Heart of effective advertising

Increased exposure

Comments Dali Ndebele, club chairman and a long-standing friend of Ireland/Davenport founding member Philip Ireland since rugby field days at Wits University, “When we undertook to go ahead with the ad I had hoped that through the exposure would have an increase in our club membership and perhaps encourage more people to come and watch the games.

“But nothing could have prepared me for the huge response we have had. I’ve had over 100 calls from interested players, old members and potential sponsors. The most telling sign of the effectiveness of the ad is that usually at this time of year around 30 guys turn up for pre-season training. At the moment we have close to 100 players!”

Produced by Ireland/Davenport creatives Warwick Rautenbach and Gina King, the ad features an anterior cross-section through a rugby player with all his internal organs visible. All the organs have, however, been individually labeled “Heart” with the caption below the ad reading “Rugby players are different.”

Far afield

The full-page print ad featured in the Sowetan and Daily Sun while posters were placed in and around the Soweto Rugby Club itself. Yet responses to the advert have come from as far afield as Bloemfontein, Mpumalanga and the Northern Province.

Ndebele has also since been interviewed on radio and television as a result of the eye-catching ads: “Both e.tv and the SABC picked up on the ads and invited me to be interviewed about the Soweto Rugby Club. And this has generated even more awareness on a national basis for us!”

Adds Ireland, “We always knew that with the correct advertising we could drum up the necessary support for the Soweto Rugby Club, we just never envisaged it would be quite so powerful. It just goes to show that you can’t underestimate the power and reach of a good friendship and one single effective advertisement.”