants.” Many of us have seen the animated campaign, which sees the England Team turned into giants through the power of support. This campaign shows that digital media is now being used in a way that doesn’t just engage with usual fans, it inspires people from all parts of the country to be proud of their nation by showing their support to the England team – and to O2. In fact, both brands and representative bodies are able to connect directly with the consumer, resulting in an increase in participation and significantly improved sales in partner products.

The commercial aspects of this world cup have demonstrated that it is important for the NGB (the RFU) and England Rugby 2015 (the tournament organiser) to combine these event-focused sponsorships with longer lasting partnerships that not only generate instant commercial income through tournament activation, but also contribute to increasing engagement and participation within the sport long after the event has finished. A prime example is how O2 activate their partnership with England Rugby all year round. The RFU’s Rugby World Cup legacy programme is based around increasing participation. For O2, grassroots rugby is a massive part of their partnership and their objective is to inspire 15,000 new people to play rugby through O2 Touch and they are ahead of target in having more than 10,000 people playing regularly by 2015.

As a touch rugby player myself, I attended the London-leg of the O2 Touch Tour and my team was even lucky enough to win a team talk with the O2 Touch Ambassador, Jonny Wilkinson! Something so simple as connecting a rugby legend with grassroots teams has the ability to really inspire people to continue playing the game. Added to this, the RFU, O2, and the English Touch Association have also found that grassroots tournaments can be transformed into a festival atmosphere by regularly combining music and competitions with the day’s matches. It is also believed that this has had a real impact on attracting women and youngsters to the sport. It is clear to see then why Touch is considered to be one of the most important components of O2’s grassroots activation.

So how can NGBs form similar long-standing commercial partnerships by using the leverage of large events? Everyone understands the power of sport and how it can generate passion and emotion, but using the RWC example, the first challenge for governing bodies is to understand what their objectives are, what their values are and, most importantly, what can be offered to help achieve the goals of prospective partners. These business principles should then be aligned closely with those of brands and an environment should be created where both the governing body and the brands can innovate together. What RWC 2015 has demonstrated is that the rights holders and the governing bodies have a role to play in the co-marketing of certain sponsorship activations with brands. For any large sporting event that NGBs use to become a commercially successful organisation and to achieve legacy objectives, therefore, the support received from sponsors should not just be seen as a one-off payment, but should instead be viewed as a true partnership and the joint identity needs to resonate throughout the lifecycle of the activation.

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