Shifting Perceptions · Rugby Union SA
Rugby can have an image problem. To a lot of people, especially parents and kids weighing up whether to give it a go, it looks rough, fast and a bit intimidating. That perception was quietly costing Rugby Union SA new players.
So rather than sell the sport on the sport, we sold what surrounds it; the clubs, the friendships, the feeling of belonging to something. Rugby reframed as a community first, a contact sport second.
The centrepiece was a TVC built around that idea. Breaking down the misconceptions that rugby is a dangerous sport. It landed. On Instagram the film pulled around 7,500 likes, and, more tellingly, real engagement from the clubs themselves - the people who know the game best sharing it as their own.
Around the TVC we built a wider social content library, each piece showing a different side of what rugby gives people; structure, safety, mates, confidence, a place to belong.
We showed rugby as it really is for most people who play it, and let that alone do the convincing.