SA Rugby win big at Sport Industry Awards

Aug 18 • General News, International, National, World Rugby • 1919 Views • Comments Off on SA Rugby win big at Sport Industry Awards

The highly-popular HSBC Cape Town Sevens tournament was named best the Best Live Experience of 2018 for the second time in as many years at the 2018 Sports Industry Awards in Johannesburg on Friday evening.

The tournament sold out in hours in 2017 and more than 110,000 spectators packed the Cape Town Stadium over two days in December to watch the 16 teams contesting the second leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

The numerous activations during the tournament and the ability to engage the crowd for 11 hours per day were some of the aspects highlighted by the judges.

SA Rugby, who had five of their campaigns nominated at the prestigious awards, also bagged the Award for the Best Use of PR in a campaign with their online video, “The Arrival” – a quirky look at the Blitzboks’ homecoming after they were crowned HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Champions for 2016/17 – on a night where other rugby entities were also amongst the winners on the night.

The Cell C Sharks’ Facebook page won the Digital Platform of the Year Award, while Vodacom claimed the Best Sponsorship of an Event or Competition Award for their Vodacom Super Rugby campaign.

SA Rugby CEO, Jurie Roux, congratulated those involved in these campaigns and the broader rugby public for their support.

“We are in a market where other national codes such as cricket, soccer and netball are also putting up remarkable events, so it is great reward for us to be recognised like this,” said Roux.

“A huge thank you should go out to our supporters as well, as they make rugby the great spectacle it is.”

Roux said the challenge is now to make sure the high standards remain: “We have delivered some memorable moments and events in the local sporting landscape so the challenge will be to keep on doing so.

“The other sporting codes are improving in their event management all the time and have already done some wonderful work and we applaud them for that.”

The HSBC Cape Town Sevens for 2018 will again be contested at the Cape Town Stadium on 8-9 December. An announcement on the date and process of the ticket sales will be made shortly.