The best fans are those whose encouragements gain the upper hand over their rival’s.

To celebrate the digital rivalry opposing TOP14 rugby fans in France, we created #RugbyBattle: the more fans supported their team on social media, the more their colors gained ground, both online (via a dynamic dataviz)... and around the pitch during the final (via dynamic LED boards reflecting in real time the fan engagement on social media).

Thanks to #RugbyBattle, Orange displayed the digital battle going on between supporters all around the pitch, allowing them to directly express - on the pitch - their supports for their team.

From May 31st to June 13th, every tweet and Facebook post containing #RugbyBattle and #Allez[MyTeam] were monitored and contributed to feed a dynamic dataviz on Orange's Avec le XV website. The operation was completed by a Twitter Automatic Response, allowing users to receive – in real time – an update of the current balance of fan power on Twitter.

This balance of fan power was regularly relayed on social media to the “Avec le XV” community, but also – and most importantly – by the players and teams sponsored by Orange, to encourage their respective fans to contribute.

The climax happened during the TOP14 Final, where every tweet containing #RugbyBattle and #Allez[MyTeam] fed a dynamic dataviz on the stadium's LED boards. During the course of the game, spectators and TV viewers could see in real-time the balance of fan power on social media.

Orange's #RugbyBattle engaged 11,000 twittos during two weeks, for a total of 22,000 registered tweets (i.e. mentioning the necessary hashtags) and a potential reach of 287M users.

The operation generated 40,000 new visitors to avecleXV.com website over the period.

During the TOP 14 final, 10,000+ twittos contributed to the balance of fan power displayed on LED perimeter boards.

Emailing performances were great as a first emailing sent to 70,000 opt-in (fans of the 4 teams qualified for the semi-finales) showed an opening rate of 22.7% and a CTR of 6.8%. The second emailing, sent to 26,000 opt-in (fans of the 2 finalist teams) showed an opening rate of 22.6% and a CTR of 8.2%.