The absence of Ireland from the Rugby World Cup has had a significant impact on both brands and consumers.
With the interest in the tournament dropping off, brands have seen a shift in consumer engagement levels away from the tournament, and are having to adapt their activation plans to engage the narrowing audience.
The RWC Insider is brought to you by Livewire, Radical and Ignite Research – all members of Core Media Group, and full members of Sport for Business For earlier insights on the Rugby World Cup visit www.livewire.ie. Make sure to follow @LivewireIRL for daily updates for the remainder of the tournament.
Social Impact
Buzz declines
Ireland’s official hashtags #ShoulderToShoulder and #IRE have unsurprisingly dropped out of the top 10 most used hashtags in Ireland for the first time. Despite being 19 characters long, #ShoulderToShoulder was the second most mentioned hashtag in Ireland during game weekends for the tournament so far, used in almost 10k tweets.
Ladies and gentlemen, your #RWC2015 finalists… #RWCFinal pic.twitter.com/fItmR7euz2
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 25, 2015
Top Tweeters The number of mentions of the official Rugby World Cup twitter account (@rugbyworldcup) in Ireland has declined by 65% since the Irish team has been knocked out of the tournament. This has resulted in a 63% decline in impressions across our screens this weekend compared to last. Nigel Owens, 44, was the second most mentioned Twitter user from last weekend as he was named as the referee who would take charge of the final between New Zealand and Australia in Twickenham on Saturday. Owens has refereed a combined 162 Challenge Cup, Heineken Cup (ERCC) and Test Match games.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR? #RWCFinal referee @Nigelrefowens wants the players to be centre stage at Twickenham pic.twitter.com/KJQf4i0F6c — Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 29, 2015
TV Impact
3 Player
The growing trend away from linear TV saw 900,000 live streams on 3 Player before the weekend’s final matches; representing a 3400% increase in live streams from August.
In addition, the live streaming 3 Player app was downloaded over 80,000 times since the start of the tournament.
Ireland vs UK
The most watched match in the UK was the crucial pool game between England and Wales. Broadcast on ITV, the match drew in an average 6.07 million viewers accounting for 25% of the available TV audience. This pales in comparison to the 73% of the available Irish TV audience who tuned in to watch Ireland beat France.
Loss of Interest
With Ireland bowing out at the quarter final stage, we saw a 28% decline in the average viewership between the game against Argentina and the semi-final weekends, clearly indicating a loss of interest in the tournament by some Irish fans. With no Northern Hemisphere teams left in the tournament the semi-final games reached an average of 488k viewers. In comparison, Australia v Scotland reached 24% more viewers on average (603k).
Fan Impact
Male / Female Conversation
Last weekend the male / female ratio of global Twitter users tweeting about rugby reverted back to the average of 65% male – 35% female authors. However, female users were notably tweeting more prevalently in relation to of individual players, and in particular Dan Carter, than male users. On the other hand, male users were more interested in the event itself: the day of the semi-finals, the watching experience and the teams involved.
Online Impact
Ireland’s Exit Impacts Search
Up until this weekend Heineken, also a worldwide partner, enjoyed an 11% increase in Google search traffic compared to the 30 days leading into the competition. In fact, while the Irish team was still in the tournament, the brand had a 17% increase in Google search traffic, however this reduced by 30% after defeat to Argentina.
Similarly DHL saw increased search traffic of 9% while Ireland were in the tournament compared to the 30 days before the opening game between England and Fiji. This has dropped by 14% since Ireland’s exit as less Irish consumers are now exposed to the RWC.
Activation Impact
Land Rover
Research has found that 39% of Irish fans believe that corporate sponsorship has had a positive effect on the tournament. The money invested by sponsors for the right to associate with either the Irish team or the Rugby World Cup serves to create an opportunity to engage rugby fans. The trick is maximising this opportunity with an activation strategy that connects with consumers.
Despite historically spending very little on marketing in Ireland compared to other car brands, Land Rover has predominantly used TV to activate its Worldwide Partner status in this market. The brand’s €450k sponsorship of TV3’s coverage of the competition – has equated to €9,375 per live game.
Land Rover’s objective for its “We Deal in Real” campaign is to associate itself with the grassroots of rugby and the pure values of the sport. It seems to have worked; over six times as many Irish consumers believe that Land Rover’s sponsorship has had a more positive than negative impact on the tournament.
Hungry for More?
The RWC Insider is brought to you by Livewire, Radical and Ignite Research – all members of Core Media Group, and full members of Sport for Business For earlier insights on the Rugby World Cup visit www.livewire.ie. Make sure to follow @LivewireIRL for daily updates for the remainder of the tournament.
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