Land Rover: Rugby World Cup 2019 Sponsorship

THE CONTEXT
Land Rover has a long-standing partnership with the Rugby World Cup, a sponsorship built on shared values of resilience, teamwork, and adventure. For the 2019 tournament in Japan, our challenge was to bring something new: to celebrate not just the game itself, but the deeper spirit that connects rugby fans, players, and Land Rover alike.

THE IDEA
We created the “It’s What Makes Rugby, Rugby” campaign - a global celebration of the people who make the game what it is. Rather than focusing solely on professionals, we turned the lens on grassroots rugby, highlighting the passion, diversity, and camaraderie that unite players and fans at every level.

Set across participating nations, the campaign showed that rugby has a place for everyone, whatever shape, size, ability, colour, or gender. The work came to life through a rich mix of channels: podcasts, on-the-ground experiences, social films, and striking print. Every element was designed to spark connection and pride among fans, wherever they were in the world.

My role centred on leading the production of the Rugby World Cup sponsorship materials for Land Rover’s retailer network. This meant ensuring dealerships had everything they needed - from point-of-sale assets to local marketing materials - to bring the energy and excitement of the tournament into their own communities.

It was about making a global partnership feel local, tangible, and emotionally resonant.

THE IMPACT
Businesses don’t always see immediate short term gains in sales for such partnerships, but see an improvement in brand equity and recall among the target market over the long term. However, this impactful campaign saw huge engagement across social media by consumers in Japan (where the RWC was held) as well as in the UK as well as people simply enjoying the brand experiences that we had crafted, which all ultimately lent to an uptick in sale enquiries.