Industry Shorts: The Playbook, Lions, Tennis Scotland

Rugby Australia has offered to host the 2021 British and Irish Lions Tour, which was scheduled to take place in South Africa in the summer.

The Tour looks unlikely to be played in front of fans in South Africa this summer, with the possibility of full stadiums in the UK and Ireland also looking uncertain.

Hamish McLennan, Chairman, Rugby Australia, confirmed that the offer had been made, which would see the profit from matches split between South Africa and the Lions, with Rugby Australia covering their costs for hosting the events.

Creative communications consultancy The Playbook has appointed Ceri Reed as its new Managing Director. 

Previously Head of Brand Experience at BCW Global, Reed joins the company to continue its strategic evolution into a full-service brand agency. During her career, she has held roles at agencies including Edelman, Golin and Fever and worked across brands such as Cadbury, NOW TV, Warner Bros. and CAMPARI Group. 

Launched in 2016 as a creative communications start-up by the Hanover Group, The Playbook now works across areas such as sport consumer technology, healthcare and lifestyle, with clients such as the likes of La Liga, Worcester Bosch, P&O Cruises, the NFL, UFC, 888sport and UK Music.

Tennis Scotland has announced a three-year partnership with AMC, the clothing brand created by Andy Murray and Castore.

The partnership will see AMC become Tennis Scotland’s Official Apparel Partner, including the GB National Tennis Academy at the University of Stirling.

The deal is part of Tennis Scotland’s commitment to growing commercial partnerships with high-profile brands and to providing a legacy for Murray’s achievements.

Sport England have appointed Havas agencies Conran Design Group and Cake, as well as We Are Family and Cyber-Duck to roll out its new ‘Uniting the Movement’ 10-year strategy. 

The launch, which involved an online event, with no paid media, saw a strong organic social media showing with 1.24m impressions on Twitter, according to Cake.

Elements of the campaign were created across the agency partners, with Conran Design Group developing the name and visual identity, while Cake translated the strategy for a social audience. Meanwhile, We Are Family orchestrated the launch event production, and UX agency Cyber-Duck helped to evolve the digital strategy and create a new online hub for the Uniting The Movement initiative.

Envision Virgin Racing Formula E Team has announced a new multi-year partnership with Johnson Matthey which will see the sustainable technologies company become an Official Partner of the team and its ‘Race Against Climate Change’ sustainability programme, created to help amplify the fight against climate change and accelerate the movement to zero emission vehicles. 

The new collaboration will also focus on the co-development of the first ever electric two-seater Formula E style race car, powered by eLNO, JM’s family of nickel-rich advanced cathode materials. 

The technical collaboration aims to create a working race car which will be based at the team’s state-of-the-art facilities at Silverstone, in the UK.

Sport Industry Awards Partner, Sporting Wine Club, will celebrate Lionel Messi’s record-breaking 644th goal for Barcelona by offering a chance to win a personalised signed shirt by the man himself. 

The wine importers and suppliers, who exclusively stock wines with a connection to sporting greats, offer Messi’s L10 collection of Argentinian wines.

In order to be in with a chance of winning the competition, entrants must purchase a case of L10 wines before the deadline on 14th February, with each case serving as an entry into the draw.

The Cancer Deadline Day has entered into its final day, as a consortium of eight cancer charities join forces to raise money.

The group, which includes Breast Cancer Now, Clic Sargent, Macmillan Cancer Support, Pancreatic Cancer UK, Prostate Cancer UK, The Ruth Strauss Foundation, Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Teenage Cancer Trust, is calling on fans, players and footballing legends to make a donation to help fight cancer.

More than 50 football clubs from the Premier League, WSL, Scottish Premier League and English Football League have signed up in support of the campaign with the likes of Sir Rod Stewart, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and Jeff Stelling getting involved.