Jersey Rugby Club Sponsorship 2012
The Jersey Rugby Club, having won the National League 1 division in 2011/2 has been promoted to the second tier of English rugby and will play in the Championship in the forthcoming 2012/3 season. This is a remarkable achievement that :
- Brings a huge degree of national pride to the Island of Jersey
- Provides an exploitable platform for marketing Jersey as a tourism destination to rugby supporters and particularly those who follow the 11 Championship sides who will be playing matches in Jersey during the forthcoming Autumn, Winter and Spring seasons.
- Provides an exploitable platform for Locate Jersey to promote the Island as a location for mobile inward investment project from the UK, which represents a key market for Locate Jersey
Promotion to the Championship increases the potential for inbound tourists in the shoulder and off season, an objective that is at the heart of the draft Tourism Strategy. In addition, the ability to promote Jersey across the UK and through TV coverage of Championship matches, is a valuable tool to bolster inward investment activity which is one of the four objectives of the Economic Growth and Diversification Strategy.
The Rugby Football Union have recently announced the fixtures list for the 2012/13 Season:
Jersey RFC
1st XV Fixtures 2012-13
Sat 11 Aug Leicester Tigers (Home - Friendly)
Sat 25 Aug Loughborough Students (Home - Friendly)
Sat 1 Sep Cornish Pirates (Home)
W/E 8 Sep Leeds (Away)
Sat 15 Sep Moseley (Home)
W/E 22 Sep Rotherham (Away)
Sat 29 Sep Bedford (Home)
W/E 6 Oct Nottingham (Away)
W/E 13 Oct British & Irish Cup
W/E 20 Oct British & Irish Cup
Sat 27 Oct London Scottish (Home)
Sat 3 Nov Plymouth (Home)
W/E 10 Nov Bristol (Away)
17 Nov Blank Weekend
Sat 24 Nov London Welsh (TBC) # (Home)
W/E 1 Dec Doncaster (Away)
W/E 8 Dec British & Irish Cup
W/E 15 Dec British & Irish Cup
Sat 22 Dec Leeds (Home)
W/E 5 Jan Moseley (Away)
W/E 12 Jan British & Irish Cup
W/E 19 Jan British & Irish Cup
Sat 26 Jan Rotherham (Home)
Sat 2 Feb Blank Weekend
W/E 9 Feb Bedford (Away)
Sat 16 Feb Nottingham (Home)
Sat 23 Feb Blank Weekend
W/E 2 Mar London Scottish (Away)
W/E 9 Mar Plymouth (Away)
Sat 16 Mar Blank Weekend
Sat 23 Mar Bristol (Home)
W/E 30 Mar London Welsh (TBC) # (Away)
Sat 6 Apr B&I Quarter-Finals
Sat 13 Apr Doncaster (Home)
W/E 20 Apr Cornish Pirates (Away)
* # If London Welsh are successful in their appeal regarding the club's eligibility for promotion, the London Welsh fixtures will be switched to Newcastle Falcons.
EDD has discussed the issue of sponsorship of the 1st XV with club representatives and, as a consequence there are 3 areas of support under consideration by which a relationship might be developed between Jersey Tourism, Locate Jersey and the Jersey Rugby Club.
In consideration of these areas the nature of the marketing opportunity presented by the sport takes priority over the emotional attachment associated with Jersey having a very successful club team which deserves the support of the Island and its business community.
1. Marketing Jersey to visiting supporters for match visits
An opportunity which will provide an immediate and direct benefit to the tourism industry promoting Jersey as a short break destination to the club supporters to those playing in the Championship. Most Championship clubs are in locations with good access to Jersey by air or ferry and therefore investment in marketing activity has a high probability of delivering a good return.
The estimated marketing expenditure for this activity will be between £15k -£20k subject to the cost of negotiated space in club publications.
Early discussions indicate that this initiative is likely to be successful in terms of generating visitor volume and that it will have the support of the industry and members of the Tourism Marketing Panel.
