The BBL 2020-21 series will go down as the ‘Year of the Pit’ where Rexona owned the summer after unveiling a new form of advertising sponsorship – ‘Pitvertising’. The stunt saw the Rexona logo with its iconic tick featured on the underarms of cricket umpires’ uniforms during the season in an industry-first sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia.

Traditional sponsorships for the BBL can normally top the hundreds of thousands. But, when we told Cricket Australia our idea, they didn’t even know how to cost it, which lead to an insanely discounted deal generating a return on investment that’s unheard of in this category for a low investment.

The creative was designed to draw a parallel between Rexona’s ability to keep you cool under pressure and the umpire’s ability to keep their cool in high-pressure moments.

Unlike a standard sponsorship plastered over the front and backs of players uniforms, ‘Pitvertising’, placed under the armpit meant the logo, was only revealed during dramatic, high-stress BBL moments. These moments, when the umpires raised their arms (to make game signals), sent a clear message that Rexona Deodorant keeps you cool under pressure. It was a hidden logo that was impossible to miss. The stunt was quickly picked up by news outlets and talked about around the globe.

The fact that it was hidden for the majority of the game and then revealed itself in crucial times, such as a wicket or six, made its impact even stronger.

Rexona has a long history of aligning with professional sport and talking to sports fans. We were tasked with demonstrating their role in high pressure moments over the summer with an entertaining idea. So, working with Cricket Australia to bring a new media placement to life during the BBL seemed like a naturally fit.

Because we didn't have the big budgets that naming sponsors have at the BBL, we had to be really smart with our sponsorship. Wicket moments are the most watched in cricket, and by owning the part of the match where high pressure decisions are made, we shone a spotlight on our product and told the story that Rexona keeps you cool under pressure.

The work not only delivered their objectives but knocked them out the stadium with earned media and an increase in sales of Rexona around Australia.

This untraditional sponsorship run underneath umpires’ armpits during all BBL games over the summer from 10 December 2020 – 6 February 2021 for a total of 61 matches with an average length of 3-4 hours. Viewership normally tops out at above 600 000 per match.

There’s a lot of rules and regulations around players and officials’ uniforms, so we partnered with Cricket Australia - the national governing body for the game in Australia to help bring this fresh, new media idea to life under the armpits of all umpires during every single game.

With BBL series viewership topping 42 million, the Rexona logo was seen by more than one billion times, revealed every time a wicket was taken, six hit, or powerplay or power surge called.

Pitvertising also generated a lot of earned media and talk around the Rexona brand. This led to a more prominent positioning in Shoppers minds with sales around Australia soaring to 10% more than usual during this period.

The success of this innovative idea has spread beyond cricket, with other sporting codes looking to leverage and adopt similar sponsorship opportunities.