At O2 we’re on a mission to help close rugby’s gender gap with our longstanding partner – the RFU.
In 2020, when women’s sport had been left behind as the pandemic hit, we signed a new 5-year principal partner deal with the RFU, committing to equal marketing spend across the England men’s and women’s teams.
Two years later, we launched a four-year strategy to close rugby’s gender awareness gap. We set out to achieve this by bringing the women’s team out of the shadow of the men’s, connecting them to fans and supercharging support. As ultimately, England’s Red Roses were the No.1 team in the world but didn’t have the status they deserved – something we felt strongly about helping change.
So, we set out to use the power of our rugby partnership to deliver real change around gender parity, making the Red Roses unmissable by increasing their profile which in turn would help O2 build affiliation with key audiences. We delivered.
The profile of the Red Roses Increased by 14%. We recruited new fans to the Red Roses resulting in an increase in viewership of The Women’s Rugby World Cup in the UK and a new world record number of tickets sold for an international women’s rugby fixture. Importantly, we also improved brand attractiveness and consideration with O2 taking the lead in ‘customer brand attractiveness’ against competitors.
