O2 Renews England Rugby Sponsorship

Mobile network O2 has renewed its sponsorship deal with the England rugby team for a further four years signing a £16m contract.

The new deal will run until 31st August 2012 seeing O2 partnering England beyond the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

The £4millon a season deal between O2 and the RFU will be visually reflected through O2’s extensive kit sponsorship of all fifteen-a-side England’s men’s teams including the Senior team, the Saxons, as well as the U20s, U18s and U16s.

O2 will be looking to broaden its relationship with the RFU through potential sponsorship of the England women’s rugby team who are the current European Champions as well as being the RBS 6 Nations champions three years running.

The new deal will continue to give O2 player access rights on both a squad and individual player level, to enable the creation of unique mobile content for customers over the next four years.

O2 has been involved in England rugby since the game turned professional in 1995, during which England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and reached the final in 2007.

IMG Consulting, O2’s sport sponsorship agency, helped negotiate the deal, and will develop the strategy and activation of O2’s partnership with England Rugby.

During the last 4 years working with O2, IMG Consulting has conceived and implemented concepts such as O2 Scrum in the Park, and recently won the Sport Industry Award for Best Sponsorship of a Team or Individual for O2’s campaign during the 2007 Rugby World Cup.