A full project brief for the initiative is attached as Appendix 1
2. Proposed Main Sponsorship of Jersey Rugby Football Club 2012 - 2015
A proposal has been made by Jersey Rugby Club to offer Main Sponsorship to EDD/ Tourism for a period of up to 3 years at a cost of £100k per annum in return for a large number of sponsorship benefits.
Appendix 2 describes the full sponsorship package details.
The sponsorship benefits largely fall into 3 categories, each of which are difficult to turn into direct benefit for the tourism industry and certainly could not justify an investment at the level suggested.
2.1 On Island profile, branding and corporate entertainment
Main sponsorship would deliver extensive signage at the ground in St Peter, match day tickets and player sponsorships. From a Jersey Tourism perspective the benefit of this element of the sponsorship is limited and would be more typically suited to a sponsor whose business interests are locally focussed as Tourism has to invest in its core overseas markets from which visitors are sourced and not the local market.
From a Locate Jersey (and possibly Jersey Finance) perspective the inclusion of match day hospitality and access to international Six Nations tickets as part of the main sponsorship has significant value. As EDD increases its efforts to attract and retain private and institutional inward investors the ability to invite carefully selected individuals to a quality event is of great value as we seek to influence their location decisions in ana increasingly competitive market place.
This will support the Economic Growth and Diversification Strategy which has, as one of its four Strategic Aims:
Strategic Aim 3: Create new businesses and employment in high value sectors
A new Enterprise Strategy will be produced in 2012 and will include far greater focus on creating and growing high value businesses. It is these new high value businesses that will create new quality job opportunities for residents. The priorities in the next 4 years will be to:
3.1 Enhance efforts to secure high-value inward investment. Over the past 4 years the EDD inward investment strategy has delivered quantifiable outputs by attracting high value business to Jersey (See Appendix 2 and 3).
Increased budget will be allocated to inward investment, over the next
4 years to further increase volumes of investment (measured by new
Licences granted under the Housing and Work (Jersey) Law) and
employment to the island.
EDD’s inward investment team, Locate Jersey, will coordinate all inward
investment activity including the work undertaken in attracting high net
worth individuals to the Island and build upon what has been achieved to
date.
Future overseas activity will be targeted towards, but not limited to, the
following sectors: – financial services, e-commerce, Intellectual Property,
ICT and renewable energy. Locate Jersey will work in partnership with
Jersey Finance Limited and Digital Jersey to achieve challenging inward
investment targets that exceed those delivered in 2008-2011.
Activity to attract high net worth individuals will increasingly target
economically active individuals keen to make further commercial
investments in Jersey.
Jersey Enterprise/Locate Jersey have clearly demonstrated the value of corporate hospitality/entertainment with guests at many of their UK & Island events now engaged or present in Jersey. Sponsorship of JRFC has the potential to this activity to another level. However as such sponsorship support is untested it is recommended that EDD commits on a 'one-year, with option to extend (on same terms)' basis. This will give the opportunity to test concepts, assess the wider staff resource impacts for Locate Jersey and other parts of EDD and allow the outcomes of MTFP/Growth bids to be assessed, prior to making any longer term commitments
2.2 Kit and Shirt Branding
Branding is primarily a method of linking the name of the sponsor by association to the sports club. When one examines businesses that sponsor current Championship sides it is evident that major corporates associate value with this form of branding proposition.
Bedford Blues are sponsored by Autoglass, a national brand.
London Welsh are sponsored by London Pride, a national brand
London Scottish are sponsored by Deutsche Bank
Newcastle Falcons are sponsored by J P Morgan
Shirt advertising and the overall branding of the team can add significant value to Locate Jersey and our inward investment activity in the UK market, particularly as both the “Jersey.com” (on the playing shirt) and “Locate Jersey.com” (on the playing shorts) call to action will feature prominently.
Sky Sports coverage
Television coverage is always a valuable therefore much sought after media channel which is high on the list of preferred media for marketing the destination of Jersey.
