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Building for the long-term World Rugby has appointed IMG to manage the global licensing and merchandising rights for the next two Rugby World Cups and its other tournaments. The long-term partnership encompasses the Rugby World Cup 2019 and 2023 as a primary focus, as well as the Women’s Rugby World Cup, World Rugby U20 Championship and the World Rugby brand. With Rugby World Cup making its eagerly anticipated Asian debut in Japan next year, Mickael Andreo, vice president, IMG Licensing, provides an insight into the programme’s development.
Can you provide background information and interesting/key stats about the Rugby World Cup? The Rugby World Cup is one of the world’s largest, most recognisable and best-loved major sports events. It has consistently grown in size, coverage and scope since it began in 1987, and is set to break new frontiers as it makes its Asian debut in Japan in 2019. The world's top 20 national teams will play in 48 matches hosted across 12 match cities for the right to lift the iconic Webb Ellis Cup and be crowned world champions. The quadrennial international tournament has greatly raised rugby’s profile as the sport continues to experience unprecedented growth across male, female and youth participation. Rugby World Cup 2015 in England was the most watched, bestattended and digitally-
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Above: A first for Japan. Bottom left: IMG’s Mickael Andreo. Below: Licensing efforts are now underway.
consumed rugby event of all time, achieving its highest ever TV audience during the Japan v Samoa match (25.3 million viewers) in Brighton. The tournament’s debut in Asia in 2019 will create new opportunities for the sport, opening the game up to new markets, ideas and participants in the world’s most populous region.
The tournament is now a little under two years away; how do you start planning for the licensing programme? The first stage of planning for the licensing programme is to develop the graphics and style guide and then we begin speaking to all licensee and retailer partners. Initially, we focus on the key categories that form the programme structure and this will allow us to better segment the rights for the rest of the business. In the past, Rugby World Cup licensing has been developed as a stop and start tournament programme. The licensing and merchandising was driven around the event and then everything stopped as soon as the tournament did. While the individual tournaments will continue to be a focus and there will be peaks in the programme, our new partnership allows us to create a thread of continuity for World Rugby in between major programme milestones such as Rugby World Cup.