RFU Launches We Call It Rugby

England Rugby has launched ‘We Call it Rugby’, a new national digital campaign to grow participation and re-engagement amongst 16-24 year olds.

The campaign, which aims to challenge traditional rugby stereotypes, is fronted by a series of five short documentaries created in partnership with Virtue Worldwide, the creative services division at global youth brand VICE Media.

The partnership is a first for the union, who will work with VICE and Virtue to identify characters and stories that inspire its audience to reappraise the sport.

Activated across the VICE digital network alongside England Rugby digital channels and supported with a media spend campaign, We Call it Rugby will be rolled out throughout the duration of the Rugby World Cup and beyond with the five video documentaries, a 30-second teaser video and a series of still visuals. Watch the first one, featuring India and Georgie (below), at Sport Industry TV. 

Another first for England Rugby was forging a relationship with internet vlogger, Joe Sugg, who has over five million subscribers to his YouTube channel and almost two and a half million followers on Twitter.

To build awareness amongst Sugg’s following ahead of the official campaign launch, Sugg spent a day at Twickenham to create a vlog, which has so far accumulated over 430,000 views. Sugg’s vlog also sees him kick-start the #HuddleSelfie – a social media competition giving fans the chance to win tickets to see England play – which has had the backing of pop star Ella Eyre and England cricketer Stuart Broad.

Chief commercial & marketing officer, England Rugby, Sophie Goldschmidt, commented on the campaign: “We Call it Rugby is a fresh and exciting campaign that uses genuine content to tell the stories of young people who many can relate to.

“We have pushed a lot of boundaries with this campaign, exploring new avenues and approaches to marketing that are new to England Rugby to ensure that the content we’re creating tells the unique stories of these young role models in a way that captures the imagination of 16-24 year-olds.

“We believe that using real people who tell completely different stories – but all share the same love for the sport – will inspire a younger audience and illustrate that rugby union really is for everyone.”

England Rugby worked closely with VICE to identify five narratives to feature in the campaign.

These include Sammy Green from Bow, east London, who has used rugby to turn his trouble-filled life around and south east Londoner Jake Smyth (above) who recognised that his life was heading down the wrong path before receiving mentoring from Sammy Green, earning himself a place at Blackheath Academy.

Identical twins India and Georgie Perris-Redding from Crewe also feature, who have their eyes firmly fixed on a career in the national women’s squad; Yorkshire’s Peter, George and Joe Altham, who are all deaf; the Manchester Village Spartans RUFC (below), made up of heterosexual players and members from the LGBT community, and Bristol’s LJ Brown, disruptive as a child and diagnosed with mild autism.

Matt O’Mara, managing director, UK, VICE, added:  “Working with England Rugby has been a great experience for us.

“There’s no doubt that rugby has its stereotypes like any sport. We wanted to show that what people think isn’t always the case.  Our work always attempts to see beneath the superficial surface of a particular subject matter to find stories you won’t find elsewhere, or to provide a different perspective.

“The We Call It Rugby series does this in abundance, showing that people from all walks of life can get involved in the sport.”