20 teams, 19 match officials, 6,000 volunteers, 2.47 million tickets, 11 host cities, 13 match venues, 42 team bases, 15 fanzones and millions of fans – H+K played an integral role in what was described across the world as the biggest and best Rugby World Cup ever
H+K worked closely with ER2015’s in house communications team to support tournament promotion from 2013 until the climax of the Rugby World Cup in 2015. The team developed ongoing tactical campaigns designed to create awareness and excitement for the tournament and push traffic to the official ticketing site. Here at H+K we also had an active and leading role raising awareness for ongoing projects such as the Festival of Rugby 2015 and the Fanzones.
H+K managed international media from all over the world at events including a record breaking biggest scrum, key milestones, volunteer recruitment and training days, an iconic London Eye light switch on, an international and domestic trophy tour and welcome ceremonies for each of the competing teams. As well as our ambassadors, Jonny Wilkinson, Will Greenwood, Lawrence Dallaglio and Maggie Alphonsi, we regularly played a talent management role, working with the likes of current and former rugby players, various sportspeople and even royalty.
During the tournament, H+K provided crucial support to ER2015 working on regular rotation alongside the in house team in the tournament press office. Responsible for driving proactive and reactive tournament communications, we played an important role in ensuring the Rugby World Cup 2015 attracted universal praise from the media.

The Outcomes

  • Average 98% of tickets sold across 13 venues
  • Ticket sales surpassing 2.47 million making it the most attended Rugby World Cup ever
  • Record breaking attendances
  • Fanzone attendances of over one million
  • Social media activity exceeded all of Rugby World Cup 2011’s during the 2015 pool stages
  • #RWC2015 was used twice a second for the duration of the event
  • Rugby World Cup most-searched item in 2015 on Yahoo!
  • “Best Integrated Marketing Campaign” at the Sports Industry Awards 2014