Auckland Rugby and Crave Global introduce new rugby brand and campaign

Creative agency Crave Global has teamed up with the Auckland Rugby Union to create a new sub-brand for Club Rugby.

The new brand aims to entice more Aucklanders to get behind their local teams and head along to their club.

Launching this week with a bold new look and feel, the campaign introduces a new competition format. It brings to life the concept of more hype, more heart and 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.

Crave will launch the work through an integrated brand campaign across out of home, radio, social media, digital platforms and at clubs.

Keeping it raw and real

“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,” says Crave’s managing director Daniel Hopkirk.

“The research was clear that people love the raw, real side of community game. And high performance 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,” Hopkirk adds.

More than just rugby

Club Rugby will focus on creating events beyond the games that attract a wider range of people to attend the clubs.

“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,” says Auckland Rugby head of marketing Dan Dale.

“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,” Dale adds.

A club that stands out

“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.”