Social Media and the Rugby World Cup

Following the group stages and on the eve of the quarter finals it is fair to say that social media has already had a major impact on RWC 2011 and given the distance between the majority of rugby fans situated in Europe and the tournament itself in New Zealand it is clear that social media has become increasingly significant for tournament organisers, unions, rights holders and sponsors associated with the sport.

There has been a huge amount of engagement from fans around the RWC on sites like Twitter and Facebook where guys like Will Greenwood have positioned themselves as top influences discussing topics like team selection and even sharing the final technical points of the game in real time during matches. One thing is for certain, if you are not an early riser and prefer to Sky Plus your games, make sure you do not access your social channels before you watch the game as we have seen an increase in fans engaging in social media particularly via smartphones whilst watching matches. This trend is not new, there are case studies on this in the USA around the Super Bowl, but we are yet to see brands capitalising on this opportunity to engage with fans during rugby matches in the way that Doritos did with their innovative video sharing initiative around the Super Bowl last year.

So what are the trending topics so far?

We have seen a lot of conversations around, Stadia, concerns over ticket prices, the England team’s notorious nights out and dwarf wrestling. However, injuries have been a top topic and none more so than the catastrophe that befell the All Blacks last week with the cruel injury suffered by Dan Carter on the eve of their match against Canada.

However, a top topic worth discussing is the outburst from Samoan centre Eliota Fuimaona- Sapolu (EF-S) on Twitter, resulting in an IRB suspension from all rugby after his rants about scheduling, perceived bias towards tier two nations and accusations of racism towards referee Nigel Owens. This incident could be seen as a failure by the IRB, who could have used social media after EF-S' first rant to help diffuse the issue and prevent the issue from snowballing to the outburst seen this week. This should be a wakeup call for the IRB that they need to put some thought into their social media reputation crisis management procedure so get to the smoke before the fire gets out of control.

It appears that there is no substance to EFS' accusations towards Nigel Owens, but this does raise the wider issue that players need to be trained on how to use Social Media tools and need to understand that they are accountable for what they say online. This incident is a real shame because we have seen the unions and brands that have empowered players to engage online, have created engaging and interesting content that has spread like wildfire.

Clearly content is King at the RWC. We have seen sites like Rugby Dump, sportpost.com and even ESPN's fantasy league generating buzz and interest amongst rugby fans, but which brands are capitalising on the opportunities presented by social media and who’s just not getting it?

RWC 2011 has seen record low kicking percentages in the modern professional era with Jonny Wilkinson’s success rate as low as 45%. Obviously there has been a lot of discussion around the Gilbert match ball as a result. Gilbert have been notable by their absence in this debate and have not leveraged their rights agreements with top kickers such as South African Morne Steyn to create relevant content to put this issue to bed. When contrasted with Adidas' response to questions around the Jabulani at last summer’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa, it paints a picture of an organisation that is not prepared to leverage social media to help increase credibility of its flagship product at the sports marquee event.

On the other hand, the Lynx Rules to Rugby viral has unsurprisingly struck a chord with a large number of rugby fans and content from o2’s Shear for England campaign has also been shared and tagged widely across a number of social media platforms. The campaign’s Facebook page has received nearly 300k likes and stunts like the giant England Rugby shirt that was hoisted in Auckland this week have produced content that has allowed o2 to increase valuable interactions with rugby fans and consumers.

O2 have also been particularly effective at activating their sponsorship of the England Rugby team by using exclusive videos recorded by James Haskell and some other players in the o2 Inside Line series. These videos are particularly popular and have received a lot of attention from rugby fans and broadcasters alike because they really give an insight into what it is like to be part of an international team at RWC 2011.

There is a clear trend emerging here: Fans have an appetite to get behind the scenes and understand what it is like to be an international rugby player. Already we are seeing that fans are not nearly as engaged as they have been in the past by post match interviews and press conferences which are often heavily sanitised. However, interesting content created by players in their own words is powerful and is shared, tagged and discussed widely. What is even more interesting is that often this content does not even have to be about rugby. Have a look at this video, which is by far my favourite to emerge from RWC 2011. This video was made by the Canadian Rugby team and stars scrum half Jamie Mackenzie. It is travelling fast and is a great example of how Unions can continue to grow the sport by connecting with fans about more than just game day. It is also a great example of the opportunities available for brands involved in the sport to innovate by activating their rights agreements with players and training them and empowering them to use social media effectively. This kind of content really resonates with fans of the game and can generate genuine, valuable engagement with your brand.

@samstitcher