As the latest strand of its multi-phase Rugby World Cup campaign, RFU sponsor O2 is rolling out a temporary refurbishment of its 377 shops that sees the ‘O’ in its familiar O2 brand logo replaced with England Rugby’s Red Rose.
This mass high street store rebrand marks the first O2 logo alteration since the brand was founded in 2002 and sees the mobile operator add a further strand to its ongoing #WearTheRose initiative that aims to generate support for the tournament hosts.
We've made some changes to our stores. Send a pic of you outside your local one & you could win @EnglandRugby shirt. pic.twitter.com/4Qi2lb4Gn0
— O2 Sports (@O2sports) August 28, 2015
The 377 stores will all return to the traditional branding once Rugby World Cup 2015 is finished.
‘Changing the O2 brand above the door of our 377 stores in England to embrace the rose is a visual way of showing our support for Stuart Lancaster and his team, right across the country,’ explains O2 marketing head Ian Cafferky.
‘It feels like a natural celebration of our 20-year partnership with the RFU.’
While Sophie Goldschmidt, the RFU’s chief commercial and marketing officer, said: ‘O2 is our longest standing partner and it’s fantastic to see them wearing the rose in such an innovative way, taking their support direct to the high street.’
Comment
The move sees O2, which has sponsored England Rugby since 1995, skirt around its lack of official tournament rights which restrict its ability to maximise brand visibility through the competition and both the idea and the execution came internally at the telco.
Thus far O2’s campaign has stretched from the ‘O2 Touch Tour’ (a travelling participatory programme that moved around the country and aimed to get people playing touch rugby) and a 50,000 Official England Rugby shirt giveaway (through a nationwide washing-line outdoor stunt and via the brand’s Priority service), to its Wear The Rose Live official event send-off event (featuring Take That and the team at the O2 Arena on 9 September) and its ongoing O2 Inside Line videos that offer a glimpse behind the scenes at the England camp.
Links
O2 Sport YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/o2sports
O2 Sports Twitter:
@O2Sports
#WearTheRose
O2 Sports Instagram:
https://instagram.com/o2sports/
O2 Sports Google+:
https://plus.google.com/116304440606210600730/videos
O2 Priority Sports Website:
http://www.o2priority.co.uk/sports
England Rugby Website:
RFU Website:
