To show we really understood the customer journey we bought every sign at the airport where no one else was advertising… and then we offered all those signs… for free… to our rivals, Guinness beer, the official sponsor of the Lions. Why on earth would we do that? See below.

So, we bought every sign across both terminals, which included 65 digital screens and 8 large scale static billboards. We then told our rival, Guinness, the official sponsor of the Lions, that they could have the signs. But they had to fight us for them.

We had fitted each of the 65 digital screens with a camera and microprocessor and programme them to recognise fans. Fans from either team could then take over the signs and blanket the airport for their team. All they had to do was approach the screen and stand their ground and the screen would change in front of their eyes. Just like a rugby match on the field it was a fight for territory.

The Fight for Territory campaign brought the brand to the very beginning of the rugby tour beer drinker’s customer journey. It gave them a side to choose and a beer to go with that side well before the competition beers had any say. Over the course of the campaign we had 90,000 fans approach a sign to force a turn over. That’s enough to fill the rugby stadium twice and both beers saw an increase in sales with Guinness up 18% and Steinlager, already the top selling beer in the country, up 5%. But most importantly, because of the media we chose, one of the biggest parts of the tour actually felt like part of the tour.

Media is at the heart of this campaign. The entire idea is based on buying every sign at a location no other brand was advertising at and then giving all that media, for free, to a competitor’s brand.

Well, during the Lions Tour teams and fans actually spend more time at the airport travelling between stadiums than they do at the actual stadiums. They spend literally hours there travelling between stadiums. But there is nothing going on at the airport, no advertising, no support, it doesn’t even feel like part of the tour.

The English and Irish Lions Rugby Tour of New Zealand is a big deal, a huge deal. And they only come every twelve years, so Steinlager beer, the official sponsor of the All Blacks, wanted to get the most out of the tour and asked us to help fuel the excitement and rivalry that made the competition so great.

Why? Because rugby and beer go together. In fact, drinking beer while watching rugby ‘is’ part of the consumer journey. And kiwis are loyal and will drink the beer that supports their team. But so many other brands are trying to jump on the band wagon and the stadium would be saturated with competitor’s advertising.