Duracell's Warbuton-Led RWC #PowerCheck Player Data Work Backed By Opta

Official RWC 2015 tournament provider Duracell launches its #PowerCheck initiative (in harness with Opta) with a campaign fronted by Wales star Sam Waburton.

At the core of the campaign is the battery brand’s Facebook-focused, live player performance digital indicator.

Through the entire tournament, Duracell will work with sports data outfit Opta to update its #PowerCheck ‘value tool’ based on performance indicators – including tackles, carries, turnovers won and discipline.

The stats will be collated during the course of each game, with greater weighting for players that remain on the pitch for longer.

The company chose Wales and British Lions captain Warburton to bring their campaign to life as the face of #PowerCheck and the initiative promotion is spearheaded by a Warburton-fronted. power-focused spot.

Indeed, Duracell’s RWC activation was promoted by two archive-based spots that were launched two weeks apart in August.

First came a generic ‘Power To The End’ online film,

which was then followed by a #PowerCheck specific, Warburton-fronted spot ‘Rugby’s Most Powerful Hitters’.

The aim behind the new data creation is to offer fans a fresh way of understanding the sport.

According to the brand, the insight behind the campaign is that to succeed at the tournament it takes ‘unstoppable power and endless endurance’ and that ‘only the truly great power players combine these attributes in the ultimate winning formula’.

The unique branded-backed measurement will see Duracell share its power and endurance data insights (which it says have proved vital ingredients for previous winners of the famous Webb Ellis Cup) and the campaigns encourages fans to ‘check back during the tournament to find out the players showing real power at Rugby World Cup 2015’.

‘When we first thought of the Duracell brand alongside rugby, the link with power was an obvious one,’ recalls Duracell’s Vicky Miller.

‘However, Duracell doesn’t provide one burst of strength; it does so over a longer period than anyone else – out-powering and outlasting the competition. That combination of power and endurance is crucial in rugby too, and the Duracell #PowerCheck celebrates that.’

The activation spans YouTube and Facebook, plus other media buys to further drive reach of digital and video content, plus paid social media activation through Duracell Facebook page, as well as a Facebook-led RWC ticket competition.

Duracell has been working working on its RWC activation in tandem with agency partners Grey London, H+ K Strategies and Starcom Mediavest Group (indeed, Duracell’s RWC partnership was conceived and negotiated by SPORTS at SMG – the in-house sports unit at Starcom MediaVest Group).

Comment

There is already something of a strong sponsorship heritage in real-time data-led sponsor activation around major tournaments – including IBM’s ‘Try Tracker (see case study)‘ and Accenture’s creative data app (see case study) at the RBS 6 Nations.

Whilst this is one of the later launches amongst the official Rugby World Cup sponsors, the approach is consistent not only with the sponsor’s product, but also with Duracell’s wider approach to marketing.

Indeed, both the activation’s theme and its assets reflect and carry the brand’s umbrella ‘Stronger For Longer’ big idea.

Perhaps its not too surprising that Duracell is slightly later to the RWC activation party than most official partners as the brand only announced its official alliance in June.

The package sees Duracell secure the use of Rugby World Cup 2015 marks, access to past and present Rugby World Cup footage and match tickets, in return for Duracell providing a range of its batteries to support the tournament’s delivery.

Interestingly, RWC 2015 marks the first time that Duracell has sponsored a global sports event of this stature and it is using the property as a platform to reach consumers in a set of key markets including the UK, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

It is intended to be the start of a fresh strategy that will see Durascell sign a series of high profile partnerships that will enable it to bring to life the brand’s key ‘power’ and ‘endurance’ attributes in different and engaging ways.

Links

Duracell PowerCheck Facebook:

Facebook.com/Duracelluk

Duracell Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DuracellUK
@DuracellUK

Duracell YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialDuracellUK

Duracell Website:

www.duracell.co.uk

Opta:

http://www.optasports.com/

Grey London:
http://www.grey.co.uk/

H+ K Strategies:
http://www.hkstrategies.co.uk/