Match Media has beaten two other agencies to win media buying and planning work for one of the largest global sports events next year, the Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2017). RLWC2017 has also named Clemenger Sydney as their creative agency.
Match will be tasked with promoting a tournament that features 14 countries playing 28 games at 13 host cities between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The event is the pinnacle of international rugby league and will be broadcast on Seven.
Clemenger will be responsible for the major creative campaign across Australia and New Zealand in the lead up to next year’s event.
Clemenger executive creative director Paul Nagy says: "As a Rugby League tragic it's pretty special to be working with the World Cup team. It's going to be an amazing showcase for the greatest game of all. Can't wait.”
For Match it is a significant prize as 2017 is a barren year for global sports events. In Australia, RLWC2017 is the only major global event outside of the annual Australian Open tennis and Formula One.
“We conducted a closed review amongst three agencies and we were impressed with the Match team’s knowledge and enthusiasm for Rugby League as well as their ability to offer all the media services we needed under one roof,” Rugby League World Cup 2017 general manager Rohan Sawyer says.
“Their blend of response driven digital capabilities, ticket sales focused strategy and strong analytics offering was a key deciding factor in appointing Match to the RLWC2017 team.”
Rugby league is the dominant rugby code in Australia in terms of public support and financial backing, and Australia will be favourites to defend the title they captured by beating New Zealand in the final four years ago. However, New Zealand are agruably stronger and England will also be contenders with several British stars now established in the NRL. The tournament will also spread to Papua New Guinea, where there are three pool matches.
“It’s a huge event and a great brief to work on,” Match Media chief executive John Preston says. “Whilst the actual event is a long way off, the work to create the building blocks to deliver a successful event starts now, and we can’t wait to contribute to delivering a sell-out event.”
Match is the second agency to secure a major sports event in recent weeks after MediaCom won media buying and planning duties for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
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