Rugby 12s in 8 Gifs; The new seriousness; Drake's ESPN launch; Solheim influence; A player's view of Qatar; The Gratitude Games; The dream lunch
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Rugby’s World 12s in 8 Gifs
The morning after watching The Hundred, someone suggests rugby should be more creative
The search begins for a number that’s not yet been taken
Because what the rugby calendar needs is another event format.
Shit, we better add the women
At least the players can start preparing for the extra workload
Meanwhile Rugby League gets ready to welcome the new format
A Big Eventer is asked to check her 2022 summer diary
And a focus group for the much-targeted Next Generation of Sports Fans responds to rugby’s new plan
The new seriousness
Sport is fun, fundamentally.
But you wouldn’t guess that from the creative output of the sports marketing industry.
Watching the work at the Sport Industry Awards last night, there was an obvious conformity centred on values and sport’s role in society.
This is now the norm.
For similar reasons, if you’re looking for a laugh filled afternoon, you might want to avoid the Cannes Lions for Sport long list.
A generation of sports rights holders are navel gazing, searching for The Why, any Why.
They’re doing this because that’s what sponsors want.
The rise of brand purpose is the culprit.
If you start the process looking for deeper meaning, you’ll probably get creative outcomes at the dull, earnest and worthy end of the spectrum.
There’s a big space opening up for a rights holder that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. That focuses on the sport, for the joy and fun of it rather than the often beneficial outcomes that come with it.
It says something that I genuinely can’t think of one currently occupying that position, apart from Barry and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom.
Launch algorithms:
Drake x Marshall McLuhan + ESPN(NBA)
The excellent Trapital newsletter decoded Drake’s latest album release, Certified Lover Boy and specifically ESPN’s role in the launch.
It’s a great opportunity to break down Drake’s promotional tactics (specifically with ESPN), Drake’s memes, and the streaming records that keep getting broken.
Aided by a fake hack rumour:
The cryptic ESPN announcement drove even more coverage about the album, especially given the speculation that ESPN was “hacked” (it wasn’t, but the fact that some people think he did helped its case!).
So, we’re into McLuhan’s medium is the message territory: this was about ESPN as the channel in to the NBA and its cultural hinterland.
Through the unreliable lens of a fast-ageing, English white man, the NBA’s link with hiphop feels unquestioningly authentic, in a way that other sport-music constructs often don’t, *cough* FIFA Sound *cough*.
This distance - eg. between me, LA rap and the NBA - is also why I don’t like sports films if I know the sport.
So, Ted Lasso is a no.
Moneyball, Field of Dreams and any other baseball movie is a yes.
Solheim Cup and the tweets of Niall Horan
If a PR firm promised you this type of influencer engagement they’d be lying.
But the Solheim Cup got it - see Niall Horan’s tweet love-in below.
It’s an interesting test of the real world outcomes from influencer strategy.
So much of the industry conversation is about the front end, we don’t often hear about the results.
The question for the LET, LPGA and golf more broadly is, what now?
A player’s view of the Qatar World Cup 2022
Great quote here: ‘I tended to look at big organisations like FIFA and just assume that they know what they’re doing.’ Tim Sparv
And this:
But they can still give us players a bigger role. We are essentially the product that the countries are bidding for, and which FIFA sells to broadcasting partners for fortunes. But we have no say in where the World Cup is played. Nobody even bothers to tell us. We find out on the nine o’clock news. Oh, look, we’re gonna play in Qatar.
Idea of the Week: The Gratitude Games
Personal Bests
Sports biz people list their favourite things
This week: Rowena Samawasinhe, expert partner at Portas Consulting (click the image).
Best Dinner Companions (Min 4, Max 6)
Robert De Niro, Allyson Felix, Dan Carter, Ruth Ginsburg, Princess Diana & Freddie Mercury (If They Were Still Alive).
See over 100 more Personal Bests here
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