When Vodafone first partnered with the IRFU, they became the 23rd brand to be associated with the team. We needed to behave differently and drive true value for fans to stand out in a busy landscape.

As connection specialists, we set out to create the most interconnected team and fanbase in the world.

Our platform - The Team Of Us - celebrates Irish rugby as a unifying entity, spanning across the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic. It unites six million Irish people across the spectrum of age, class and gender - with the entire nation coming together as one on match day.

This unity is what gives the Irish rugby team its strength. It’s not just the fifteen men on the pitch that matter. It’s the substitutes and coaches, the 50,000 fans in the stadium, and the millions of friends, family and countrymen watching around the world.

On the eve of Ireland’s first game of the 2017/18 season, we released a long-form web-film, offering viewers a rare glimpse into the upbringings of Tadhg Furlong, Conor Murray, Tiernan O’Halloran and captain Rory Best; showing how, like all of us, their surroundings have defined who they are as people, as well as players.

We worked directly with the players to ensure the scenes we shot were based on real events. Family members featured as themselves in the advert, and we simultaneously told individual stories of the players while also evoking universal childhood memories for Irish viewers.

The film was followed by a large-scale TVC campaign with 60 and 30” cut-downs for the duration of the 10-week season, with content strategically placed around key matches, culminating in the film being projected on to buildings around the country to celebrate the team’s historic Grand Slam 6 Nations victory.

Team Of Us has delivered record-breaking results for Vodafone against all KPIs– brand affinity, emotional proximity, positive engagement and most importantly, brand consideration - smashing four-year targets in a single year*. Meanwhile, the IRFU saw fan support for Irish rugby soar to unprecedented new levels*.

This historic success for the brand was recognised at the 2017 ESA Excellence Awards, when the campaign was crowned Europe’s Sport Sponsorship of the Year >€2m.

In a country of six million people, the campaign achieved 21 million impressions. Our campaign hashtag -#TeamOfUs – has generated over 85,000 tweets, resulting in more than 35 million impressions.

*Onside, 2018