It is reported that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) is considering selling the naming rights to Twickenham, as it prepares to increase revenue in advance of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
In recent years, selling the naming rights to stadiums has proved to be a popular exercise amongst many football clubs. Some Rugby clubs are also beginning to follow suit; earlier this year premiership rugby club Saracens signed a commercial deal with German finance heavy-weights Allianz, which included the renaming of its ground to Allianz Park. It is now rumoured that the home of English Rugby intends to sell it’s naming rights to highest paying brand.
It has been suggested that the option of naming rights is being considered to off-set the cost (£70m) of stadium upgrades planned ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. However, it’s important to consider that whichever brand purchases the naming rights would be unable to advertise its name during the World cup itself due to restrictions by the RFU stating that stadiums are required to be ‘clean’.
Do you think Twickers should sell it’s naming rights?
Coca-Cola is allowing its consumers to play with its iconic brand assets in a chance to win US$ 5,000 and have the design printed on a t-shirt for everyone to see!
The world’s most valuable brand has teamed up with the crowd-sourcing platform Blank You Very Much to encourage its consumers to engage with the soft drink brand by creating a unique t-shirt design, using Coca-Colas official brand assets and adding their own, personal twist to the recognisable image.
The steps are simple, you sign up on the Blank You Very Much website to gain access to the brand assets, follow their guidelines (most important of which is not to distort the brand’s logo) and ‘from there you’ve got a blank canvas.’ Off you go!
The competition winner is decided by a community voting and judging panel of five designers. There is no particular theme or design challenge; the contestants have a free creative outlet rarely seen with such an established brand. The only obstacle: You have to be a U.S resident.
Coca-Colas have followed the footsteps of a popular consumer engagement strategy by staging creative contests to interact with its consumers in an artistic and playful way, however, also for the consumers to interact with one of the brands key assets on a personal level.
If you think underscore could be a good fit for your next branding project, please get in touch!
Whether it’s rugby balls or bull testicles, underscore have balls up to our chin this week!
Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout: A beer for people with balls
As an increasing area of activity for underscore’s specialist branding team the activities of Wynkoop Brewing Company caught our eye this week, when they announced a rather unusual project. The Colorado based brewer’s latest recipe is a small-batch beer which is made from locally sourced base malts, roasted barley, Styrian Golding hops, sea salt… and nearly 12kg of bull testicles.
The project began as an April Fools joke, but due to an unexpectedly high level of interest became reality, albeit a very surreal one. However, if you accept the opinion of beer journalist Marty Jones, the beer definitely isn’t a load of bull’! Jones states that the beer has “deep flavors of chocolate syrup, Kahlua, and espresso, along with a palpable level of alcohol and a savory umami-like note.”
We’ll take your word for it, Marty.
underscore’s own ballsy beer project
When underscore were approached by Southport Rugby Club, looking for branding for their very own micro-brewed delicacy, we were only too happy to tackle the brief.
Southport Rugby Club wished to introduce their very own brew to celebrate the club’s 140 year history so they approached underscore to name the beer which we did rather aptly, Ruck & Maul. The name, along with the styling of the brand, was intended to be no-nonsense and impactful, just like the beer itself.
Branding for breweries is becoming something of a speciality for underscore. One recent brand launch was on behalf of Beavertown Brewery (newly emerging in the original rock ‘n’ roll neighbourhood of De Beauvoir, now better known as Hackney, East London) we created the brand, packaging, a digital presence and launch material which you can read more about here.
We’re also currently working on several other brewery driven branding projects, which we will be revealing to the world of beer-lovers over the coming weeks. Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Twitter for updates!
An underscore campaign helped The Ally Pally Ice Rink successfully communicate with both regular skaters and even attract new skaters during a period of closure due to refurbishment.
As well as creating the brand for Holland Heineken House during London’s Olympic summer, we created a campaign called ‘keeping it on ice’ which was a fully integrated campaign using a balance of online and offline targeted channels to get the message across.
This enabled Ally Pally to reach a much wider audience which increased footfall by 89% during the opening month, compared to the same month of the previous year. So if you live in London and you haven’t been along to The People’s Ice Rink yet, then maybe you should get your skates on!