ITM Cup reignites provincial passion through social media campaign via Sugar&Partners

Case Study – Only a few months after NZ Rugby engaged Sugar&Partners to deliver its ITM Cup campaign S&P have successfully reignited deep seeded rivalries and passions for New Zealand’s premier national sporting competition. Stoking the fire within dormant fans with an outdoor and social media activation campaign.

Says Dave Nash, creative director, Sugar&Partners: “The idea was to incite a war between the provinces and remind fans what’s at stake -we were truly blown away at the impact, within the first hour of the billboards going up fans went crazy.”

Unbranded opposition billboards were dropped into nine key provinces around the country and the billboards were shared on the Provincial Union’s Facebook pages sparking instant outrage and hunt for who was responsible:

Original Billboard Posts

View the Bop Rugby Post

View the Canterbury Rugby Union Post

View the Hawkes Bay Magpies Post

View the Manawatu Turbos Post

View the Otago Rugby Team Post

View the Rugby Southland Post

View the Taranaki Rugby Post

View the Mooloo Post

Once the original posts had hit fever pitch the billboards were replaced with a defaced versions supporting the local teams.

Says Damon O’Leary, creative director, Sugar&Partner: “It’s just human nature to capture and share something that is a bit out of leftfield, getting to the heart of these age old stoushes was the key to the campaign taking off.”

The campaign amassed over 81,000 likes, shares and comments engaging an audience of over 2 million on Facebook alone.

The major success of the campaign was that over 30% of the social media audience reach was organic, due to the billboards really hitting a nerve and unpaid broadcast media like Tony Veitch, Radio Sport and The Crowd Goes Wild picking up the activity and adding their spin.

NZ Rugby