Looking beyond the sponsor default of employing brand ambassadors or creating a short form, 90-second piece of content, the H+K team uncovered a powerful story at the heart of rugby sevens’ evolution from niche to mainstream: the journey of the Fijian rugby sevens team.

An island nation with limited resources, where Rugby Sevens is a religion, Fiji rose to become the best in the world. Following a second successive HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series success, the team would go on to win its country’s first Olympic medal of any colour when they claimed gold at Rio.

A story powerful enough to inspire new fans unfamiliar with the game, we knew it needed depth, care and attention. We believed we could create something powerful enough to introduce the sport to more people worldwide, and take the HSBC brand and purpose to places it had never been before, without expensive media placements.

Partnering with a native Fijian director - bringing together footage from his time travelling with the team around the world as well as shooting breath-taking original footage and insightful interviews with the team’s coaches, players and fans – over a period of almost a year H+K produced a 17-minute documentary film called Sevens From Heaven that told the story of this incredible team.

Anticipation was built with a full cinematic roll-out, which included a film poster and trailer before publishing the full film across HSBC social channels.

Film Poster: https://twitter.com/HSBC_Sport/status/802081736712736768

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FggCxJJiPNk

Full Film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GFyIEoZOok

After the social launch, the film was distributed to media across the world including rights free to broadcast media. We also targeted in-flight entertainment as another potential publishing channel.

Premiering at the start of the tournament, the film received an impressive reaction and continues to drive engagement and inspire future players as part of HSBC’s rugby sevens grassroots initiatives. It became the heart of the HSBC area at the tournament, hosting an emotional moment when the Fijian team watched the film and sang for the crowds. The film was provided rights free to broadcasters across the world. Screenings include BBC World, CNN, Sky Sports (UK), Fox Sports (AUS), SuperSport (SA), Now TV (Hong Kong), Cathay Pacific Airlines, Fiji Airways, and a featured slot on Fiji’s main TV channel on Christmas Day. The film was also broadcast over Christmas in the UK on Sky Sports.

• 2.4 million+ views across social channels, 50% organic

• 7 million+ impressions, 10,000+ total RTs/Shares and 750+ comments

• 11% uplift in positive sentiment towards the HSBC brand on day of film launch

There are some stories that you don’t just want to tell – you need to tell. We turned HSBC’s sponsorship of rugby sevens into a celebration of ambition, taking the story of an incredible underdog – the Fiji Rugby Sevens team - and working with a local super fan to take it to the world.

Moving beyond a strategy of ambassador appearances and branding in exchange for a story about purpose and values, our creative storytelling first strategy put HSBC’s purpose of Supporting Human Ambition on TV screens across the world without paying for a single TV placement.

HSBC’s aim for its sponsorship of Rugby Sevens is to support the growth of the sport by building the global sevens audience. Through all of its sponsorships, HSBC looks to communicate its purpose of Supporting Human Ambition.

Because Rugby Sevens has a relatively low profile, to achieve this we developed a strategy of telling a story that would resonate beyond fans of the sport itself. A focus on powerful human storytelling, would allow us to reach all sport fans, not just fans of Sevens.

Our PR strategy was built around a decision to try and get the content in front of as many people as possible. We offered the content to broadcasters and media titles rights free. Premiering on HSBC social channels it would go on to be featured in online media, broadcast media and in-flight entertainment, without paying for a media placement on any third party channel.

With rugby sevens making its Olympic debut in 2016, long term World Rugby Sevens Series partner HSBC faced a challenge: to capitalise on the explosive growth and expected media exposure of a new Olympic sport, but in a business environment where banks are more likely to attract a negative rather than positive response.

Our mission was to use HSBC’s rugby sevens partnership to communicate the brand’s stated purpose of ‘Supporting Human Ambition’ and desire to grow the sport, through an idea that worked across both social and traditional media platforms and inspired more players and sports fans to take an interest in the game.