Client: England Rugby & the Red Roses
For England Rugby, Spike - W Communications’ specialist sports arm - built an event led campaign that did not simply borrow the heat of the tournament but helped turn it into lasting participation. No vast sponsorship rights package or brute-force media spend. Just a strong belief that if the Women’s Rugby World Cup was going to matter beyond the final whistle, the Red Roses had to become more than elite athletes to cheer for. They had to become a visible pathway for the girls watching at home - and for the parents deciding whether rugby felt like a sport for them. So, we created ‘For The Girls’. A fully integrated campaign that connected national symbolism, relentless earned storytelling and grassroots experiential action. From Trail of Roses, a major London installation honouring every Red Rose in history, to a tournament-long press office that kept IRL participation at the centre of the conversation, to RugbyFest, a nationwide post-World Cup recruitment drive, we turned sporting visibility into something far more valuable: momentum. The results were emphatic: 1,157 pieces of coverage, 421 million reach, more than 1,000 local stories carrying participation messaging, +38% growth in female participation across the World Cup cycle, +10% year-on-year growth in girls’ registrations post-tournament, and 500+ clubs now offering women’s and girls’ rugby.
