The Challenge

The rugby world cup was a big event in England. The team were favourites to win and expectations were high. So high that a brand circus was developing as all sorts of companies tried to leverage their connections to the beautiful game with the oval ball.

Brewing companies traditionally attach themselves to sporting events but Fullers wanted to do more than just attend the games, it wanted to tap into the huge surge of emotion that fans feel during the game.

With the matches taking place in Australia, it made sense that TV should be the lead medium as that was how most fans would watch it. The 20-second creative execution would feature a stirring soliloquy from Henry V asking the English to “rise up”.

The TV Solution

But to capture the emotion of the event, the beer had to be in the right places. It invested solely in England games and purchased the best last-in break spots just before the kick off and at half time.

And it added to the impact of this stirring creative with the latest TV technology. A graphic overlay allowed the brand to add scorelines or commentary to the ads, elevating the commercial to live status.

Seven of the 13 spots used delivered 43% of ABC1 men in London, while the graphic overlays positioned London Pride as the fans’ beer and generated talk-ability.

TV advertising was backed up by sponsorship of the Evening Standard’s Guide to Rugby, ads in the Standard and Metro as well as outdoor and vouchering at mainline stations.

The Results

London Pride hosted 2,000 fans at the Odeon Leicester Square for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The whole audience cheered spontaneously when they saw the ad during the final.

They also drank a lot of beer. The media strategy generated some spectacular sales, up 50% weekend on weekend for the final. By the end of the campaign the brand had achieved its highest sales and brand share.