The Championship will carry a level of Sky Sports coverage which is guaranteed to include Jersey as well as the other participating clubs. Likely that the opening match of the RFU Championship season, at home to the Cornish Pirates, will be televised live on Sky Sports – something no other Jersey institution, sporting or otherwise can deliver. Analysis by Jersey Tourism’s media team shows that whilst there is benefit, it will be limited in terms of cover and ability to deliver core Jersey sales messages to the tourism sector.
Blanket coverage across the rugby coverage on Sky TV would deliver 5.69% of Jersey Tourism’s primary target audience. Evaluating against the broader definition of a primary market of ABC1 55+ this would be increased to 6.68%.
It would be fair to assume that the coverage of Championship matches is
likely to form only a small part of this overall coverage.
Perhaps the greater potential is in attracting other “non traditional” market segments, more characteristic of rugby supporters. Defined by ArkLeisure segmentation as Cosmopolitans, Discoverers and Functionals these are travellers whose decision to visit Jersey could be catalysed by attendance at a Championship rugby game. This is, in effect, another form of event-led tourism. The geographic location of visiting teams is a good match with Jersey’s online audience as defined by Hitwise. People in East Midlands (Nottingham RFC, Moseley RFC and Bedford RFC), South East (London Welsh etc etc), South West (Cornish Pirates and Plymouth RFC) and Yorkshire (Leeds RFC, Rotherham RFC and Doncaster RFC) are most likely to be interested in Jersey. In addition, supporters of Bristol RFC, one of the biggest clubs in the Championship are well served by direct flights to Jersey with both Flybe and Blue Island.
However, we are not only trying to raise awareness of Jersey as a visitor destination. Much our success to date in inward investment can be attributed to the significant increase in a broad spectrum of marketing activity including, but not limited to, Jersey being featured on the BA in-flight entertainment platform, attendance at conferences, overseas visits and bespoke events in the UK such as the recent lunch at the Dorchester.
Outputs and outcomes that will be achieved as a result of the shirt sponsorship investment will be assessed in Year 1 prior to making any decision on the option of sponsorship for a further two years. Exposure in the UK market afforded by JRFC’s Championship status is forecast to provide:
Increase in visitors and bed nights in the tourism shoulder and off season
Increase in conversion of inward investment leads to delivered businesses with associate job creation opportunities
A unique opportunity to broaden marketing initiatives for Jersey Tourism and Locate Jersey.
2.3. Recommendation
- Jersey Tourism to undertake the marketing associated with match days for the 2102/3 season, if possible in co-operation with industry partners.
- To provide sponsorship funding of Seventy Five Thousand Pounds (£75,000) to JRFC from the Locate Jersey budget for the 2012/13 RFU Championship season with an option to extend at EDD’s sole discretion, for a further two (2) years.
Appendix 1
Jersey Tourism: Marketing & Promotions Project Brief
Title | Rugby Campaign – Championship League 2012/ 2013 |
Date | 2 May 2012 |
Supplier | SOUK Advertising |
Originator | Jo Wills |
Contact | Jo Wills – T: 01534 448845 / e: jo@jersey.com
|
Department | Jersey Tourism Marketing & Promotions |
Campaign Details
|
Introduction/Background
Following an extremely successful 2011/ 2012 season, the Jersey Rugby Club has been promoted to the Championship league, which is just one level below Premiership. Sports-led tourism is increasingly regarded as an opportunity to promote Jersey and increase staying leisure visitors to island. Riding on the back of Jersey Rugby Club’s success, Jersey Tourism plan to support their local team and create a campaign to encourage UK rugby supporters to follow their teams playing away in the island for a weekend break, or longer holiday. The campaign also provides an opportunity to engage with the local tourism industry and offer partner marketing opportunities to them. The exact game fixtures are not available yet, but are anticipated to be released towards the end of May 2012. Ten of the eleven clubs Jersey will be playing in the Championship have been confirmed, with one yet to be decided. |
Research/Statistics | The Championship League
Confirmed teams that the Jersey Rugby Club will be playing in the Championship are: - Bedford Blues
- Cornish Pirates
- London Welsh
- Nottingham
- Leeds Carnegie
- Rotherham Titans
- Doncaster Knights
- London Scottish
- Moseley
- Plymouth Albion
- Plus either – Newcastle Falcons, Bristol or London Wasps.
