Leveraging Loss: RFU Sponsor O2 Activates Around England’s RWC Exit

There is no doubt that host nation (and key market) interest in the tournament will decrease significantly, TV audiences will drop, ticket prices will fall, home nation direct and indirect revenue benefits will be diminished and sponsors will suffer to varying degrees.

Of course, single team sponsors are typically more vulnerable to a side’s tournament exit than tournament sponsors who typically run global campaigns that focus more generally on the sport’s values than on one specific team.

And the host nation’s top sponsor, especially when that host is arguably the sport’s biggest single market (and thus commands the sport’s biggest rights fees), O2 is perhaps most vulnerable.

England Rugby’s top sponsor had clearly hoped to benefit from a rising tidal wave of ongoing national fervor through the tournament.

Especially after investing so heavily in a long-running ‘Wear the Rose’ campaign to encourage mainstream, mass support of the team.

Part of the power of commercial sports sponsorship is that a brand can draw and borrow emotional power from the property.

When things go well brands benefit from the fan feel good factor, but in defeat companies can suffer from either absence, disappointment, or, worse still, backlash.

The outcome shows the danger of throwing all one’s tournament marketing and creative focus on just one team (after all, the sponsorship team has known for three years that England had been drawn in the so-called Group Of Death and there was a chance of an early exit).

Other strategies could have been adopted.

For example, sportswear brand Skins’ RWC ‘My Other Team’ campaign hedges its bets by driving secondary support for multiple sides (see case study).

Other approaches include a ‘Home Nations’ strategy as adopted during the RWC by Luc0zade (see case study) or a multi-market appraoch as illustrated at this tournament by Guinness (see case study).

Inevitably cheeky Welsh fans reveled in England’s defeat and some parodied O2’s own ad campaign – mocking the #MakeThemGiants phase by showing the England team shrinking back to normal-sized players after defeat (click to view).

Of course, some may argue that this is a form of creative flattery, illustrates the success of the campaign and even continues the activation (for free).

Another saving grace for the sponsor could be the fact that the long-running #WearTheRose platform spans O2’s wider rugby activation rather than being a specific initiative just for the tournament.

Another will be that with its heavy pre-tournament emphasis, many of the campaign’s targets may already have been reached.

After all, O2 already generated five million ‘acts of support’ around ‘Wear the Rose’ (including social media shares) as well as offline campaign interactions.

O2 has been the official sponsor of the England team since 1995 (its relationship is even longer) and over all those years the mobile telecoms brand has demonstrated long-term, deep-rooted support for rugby and this blow may not be as damaging in the long run as some might fear.

Another campaign to suffer due to England’s exit is RFU sponsor Samsung’s ‘School Of Rugby’ initiative fronted by comedian Jack Whitehall – who reacted to England’s defeat by tweeting about Welsh ancestry.

I don't want to point fingers. But I was available for selection. Just saying. (*checks for any Welsh ancestors*)

— Jack Whitehall (@jackwhitehall) October 3, 2015

Leveraging both wins and losses can be tricky for sponsors and one thing the 2014 FIFA World Cup taught marketers was to be gracious in victory and defeat.

Crowing and bitterness may reflect short term local fan feeling, but activating such messages can easily go global and lead to backlash (see our Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup Marketing & Sponsorship Review).

So sponsorship and ambush marketers should ‘act local, think global’ and adhere to Churchill’s advice: ‘In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity

Oh, and, come on Wales!