Auckland Rugby revives local club scene with new brand and campaign via Crave Global

Purpose-led creative agency Crave Global has worked alongside the Auckland Rugby Union to establish a fresh new club rugby sub-brand and positioning to entice more Aucklanders to get behind their local teams and head along to the club.

Launching this week with a new look and feel, the campaign, driven by a new competition format brings to life the concept of ‘More Hype, More Heart & More Entertainment’.

Working closely with the team at Auckland Rugby, Crave has transformed the community rugby brand with a newly refined brand strategy, name and design. The work will be launched through an integrated brand campaign across out-of-home, radio, social media, digital and at clubs.

Says Daniel Hopkirk, Managing Director, Crave: “With so much rugby being played between the various competitions across Auckland and New Zealand now; we needed to get under the surface of what makes attending a local Club Rugby game such a unique and positive experience.”

“The research was clear that people love the raw, real side of community game, and highperformance rugby was costly to attend and missed some core entertainment properties that make club rugby great to go to. We wanted to give rugby a bit of personality and elevate the entertainment proposition further to ensure we gave people a reason to buy into the new community rugby brand.”

Club rugby will focus more on creating occasions beyond the on-field rugby that appeal to a wider audience of people to attend the clubs.

Says Dan Dale, Head of Marketing, Auckland Rugby: “We have revamped and reconfigured the senior rugby club competition across Auckland to ensure that all of the 22 clubs have more to play for more of the time. We now have a three-tiered grading system with a promotion-relegation match played at the end of each season. This should enable us to see better rivalries, more competitive teams in each division and more opportunities to create an engaging entertainment proposition at the clubs.

“Crave has done a fantastic job of creating a strategy and brand that can bring this to life in an entertaining way, that will stand out from the crowd and compete in a busy sports marketing space.

“Join the Club, speaks to not just those rugby traditionalists but to those that may have a friend that plays rugby, or they may just want to meet new people. Ultimately we are using the rugby club as a pillar in the community where people can have fun and let their hair down.”

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