The Situation
Every year the NZI Sevens, the country’s biggest rugby entertainment event held annually at the Westpac Stadium, is a sell out. 2008 was no exception, as Wellington geared up for the biggest dress-up party of the year on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 February.
The fans are the heroes, says NZRU General Manager Steve Walters, and the web is king as a marketing channel that can deliver the excitement, build-up and party atmosphere that defines the IRB Sevens. www.sevens.co.nz is the window to this exceptional event, created as a joint venture between the NZRU, Wellington Rugby and Positively Wellington Tourism.
The Challenge
Each year, the fans up the ante when it comes to dressing up, so taking up the challenge to ‘take the party to the web’, Positively Wellington Tourism brought in the Intergen team three years ago. They haven’t dropped the ball once, despite putting “cowboys on the job”; cowboys referring, of course, to the memorable year that Intergen dressed up as Cowboys and Indians for the Sevens. They brought the same creativity to their development and design work on the website. Intergen responded to the brief to make the site cool and exciting, and for three years running Intergen has had the opportunity to keep pushing the boundaries, bringing more interactivity to the site each year.
“We want to constantly extend our interaction with fans so we need to be fresh and innovative all the time. Intergen steps up to the challenge each year and has proved to be very professional and great to work with. They’re willing to give it their best shot each time, coming up with creative elements that add a new dimension to the site, so fans see and experience something new,” says Steve Walters, NZRU General Manager. Recent elements that have been brought into play include a countdown clock, right down to the minutes until kick off. A photographic click and drag album of party shots captures fans in all their glory from nurses to priests, to Borat look-alikes.
The ‘name me and win” competition is a fun opportunity to name a new iconic character by entering online and of course, the Can’t Wait slogan is loud and clear as the countdown to the tournament builds. The fans like what they see and site traffic continues to hit new records each year. 2007 was no exception with web visits increasing by a third over the key tournament months of January and February.
Wellington is the winner.
www.sevens.co.nz is an important window for Wellington and the site provides plenty of links and information for visitors heading to the Capital. Millions see the NZI Sevens on TV and 35,000 fans descend on the stadium.
Victoria Smith, Marketing Co-ordinator for Positively Wellington Tourism comments that the presentation of the website is right on target.
She comments, “The site looks clean and sharp, and the photo gallery on the home page is a great visual cue to capturing what this event is all about. Intergen puts design options on the table, we work closely together, and the whole process just flows. We have lots of ideas for the future, to step up interactivity on the site another notch. One direction is providing fans with an online interactive space where they can compare dress up ideas, send photos and so on.”