Sponsorship has long been a way for brands to reach big audiences at scale.

But what do you do when the thing you’re sponsoring is losing its audience?

You use the power of entertainment to find a new one.

When tasked with creating a Super Rugby sponsorship campaign for 2degrees (New Zealand’s third largest telco), we used entertainment as a powerful strategic weapon.

We created our very own TV show - 2nd Chance Charlie.

Over a third of New Zealanders tuned in every week.

Sponsorship awareness doubled.

Brand metrics improved significantly.

And Kiwis got passionate about rugby again.

2degrees is the loud and proud challenger in New Zealand’s telco market.

Faced with ongoing perception challenges around size and credibility, 2degrees decided to sponsor one of New Zealand’s most popular passions, our domestic rugby competition.

The problem? While we’re obsessed with our national team, The All Blacks, our interest in our local rugby competition was in freefall. Viewership of games was down, and attendance in stadiums was tanking.

After two years of mass market awareness campaigns, sponsorship metrics remained stagnant.

Getting people to pay attention and care about 2degree’s sponsorship had proven very difficult.

It was time for a different approach.

Our objectives were to increase unprompted awareness of 2degrees as a sponsor and increase brand perceptions (Fairness, Understanding, Reliability, Value).

And crucially, we needed to find a way to bake 2degrees’ core brand idea of being the telco that’s Fighting For Fair into the heart of the campaign.

To give Kiwis something to get behind, we created our very own TV show - 2nd Chance Charlie

Building on the brand’s existing ‘Fighting For Fair’ platform, we found 5 Kiwis who once had the dream of playing professional rugby but for one reason or another never quite made it, giving them the ultimate second chance at stardom.

We created an 8-week, 16 episode TV series, following their journey and competing them against each other for the ultimate prize of a 12 week Super Rugby training contract and $10,000 cash.

Fighting For Fair at the heart of the idea

2degrees fight to make the telco category (and Kiwi life in general) fairer.

We had to find a credible role for this brand platform in the world of rugby.

Show up outside the viewing experience

Only 2% of New Zealanders watched Super Rugby. We couldn’t rely on the sport alone.

We needed to use entertainment to create new moments.

Finding a bigger audience

We had to create something that would resonate with all New Zealanders, not just Super Rugby fans.

Creating a story bigger than rugby itself

We needed to uncover a human truth that connected New Zealanders in a way that transcended rugby fandom.

Kiwis love the underdog story

In New Zealand, everyone knows someone who was touted as a future rugby star but, for one reason or another, never made it. This was the unfairness that 2degrees could fight.

•Implementation •Timeline •Placement •Scale

2nd Chance Charlie got a five-minute time slot at 7:30pm two nights a week, across eight weeks on the nation’s most popular channel.

Promoted like a prime time show

We seeded editorial through our media partner’s (MediaWorks) properties to promote the concept of 2nd Chance Charlie.

A national call for entries across TV, Radio, PR, digital and social encouraged hopefuls to enter.

We had over 500 prospective contestants put their name forward and support from current and retired All Blacks.

Our media placement mimicked what consumers would usually see and experience as the promotion of a reality TV show.

2nd Chance Charlie even appeared in the TV guide as a scheduled programme.

We launched 2nd Chance Charlie across TV, OLV, radio, OOH, social, digital and editorial. Throughout the season, we ran promotional material across these channels to encourage people to come back week after week.

DESCRIBE THE OUTCOME* (150 WORDS)

•Reach •Engagement •Impact

It was a blockbuster

We outperformed all shows at the time slot and drove a new audience to the network.

With a media and production value of just $430k (USD), we got a third of New Zealanders (1.3 million) to tune in every week.

Awareness of 2degrees’ Super Rugby Sponsorship doubled.

Brand metrics (fairness, understanding, reliability and value) improved across the board.

And 2020 was the most profitable year in 2degrees’ history.

And it’s just the beginning for 2nd Chance Charlie

There’s international interest in the format.

And we’re already working on Season 2.

By giving our winner James Cockburn a second chance with 12 weeks of training in The Hurricanes, 2degrees earned its place at the Kiwi telco that fights for fair.