#WearTheRose: Make Them Giants

With the Rugby World Cup now in full flow, a ruck has formed among brands keen to showcase their products and services to mass audiences. One campaign that has emerged from this scrum and stood taller than most is that of O2’s “#WearTheRose: Make them giants”.

Launched by Pure’s sister agency VCCP with a TV ad in Gogglebox on the night of the first game, the multimedia campaign has been skilfully constructed to garner support from the nation for England Rugby.

It has taken only two weeks of the World Cup for the campaign to achieve more than 4,200,000 “Acts of Support” using the #WearTheRose on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The engagement has been gathering momentum and in order to maintain this, they have increased the frequency of the O2 ads across media channels to correlate with and build on the positive awareness.

By centring on the atmosphere and anticipation around the country, the brand has sought to hook an already engaged nation and hope that response will reach fever pitch.

With a giant match tomorrow night, we simply had to choose this as our ‘Pure Slogan of the Week’.

Come on England!!! Swing low, Sweet chariot…

Other Great Rugby World Cup 2015 Ads

Lucozade made it clear that the sports drink is Strictly For The Home Nations Only while Beats by Dre has used some emotional videos featuring stars such as Chris Robsahw, Richie McCaw and Wesley Fofana to promote their headphone range.

“Too big to miss” featuring Charles Dance is a genuine mix of spine-tingling sentiment and humour but as it is an online-only spot, it has perhaps been missed by a fair few..!

Samsung School of Rugby featuring Jack Whitehall alongside some past England legends has been a massive hit. It has focused on connecting the wider (perhaps less rugby-savvy) public with the sport through an amusing series of videos. 

One of the simplest, but more impactful ads has come from that grizzled veteran Guinness, who used this simple yet powerful image to sum up the unity of the Japan team that shocked South Africa (and the world) in the opening round of matches. Bravo!