The Big Interview – O2

Gareth Griffiths, Head of Sports Sponsorship at O2, speaks to sportindustry.biz about the brand’s 20 year relationship with England Rugby and plans for a big Rugby World Cup year.

With the Rugby World Cup coming up later this year, how important is 2015 for you?

It’s our most significant advertising and creative campaign in the whole of our 20 years with our partners at England Rugby. It’s the biggest thing we’ve ever done, and rightly so, it’s a brilliant time to work with England. We are very happy with Stuart Lancaster and the way he is going about his business. He’s brilliant. We take our responsibility as a long standing relationship very seriously, after all, it’s our logo on the shirt.

Not just for England fans but our customers we feel there is a responsibly to do something that is truly reflective of rugby and our customer base that loves the sport. It helps the nation get behind the team.

Is there anything coming up you can tell us about?

Oh I wouldn’t want to spoil it! But there’s some fantastic stuff coming up, including activity linked to the shirt itself when the new kit comes out in July. We are also working on events, before and during tournaments. It’s very exciting.

We’ll also be talking lots about how we are supporting 02 Touch, our grassroots community programme, and that’s very important to us. All our plans are done and now it’s about making them as big and bold as possible.

It’s a once in a generation opportunity for us to get behind England and it’s in our own backyard so we want everyone to make the most of it. We want the country behind the team.

As you mentioned, it’s 20 years that O2 has been backing England Rugby, what’s the secret to longstanding partnership?

It’s one of the longest title sponsorships of a national team in the world, ever. The secret, for me, is we are huge fans at heart. We love the values of the sport. Rugby is a mass participation sport too, and we are a mass consumer brand, so there are synergies there.

It’s been a 20 year relationship with new managers, new RFU colleagues, and loads of new players. As you go through each tournament cycle it’s almost like a new sponsorship.

One part that has changed in the 20 years, is the money in the game. What has the new technology, that these funds bring, changed in activating the sponsorship?

I suppose the easiest way to compare is drawing comparison between last Rugby World Cup in 2011 and now in 2015 and what our campaigns are for each of these. In 2011 we had campaign – get up for England – based around the idea that the games were at 7am or 8am in the morning, get out of bed, get watching the game on the television – we even sent a pie and pint to people’s houses.

Four years on, we are touring the country with a virtual reality headset where u can train with the team, virtually. In terms of technology, moving from pies and pints to virtual reality in the space of four years is a remarkably quick jump.

Look back to 2011, Instagram wasn’t mentioned – now it’s one of the core channels to activate. The last four years we have seen big changes, more so than any other tournament period. 

Gareth Griffiths was speaking as O2 encourages fans to #WearTheRose and get behind the England rugby team. For more on #WearTheRose go to o2.co.uk/WearTheRose