Our client O2 has been a proud sponsor of England rugby since 1995 and this year the team at Hope&Glory has been gearing up for one of the biggest rugby tournaments in English history – the World Cup being hosted here on home ground in just a month’s time.
To kick off proceedings, we were tasked with creating an impactful PR campaign to launch O2’s 50,000 official England rugby shirt giveaway. The aim being to get the nation behind the team through demonstrating what England Head Coach, Stuart Lancaster calls, that extra 10% – the power of support.
In response to this, we enlisted England Elite Rugby players Danny Care, James Haskell and Alex Corbisiero to reward the first lucky fans by erecting a giant washing line sporting multiple England Rugby shirts in London’s Potters Field, giving them the chance to get a brand new shirt fresh off the line and Wear The Rose with pride.
Hung at the average rugby line-out height of three metres, the shirts could only be reached by those willing to demonstrate their support by uploading a message of encouragement for the team via social media using #WearTheRose, and then working as a team to be able to try and nab a shirt off the giant washing line.
The following day, the team then took the giant washing line, stocked with shirts, on a nationwide tour to rugby towns and cities across England, giving more fans the chance to team up and demonstrate the power of support.
The nationals loved our cheeky shots, with the likes of Metro, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror Daily Star, Independent and Huffington Post all covering the story, along with a number of key marketing and trade press, resulting in over 40 pieces of coverage to-date.
Meantime, the regional media in each of the four locations have been lapping up the shirt giveaway, including Manchester Confidential, Leicester Mercury, Bath Chronicle, Newcastle Chronicle and Bath.co.uk to name but a few.
And this is just for starters! Stay tuned for what the O2 rugby team have coming up next (it’s pretty epic)….
