Conclusion

NRL’s State Of Origin is a massive success and has been growing stronger for many many years. It has become a tradition that everyone plans his or her lives around within the two states as if it was a public holiday like Christmas.  It is the biggest rival between these two states that literally everyone gets involved with. I have to admit as much as I hate football I’ve found myself joining in the antics by going out drinking and watching the game and joining in on cheering on the maroons. The game has gotten to a point where it’s marketing is the strongest and yet easiest it can be, everywhere I look all companies join in on marketing their products around the game and people become 100% engaged in the entire time of the 3 games with hardly any effort from marketing. You can see how engaging the target audience is just from your favourite social media sites; posts from friends fighting and disagreeing about referees, egging on their own teams etc. You can see evidence of successful engagement in the photo I uploaded in blob 3 of Paul Gallens punch.

Sponsorships

NRL State of Origin has partnership agreements with a few different other companies that work together in promoting each other’s products successfully. The State of Origin used to be sponsored by Harvey Norman but this partnership ended last year, the company that has taken it place is Holden who owns the rights to the State of Origins name and logo which includes their company (see image attached to my first blog – Introduction).

http://www.nrl.com/?TabId=10630 - Holden Sponsorship

NRL has gone further by gaining partnerships with two different beer companies sponsoring the opposing states. For State of Origin NRL has the QLD team sponsoring XXXX and the NSW team sponsoring VB.  These sponsorships are successful for both the beer companies and the game. Beer is the most popular drink of choice for sporting matches so tying them together through marketing is highly successful.  The following link shows an ad broadcasted through television for XXXX where Billy Moore blesses the beer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6g78XgCQjU - XXXX beer blessed by Billy Moore

Having these strong sponsorships enlarges the marketing for State of Origin through their own marketing campaign plus all the sponsorships campaigns for their products.

Campaigning Through Radio

I fall into the category of one of the many workers who listen to a preferred radio morning show on their drive to work. This morning I decided I would blog about this media used for NRL’s State of Origins IMC. As much as I do not like to follow sport my absolute favourite radio show on Nova 106.9 (Brisbane) is Ash,Kip & Luttsy who are advocates for sport. Every morning for the past 3-4 weeks they have been involved in talking about, promoting and creating publicity around the State of Origin.  This is most successful for creating publicity as they get the public involved with their shows creatively. So many people call up on a day to day basis to chat to these guys so when it comes campaigning the State Of Origin they do a great job. A good example of the publicity built around State of Origin is the parody songs created by these boys:

http://www.novafm.com.au/video/hit-me-gallen-one-more-time-state-origin-parody

This was based on Paul Gallen’s punch in the first game this year. They also held a competition to win tickets if you could guess what colour Wally Lewis’s tie was on the sports show, which you had to call up to provide the answer. 

The Internet

The Internet has become a strong way to get across to the widest audience possible. My focus today is on how many times I have seen the State Of Origin being marketed through this media. I have come across an integrated marketing net for NRL’s game through communication tools such as:

o   Advertising

o   Promotional/publicity Products via social media: Nova’s Gallen Punch drink. You can see from the following pic this tool motivated the target audience to become engaged by commenting on this picture.

o   Direct Selling/E-commerce: NRL website selling tickets

o   Public Relations (NRL report)

o   Sales Promotions http://www.facebook.com/nrl?sk=app_175361889292278&app_data

o   Social Media: Facebook posts, NRL posted throughout games - every time there was a try.

I have noticed that the marketing becomes more strong and frequent prior to an upcoming game, this integrated communication plan through the use of internet and interactive marketing is definitely a success. All I need to do is scroll through my Facebook news feed a week leading up to a game and of course on the night of the game such as game two last week to see how successful the marketing has conveyed the campaign online.

The Campaign

NRL marketing campaigns the competitiveness between the Blues (NSW) and the Maroons (QLD). It encourages competitiveness streaks between the two states and displays biased adverts accustomed to whichever state you live in. As I live in Brisbane I hardly am exposed to the marketing in support of NSW. I believe this campaigning technique enforces a build up of more energy and excitement in each separate state. This drives more success towards more numbers in tickets sales etc in saying this there is the competitive promotion of the game that is exposed to both states. In the below image is an advertising pic of the two teams by using both states mascot icons - Cockroach for the Blues and Cane toads for the Maroons.

Introduction

Due to it being the most talked about event at the moment I thought I would critique the NRL’s State of Origin marketing communications. State of Origin has become so successful with both QLD & NSW that it has gotten to a point where everywhere you turn you see State of Origin advertising, newspaper stories and hear radio stations, coworkers and friends talking about the upcoming games.  I have to admit I don’t follow football myself, as I’m not a sport person. I’ve never followed the game and never will. This is why I thought it would be the best topic for me as it goes to show even non-followers still are exposed and moved by successful marketing communications.