2015 Silver Best Business to Consumer Campaign

Epsilon International

Wasps Rugby Football Club (RFC)

Building a new profitable fan base for Wasps

The Team
Genevieve Woods, Jimmy McGann, James Gallo, Dave Cowzer, Shane Forsythe, Chris Williamson, Israel Comar, Jordan Murphy

Contributors
Conversant - Digital media buying

Campaign overview

Wasps Rugby Club relocated from their home ground at Adams Park, where they had an average attendance of 5,500, to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, with a capacity of 32,000. The campaign brief was to fill the Ricoh Arena with an average attendance of 14,000 for each of the remaining nine games of the season.

Professional sports clubs relocating is unusual in the UK and often risks the relationship between a club and its fans. But research showed 525,000 households with an interest in rugby within an hour’s drive of the Ricoh Arena – a large potential new fanbase for Wasps.

Another Local Great showed Wasps’ respect for the people of Warwickshire and its eagerness to be part of this incredible community. The campaign was rewarded with thousands of new ticket buyers, above-target attendances and a new attendance record.

Strategy

The team reached over 90% of UK online traffic to find new Wasps fans. Users’ engagement with previous sport-based campaigns was cross-referenced with their online and social activity, with two key audiences identified.

‘Rugby fans’ were male (69%), ABC1 (63%) with high earnings (35% had household income over £50,000) and who engaged with Wasps on a Windows desktop (78%) during work hours.

‘Entertainment day out mums’ were female (70%), lower middle class (68% had household income under £50,000), with children aged 5-10 (48%). They used Apple mobile rather than android (74%) and were more likely than average to be shopping for furniture, homewares, holidays and couponing sites.

Wasps looked to build an emotional connection with these target audiences through a truly local and relevant campaign.

Creativity

Another Local Great introduced Wasps as the new local club across radio, press and outdoor, with creative tailored to different areas. A warm and humble message drew comparisons between the achievements of Warwickshire people and businesses and those of Wasps. Creative executions used Wasps action shots to complement strong headlines about local heroes including the band The Specials, the inventor of the jet engine, Frank Whittle, the invention of the tank in Coventry, and more.

Tactical messages pulled people down the funnel, with activity concentrated on weekdays as this saw conversion peak. Game day creative prompted people to act and focused on game dates, times, prices and opponents.

Creative and response strategies were constantly optimized, with real-time learnings informing the next media buy, message and response channel chosen.

Results

The campaign was a roaring success, beating its target with an average attendance of 19,167 per home game. The home attendance record was also broken, with 32,019 tickets sold.

More than 16,000 new ticket buyers were drawn to the club, while the customer database was grown from 34,000 to more than 54,000 and a re-targeting pool of over 250,000 was also built.

Website traffic increased by 39% and email click-throughs were 30% higher than industry average.

A reduction in cost per acquisition of 60% and the huge increase in Wasps fans ensured the campaign delivered an impressive 6:1 ROMI as well as building the club an engaged fanbase that can support its ambitions long into the future.