Facebook pages Most of the Championship teams have facebook pages set up for their clubs. Some pages have obviously been established longer than others – the size of their fanbases can be seen below. These pages may offer free promotion of the games to be played in Jersey, along with the travel packages offered by industry partners. Please see the example facebook pages attached to this brief.
- Cornish Pirates – 4,237 likes
- Nottingham – 2,205 likes
- London Scottish – 1,464 likes
- London Welsh – 1,154 likes
- Plymouth Albion – 1,039 likes
- Leeds Carnegie – 903 likes
- Rotherham Titans – 178 likes
- Bedford Blues – 8 likes
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Objectives | - To promote Jersey as a holiday destination and increase UK staying leisure visitors to the island.
- To encourage UK rugby team supporters to follow their teams playing away and travel to Jersey for a weekend break or longer holiday, by promoting travel packages from their closest departure point.
- To create partner marketing opportunities for the local tourism industry.
|
Target Audience – Who are we talking to & what do we know about them that is relevant?
| Main target audience are supporters of the UK rugby teams playing against Jersey in the Championship. No socio-economic or age related information is available about these supporters, but it can be assumed that there is likely to be a male bias amongst club members. Research can be conducted to determine the closest departure point for members of the clubs to travel from the UK to Jersey, to include in the relevant communications. It has been indicated by several of the UK rugby club contacts that supporters of the Championship teams are already looking forward to the next season and to visiting Jersey. The commercial manager from Moseley Rugby Club said “a number of supporters have already mentioned the away trip and making a short break of the weekend of the game, so any info would be helpful”.
|
Key Messages
| - Travel to Jersey and support your team whilst they play in the warmest place in the British Isles
- Take advantage of the special travel packages advertised to Jersey
- Jersey is perfect for a weekend break or longer holiday whilst you visit the island to watch the rugby
- Jersey offers spectacular and varied scenery, with plenty to see and do away from the rugby pitch
- Jersey is easily accessible from departure points close to each rugby club
- Note – the Jersey Rugby Club may be changing their name, but this is still to be decided.
|
Campaign Outline | It is envisaged the campaign will be run on a limited budget, using a mixture of integrated online and offline communications, including the following media: - Match day programme advertising – possibly incorporating augmented reality videos, cost dependent.
- Advertising in supporter club’s online newsletters.
- Web banner advertising on rugby club’s websites.
- Dedicated Jersey rugby page created on jersey.com (www.jersey.com/rugby) - will be used as the main call to action other than booking travel packages direct with the industry partner and possible facebook competition.
- Posting Jersey related information on UK rugby club’s facebook pages, including travel information and travel package details (in-house).
- Rugby game posts and information on the Jersey facebook page (in-house).
- Possible competition run on facebook to win a weekend break to Jersey to watch one of the Championship rugby games. The competition could also be promoted through a banner ad in one of our destination emails, sent to over 90,000 UK consumers and through other rugby campaign elements, enabling us to harvest consumer data.
- Tweets about the Jersey rugby games from the Jersey Tourism Twitter account (in-house).
- Possible brief to Seventy-Seven PR to promote Jersey rugby games in the relevant UK areas where the Championship clubs are based.
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Deadlines
| - To be confirmed on agreement of the budget and communications plan.
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Budget /
Purchase Order No.
| - Exact budget to be confirmed. A separate budget spreadsheet with associated media costs is available.
- Purchase Order to be raised.
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Attachments
| - Initial rugby campaign creative from SOUK (programme ads)
- Rugby team’s facebook page examples
- Jersey.com example themed pages & interactive photo gallery, which would be created for jersey.com/rugby
- Contact/ budget spreadsheet
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gov.je