We were appointed by the Rugby League World Cup in 2021, who were looking for a fresh approach to relaunching the popular event in October 2022 following a postponement the previous year during the COVID pandemic.
To kickstart the sport, we needed to give the nation a big reason to turn up – by reigniting rugby fever and inspiring the next generation of players and fans.
The event aimed to be the most inclusive World Cup ever, with men’s, women’s and wheelchair games to be played across the country, and all profits going back into the community. It sought to put the sport back on the map, and raise the profile of the event as an internationally recognised sporting event.
We were set three clear objectives:
We were given a target of selling 500,000 tickets, with a budget of £1.5m that covered the media, creative and production needed to promote the event.
Planning & audience profiling and targeting:
It was already known that there were not enough ‘core’ Rugby League fans to fill every stadium across the three disciplines. Engaging existing fans was relatively straightforward, but to effectively reach those new to the sport and convince them that RLWC was an inclusive, fun sport that anyone could enjoy was a much more difficult challenge.
To do so effectively, we utilised key insights from Skyrise Intelligence to create a dedicated audience profile. We were then able to profile, activate and analyse the campaign using a vast dataset of anonymised mobile phone users. This data informed our planning from a channel perspective so that we could pinpoint accurate audiences and activate against those audiences through a variety of media.
With an understanding that core fans traditionally buy late, we held our media spend until fans were in the mindset to buy tickets. By deeply understanding our target audience and their buying habits, we were able to fine-tune each section of our campaign strategy. Doing so ensured that we were targeting the right people, with the right messages, at the right time - all whilst spending an appropriate proportion of the available budget.
Delivery
To meet our key objectives, we had to sell the story behind RLWC so that it caught the attention of those who had not previously engaged with the sport. We needed to convey what made the RLWC special – that it was the first time in the sport’s 127-year history that the men’s, women’s and wheelchair games had come together to form a record-breaking tournament.
The creative campaign, ‘This is REAL Impact’, promoted that the RLWC was more than just a sporting event, but a force for good. We used the medium of film to convey the inclusive nature of the sport in a way that would both engage fans and non-fans alike.
We continued this distinctive visual style and impactful messaging across the rest of the campaign to strengthen the brand ties.
It was then about getting this message out using impactful media in our core selling window. The budget was relatively small for an event of this scale, so we decided to focus activity on the ‘Big 7’ matches to maximise ticketing revenue and positive PR.
We utilised a broad range of media to help spread this message, including radio, digital out-of-home, Metro station takeovers, social, app, CRM activity and more. By targeting people effectively via such a broad range of channels, our reach was maximised to the two distinct audiences (existing rugby fans and those new to the game).
We were able to leverage programmatic digital OOH and mobile buys for 24-hour campaigns to target visitors to key sporting events including the Challenge Cup Final in London and Super League final in Manchester.
We also concurrently ran ticket sale-driven campaigns on a per-match basis to target people at the right time, with the right messaging in the critical period ahead of each game.
Gauging progress with daily ticket sales updates, we adjusted budgets and urgency within the creative accordingly. This super-agile way of working was challenging, but enabled us to spend the budget in the most effective way possible, adjusting focus as ticket milestones were hit.
With very clear objectives from the outset, we could measure success accurately:
The RLWC was the highest-ever attended rugby league tournament generating twice the income of the last World Cup in 2013.
The RLWC finals were the highest-grossing UK rugby league games of all time, with 67,502 fans attending. The women’s opening games were the highest-attended women’s rugby league matches ever in the Northern Hemisphere.
RLWC broke the wheelchair record attendance 3x and the final was a sell-out crowd.
Across our campaigns, we measured:
Through our forensic digital targeting, we were able to achieve an impressive ROI, achieving nearly £700,000 in ticket sales from our paid digital media campaign alone.
It was extremely satisfying to succeed against the client’s three key objectives, proving that both our strategy and delivery were well thought out and executed.
To do this during a trepidatious, post-COVID time when the client was unsure about the commercial success of the campaign, as we moved ‘back to normal’ further helped make the event a world-class success.
"The team at Bonded went over and above to deliver for the RLWC2021. They were accessible, accurate and came to us with solid strategic and tactical recommendations back up with clear rationale.
We felt they were an extension of the team and worked with us to deliver in what was sometimes a pressurised situation.
Bonded were a pivotal part of the team in delivering such a successful world cup."
