With the Ashes wrapped up for another two years, and the little urn unfortunately on its way back to Australia, it’s time to switch our attention to the next sporting fixture in the calendar, and it’s not a small one either.
The 2019 Rugby World Cup gets underway this week in Japan, and the English will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of their cricketing counterparts who etched themselves into sporting folklore just a few months ago after claiming a first World Cup victory.
But whilst Eddie and the boys are busy taking on the likes of Argentina and France in the group stages. We’re going to go on a whistle-stop tour of what you and your business can be doing over the next month to make sure you capitalise on the Rugby World Cup.
Social media content creation
Whether it’s a feel-good status in preparation to one of England’s games, or a bespoke animation, make sure your social followers know you’ll be cheering them on.
Sporting events offer businesses a unique opportunity to show off their personality whilst creating content that they wouldn’t usually be able to get involved with.
It’s vital for brands to engage with audiences during major sporting events on social media – not least because it presents an opportunity to engage with an online community that they might not necessarily reach with their wider strategy. It’s important not to shoehorn your brand into conversation, but to immerse in conversation from a natural and sincere angle.
Joe Toal, Social Media Manager at The PHA Group
Social media has clearly evolved since the 2015 World Cup, community managers now have multiple tools up their sleeves such as creating polls, live streaming or even Instagram stories.
The main points to remember here is to make sure you continue to engage your audience, use hashtags and emojis to keep your posts creative.
CSR
Corporate social responsibility has become one of the standard business practices of our time. Consumers now demand that companies start playing an active role in addressing social, cultural and environmental issues. Global sporting events give businesses a great opportunity to do some good in the world whilst also enhancing their profile in the media spotlight.
For example, during the fifth and final test of the recent Ashes series, lyricist and big-time cricket fan, Sir Tim Rice, decided to donate £15,000 for every hundred scored and every five-wicket haul taken and £5,000 for every fifty and three-wicket haul achieved by England to cricketing charity, Chance to Shine.
Could your businesses offer an hour of charity work for every point that Owen Farrell scores during the World Cup? Or a donation for every try that Jonny May finishes?
Spontaneous moments
Any sporting event inevitably offers drama, excitement and unpredictability if it didn’t, we probably wouldn’t watch it. So, during this World Cup, we’re bound to see a few surprises, scares and maybe even an England win! So, use these moments to direct traffic to your site where possible. If you run an e-commerce site, why not offer a 10% discount code such as ENG10 if they progress through the semi-finals to the final?
Email marketing
Implementing an email marketing strategy around an event can run the risk of losing a potentially willing customer, who unsubscribes from your content as they aren’t interested in the event in question.
So why not start small? An idea from email marketing specialists Kickdynamic, is creating live countdown timers for a specific game.
This allows your business to mention that you’ll be supporting [insert your favourite team here] during the World Cup, whilst continuing with your normal communication. Like previously mentioned, events allow an opportunity for businesses to get creative and jump on the news agenda, but it’s key to remember where the line is.
If you’re interested in learning more about how your business can hijack the news agenda most often, get in touch with us today