CANTERBURY OF NEW ZEALAND H2 GLOBAL BRAND CAMPAIGN

Continuing our work with the team at Canterbury of New Zealand, we were tasked with creating the global training campaign for Autumn/Winter. Our brief was to develop a compelling creative campaign that built on the previous season and elevated the training range across all channels.

We wanted to connect with the Canterbury fans through an emotive and engaging proposition, staying true to the brand’s rugby positioning but also dialling up a wider sports focus on training to be rugby-fit.

Our overall goal was to connect the technical, aesthetic and performance features of the garments, collaborating with the Canterbury ambassadors, as well as including rugby-fit guys who train for their own games.

We headlined the campaign with the Canterbury ambassadors, Dylan Hartley and Robbie Henshaw, showing their ultimate dedication to their game – they’re the first players on the pitch, and the last off.

This season, we took the crossfit circuits outdoors, capturing the ambassadors during a tough out-of-hours training session in their hometowns of Northampton and Dublin.

Our campaign films needed to show the ambassador’s absolute dedication to their training – we directed crossfit exercises and training drills that were relevant to their individual positions on the pitch, showing both Dylan and Robbie on their own turf, working to their unique goals.

We also created social content featuring challenges and training tutorials for the Canterbury Training Hub, showing more of the brand’s personality and rugby authority.

We also cast two teams of rugby-player and rugby-fit guys to authenticate the training sessions and to create content that focused on training skills and drills.

Communicating the technical qualities of the garments and how the training range enhances a workout was key. We incorporated stills, social edits and 360 video to capture the responsive quality and considered construction of the garments against the elements and in motion.

To support the headline campaign imagery, we also created content featuring William and Cookie, rugby skilled guys that train for their own motivations and in their own way. The city streets were our training ground, showing that it doesn’t matter where you are or what time it is, dedication will get you to your goal.

We created the global campaign playbook, briefing the ANZ team with how this direction works for their own ambassadors and audience, still battling the elements but for them, working against intense heat, humidity and hard ground.

As part of the campaign expansion, we also designed a tiered retail guide to bring the campaign to life at store level, creating an impactful retail campaign that covered both Train For Your Game and the global boots campaign.

We managed the full retail roll out covering design and artwork, print production and installation across nationwide stores including the Oxford Street Sports Direct store.