Draftfcb Johannesburg and FNB ‘Play Ball'

Inter-varsity rugby matches used to be a staple on the social and sporting calendars of most South African universities but the tradition had fallen by the wayside, until recently.

Enter the FNB Varsity Cup, an exciting, competitive opportunity for the up and coming stars in SA rugby to show off their flair, at a national level. The players gain invaluable experience from the matches, while the tournament itself revitalises the tradition of inter-varsity rugby as major social events for all university students.

Draftfcb's creative team, made up of Janine Kleinschmidt, Alistair Mathie, Jenine Skinner, Kyle Schoeman and Kiran Reddy were briefed by Duitser Bosman to get ‘bums in seats' at the matches. VC Rugby also wanted to raise awareness of the tournament amongst the students and alumni, while simultaneously punting Monday night rugby on Super Sport, for the viewers at home.

Cutting through the marketing ‘noise' around the students was the most challenging aspect of the brief. The creative team settled on a big yellow card to grab the attention of students and urge them to “Get to the game” and “Take back Monday night.”

A yellow card is a penalty card in rugby. But it was employed as an enabling tool in the context of the campaign; combined with a ref's whistle and an offbeat visual language that the students could identify with, the yellow card was readily adopted as the tournament's calling card.

The print campaign was supported by a strong online presence in the form of a VC Facebook group and a dedicated website (varsitycup.co.za). Additional media included two television spots on Super Sport, two radio spots and more tactical pieces for on campus awareness, like door hangers and lanyards.

The pulling power of ex-Springbok captain, Francois Pienaar, was key to the success of this campaign. He was involved from the start and nowhere was this more evident than at the FNB VC launch event that took place at Super Sport in Randburg. After riding in on a Harley-Davidson (one of the online competition prizes), Francois illustrated the importance of inter-varsity rugby in bridging the skills gap between the game as played at school and rugby at a provincial level.

Quoting that over 70 players who competed in last year's competition were picked for provincial squads, his closing observation cemented the future of tournament; the real winner, at the end of the day, is actually South African rugby.