The Campaign

To show we really understood the customer journey we bought every sign at the airport and then we offered them to our rivals, Guinness beer, the official sponsor of the Lions...for free. Why on earth would we do that?

The Brief

Overall Budget: $130,000 Breakdown of costs: Media spend (Paid media budget): $63,779. Production: $65,500

Creative Execution

So we bought every sign which included 65 digital screens across both domestic and international terminals and 8 large scale static billboards. We then told our rival, Guinness, the official sponsor of the Lions, that they could have the signs, but they had to fight us for them. We had fitted each of the 65 digital screens with a camera and microprocessor and programme them to recognise fans. Fans from either team could then take over the signs and blanket the airport for their team. All they had to do was approach the screen and stand their ground. Just like a rugby match on the field, it was a fight for territory.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The Fight for Territory campaign brought the brand to the very beginning of the rugby tour beer drinkers customer journey. It gave them a side to choose along with a beer to go with that side, well before the competition beers had any say. Over the course of the campaign we had 90,000 fans approach a sign to force a turn over. That figure is enough to fill the rugby stadium twice and both beers saw in increase in sales with Guinness up 18% and Steinlager, already the top selling beer in the country, up 5%. But most importantly one of the biggest parts of attending the tour actually felt like part of the tour.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Steinlager (the iconic New Zealand beer) have been sponsoring the All Blacks (the iconic NZ rugby team) for 30 years. Why? Because rugby and beer go together. In fact, drinking beer while watching rugby is part of the consumer journey and kiwis are loyal and will drink the beer that support their team. So when the Lions Tour was coming to NZ we had to remind the fans of Steinlager's connection to the All Blacks because so many other brands were trying to jump on the band wagon and the stadium would be saturated with competitor's advertising.

Well, during the Lions Tour teams and fans actually spend more time at the airport travelling between stadiums than they do at the actual stadiums. But there is nothing going on at the airport, no advertising, no support, so much so that it doesn't even feel like part of the tour.