Fight for Territory
Lion
Issue 46 | March 2018
Agency
DDB Group New Zealand, Auckland
Creative Team
Creative Chief Creative Officer Damon Stapleton Executive Creative Director Shane Bradnick Creative Directors Brett Colliver, Mike Felix Art Director Josep Jover Copywriter Jacob Newton Digital Creative Director Haydn Kerr
Production Team
Production Digital Director Liz Knox Executive Digital Producer Johannes Gertz Head of Digital Design Jason Vertongen Lead Developer Simon Betton Lead Front End Developer Paul Hutcheon Front End Developer Mike McMillian Agency TV Producer Alva Casey Editor Mark Trethewey
Other Credits
Other Senior Business Director Jenny Travers Business Manager Michael Doolan Category Marketing & Sponsorship Director – Beer Ben Wheeler Marketing Manager – Premium and Craft Beer Michael Taylor
Date
June-July 2017
Background
Because the British & Irish Lions rugby team only came to New Zealand to play the All Blacks once every 12 years, it was always a huge event.
Steinlager, official sponsor of the All Blacks wanted to make the most of the latest tour in 2017.
Idea
During the Lions Rugby Tour of New Zealand, hundreds of brands were fighting for the fans' attention inside and around the stadiums. The insight was that the fans actually spent more time at the airport than they did at the grounds, travelling to all the matches.
In fact, 2.5 million people passed through Kiwi airports during the tour.
That prompted Steinlager to buy every sign in every New Zealand airport terminal, make them interactive and then invite their rivals, Guinness, official sponsor of the British & Irish Lions touring party, to a competition.
Digital cameras inside the poster sites recognised fans by what they were wearing – black for the All Blacks, red for the B&I Lions. If a fan stood his or her ground in front of a poster, it changed to a message of support for their team.
Soon fans were fighting to blanket the airports in support of their teams. And finally one of the biggest parts of the tour actually felt like part of the tour.
Results
The signs were turned-over 96,000 times by fans. Steinlager (already the country's top selling beer) saw a 5.1% increase in sales. And Guinness sales were up 18%.
Our Thoughts
Thousands of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish rugby fans made the massive trek to the other side of the world for the tour. And they would have loved this. It allowed them to compete and win in New Zealand even if their team could not. As it happened, the Lions were not walloped, as predicted, so the fans would have become ever more intense about taking control over the airport displays as their team got more and more competitive on the pitch. It turned them into players themselves and extended 80 minutes of game-time into hours of friendly competition.
Now that's a result.