CHALLENGE

As a proud sponsor of New Zealand Cricket, Tui Brewery needed to create a better experience for more fans to come to games - and drink Tui. How could Tui leverage their sponsorship, and turn a day-long, complicated game into compulsory attendance and viewing?

OBJECTIVES

Commercial objective: Drive volume sales of Tui in the Traditional Liquor channel (non-grocery outlets) to help slow the year-on-year decline of the brand.

Marketing objective: Get more drinkers, many of them lapsed drinkers, to buy Tui over the summer period.

Communication objective: Establish Tui as the key sponsor of New Zealand Cricket and make Tui synonymous with the Black Caps Summer Series.

STRATEGY

Signage and logos are practically invisible in modern sports coverage.

We needed to be highly visible and redefine the occasion and the experience of watching cricket.

At cricket matches we noticed how everyone tries to catch the ball when it’s hit straight out of the field towards them – in cricket this is called a ‘six’.

The human truth was every guy reckons they can take a catch if it came their way.

Match days are also long, lasting up to nine hours. Crowds can lose energy and get bored. This was an opportunity to make the action in the stands as exciting as the action on the field.

Seriously incentivising a catch in the crowd could keep the excitement going and change the experience of the game.

EXECUTION

Turn spectators into players with Tui Catch a Million. Wear a bright orange Tui T-shirt catch a ball one-handed and win a share of $1 million.

By purchasing NZ$30 worth of Tui beer from Traditional Liquor outlets, guys would receive a distinctive orange Tui T-shirt (orange is Tui’s brand colour) with a big target on the front. Shirts were also available to purchase online or at games.

The only rule: you had to catch the ball one handed and cleanly (no fumbles allowed) while wearing the Catch a Million tee and lanyard.

OUTCOME

Game attendance rose 54% after the first catch was taken.

1 in 4 adults wore a T-shirt to the game.

All 60,000 t-shirts sold

Made front page news, featured in NZ’s prime-time current affairs show and ESPN’s ‘Plays of the week’

Tui volume sales within the traditional liquor segment reached their highest levels in over 2 years

Two lucky lads successfully walked away with a hundred grand each