Industry Shorts: World Netball, Rlwc2021, Yoplait Kids

The International Netball Federation has unveiled a rebrand which will see the organisation known as World Netball, alongside the launch of a strategic plan which will shape the future of the sport.

The governing body’s renaming reflects the ‘significant growth’ in awareness and development of netball in recent years, while the rebrand – created by CSM Sport & Entertainment – is designed around three core strategies and seven essential values as the strategic plan builds on Netball 2020, World Netball’s strategic plan launched in 2016.

Centred around ‘ambitious, progressive and agile’, the rebrand aims to help World Netball expand the sport’s worldwide reach and impact and incorporates the five netball regions – Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania – ad symbolises the athletic forms that are ‘visually unique’ to netball.

The Rugby League World Cup 2021 has announced Pepsi MAX as its Official Soft Drink and Gatorade as its Official Sports Drink.

The partnerships come as part of a deal with Britvic, which has been responsible for the production, distribution, marketing and sales of PepsiCo’s carbonated soft drink brands in Great Britain since 1987. 

The brands will receive sales and marketing rights for the tournament, including tickets, experiential and social activation, as well as providing hydration for all players, officials, volunteers, and staff at RLWC2021.

Yoplait Kids – which owns yogurt brands such as Petits Filous, Frubes and Wildlife – has unveiled six Team GB ambassadors to front its Tokyo 2020 ‘Moments of Gold’ campaign, including double Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover MBE and 12-year-old skateboarder Sky Brown, who will be Britain’s youngest Summer Olympian.

The Team GB athletes will front the £2.4m ATL campaign which aims to encourage families to be active together and create ‘moments of gold’, in what will be its biggest ever UK partnership. The brand will also launch fun ‘sporting style challenges’ as part of video-led social media content which will launch across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. 

Joining Glover and Brown as ambassadors are climber Shauna Coxsey, reigning world karate champion Jordan Thomas, Rio 2016 badminton bronze medallist Chris Langridge, Davis Cup winning tennis captain Leon Smith. 

Arsenal have become the latest Premier League club to sign up with digital inventory management platform Horizm. 

The agreement will see the club use Horizm’s AI-powered platform, which aims to boost users’ returns on digital by gaining a better understanding of the value they can provide to current and future partners.

The EFL has unveiled PUMA as its Official Match Ball Supplier.

The long-term agreement will begin at the start of the 2021/22 season and will see PUMA produce the official match ball for all EFL competitions, including the Sky Bet Championship, League One, League Two, Carabao Cup and Papa John’s Trophy. 

The ball is designed to ‘complement the variety of styles on show across the EFL’, with the traditional white football featuring the colours of the EFL logo alongside custom acceleration graphics to showcase the ‘explosive speed of the ball when moving’. 

PUMA is currently the Official Match Ball Supplier of LaLiga. 

The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has enlisted legendary broadcaster Phil Liggett to head the live coverage of its upcoming inaugural flagship event The Collins Cup.

A new race format modelled after the Ryder Cup, which will see teams of International, European, and US athletes pitted against one another to showcase the sport, The Collins Cup will be anchored by the ‘Voice of Cycling’, Liggett, who has been a TV commentator for more than 40 years, covering seven Commonwealth Games, ten summer, and five winter Olympic Games, as well as 48 editions of the Tour de France.

Sport for social good organisation Behind Every Kick will team up with former Two Circles Co-Founder and former CEO Matt Rogan to host an online event on the launch of his new book All To Play For.

The event will raise funds for the charity, which aims to unlock the potential of young people using sport, and will see Rogan join broadcaster Kait Borsay, sports lawyer Daniel Geey, and RFL Chair Simon Johnson on 10th June to discuss sport’s role in leveling the playing field after the pandemic.

The British & Irish Lions and South Africa Rugby have today announced Pro Athlete Supplementation (PAS) as Official Performance Nutrition Supplier of the 2021 Castle Lager Lions Series in South Africa.

The deal will see PAS supply the Lions and Springboks squads with a range of sports nutrition products aimed at improving performance and aiding recovery.

The 2021 Castle Lager Lions Series in South Africa is the second successive Tour that PAS has supported the team having also been an official Lions supplier for the Tour to New Zealand in 2017.