RugbyPass wanted to attract new fans to the sport and make the 2023 Rugby World Cup the most widely accessible rugby event ever.
To make this possible, they tasked us with creating a multi-channel content marketing campaign that would both appeal to current fans and draw new fans to the sport
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During the ideation process, we decided to produce a content hub on the RugbyPass site that was dedicated to the Rugby World Cup. This hub became a central pillar to our campaign. It aimed to capture search interest, provide a place to house Rugby World Cup content and drive sign-ups for RugbyPass (RP+ and RPTV).
In order to be successful, the hub required:
When devising the hub, we also quickly realised that the best way to capture search interest and to engage fans would be to include interactive content elements.
As a result, we recommended the creation of ‘team picker’ and ‘player picker’ tools based around search terms - e.g. ‘who will win the Rugby World Cup?’ - and asked fans and rugby experts/legends to use them and share their respective picks.
This allowed us to create unique and EEAT-led content assets that we could also leverage to create eye-catching rugby news stories that we could push on social media and outreach via supporting digital PR activations.
Finally, we also set up reporting to monitor the progress of the campaign. This also allowed us to refine our approaches, if needed.
We only had three months to deliver this complex campaign. In the initial stages, we started with the keyword research, URL structuring and assembling the data we required to identify and map content requirements.
Using this data, we created a hub that acted as a ‘Wiki’ for fans and provided key information relating to:
Furthermore, after analysing thousands of keywords, we discovered a number of content opportunities. So, we also created a ‘hub’ based around the history of the tournament, its rules and the most impressive records.
Throughout this stage of the campaign, technical SEO direction was supplied. We offered suggestions and fixes to issues impacting crawlability and rankings at a sitewide level - which would also impact our main focus, the Rugby World Cup subfolder. These included content cannibalisation issues, metadata optimisation and hreflang.
Similarly, at this stage, we also curated a list of the data required on a team and player-level basis. Using this information, we briefed the development team at RugbyPass, so they could build and test the ‘picker’ tools we required.
While they did that, we created the on-site promotional assets for these tools, including banners, graphics and native ads. While all of the assets were built and created, we also utilised RugbyPass’ network in order to arrange interviews with 10 relevant legends/experts of world rugby. Once contact was made, we asked them to make their selections and answer a series of questions.
When the tournament began, we encouraged RugbyPass’ fans to make their picks - utilising cross-department functions such as email, social and native ad placements.
All of the data we acquired was then turned into two main content features, complete with graphics. Following this, we then created a number of press releases, promoting our experts’ views – pushing them out to get coverage and links to help drive rankings/interest in our content.
As a result, we devised an SEO strategy that positioned RugbyPass as an authority on breaking rugby news while also generating interest in the site's evergreen rugby content.
In order to do this, we first completed a thorough analysis and audit that identified content gaps. Following this, we plotted out a number of keyword-led content hubs, digital PR campaigns and wider search-led content requirements. To help fuel growth, we also built links to the site to help power the domain – via digital PR campaigns, reactive PR and content outreach.
Similarly, we also recommended targeting the younger generation through Google Discover optimisation. This helped to position RugbyPass’ news in front of an audience of over 800 million monthly users.
Finally, our campaign also involved reviewing, fixing and implementing proper reporting and tracking (including moving to GA4) to ensure our efforts were being properly assessed and documented.
Key results from the campaign included:
organic sessions vs Japan RWC 2019
total sessions vs Japan RWC 2019
social engagements
uses of the picker tools
additional ‘Rugby World Cup’ keywords on page one
organic clicks gained to an asset created regarding ‘Rugby World Cup predictions’
On top of this, our campaign won Best Use of Content Marketing (Small) at the Global Search Awards in Krakow in 2024.
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We specialise in improving search visibility, and our content marketing experts can help you achieve and exceed your goals. Get in touch with us today to see what we can do for you.
