Where they were.
NSW Rugby Union needed to drive new season registrations across a geographically spread membership base, competing against a post-summer attention deficit and the habit of lapsed players not re-registering. Previous campaigns had leaned on organic social and direct comms to existing databases — the brief was to grow beyond that existing pool and reach genuinely new participants, particularly women, senior players, and families.
What we did.
We built a three-phase campaign across an 8-week window. Phase one: Meta paid ads across four distinct audience segments — General Public, Sporty Women, Senior Players, and Parents & Juniors — running three iterations of creative tested across 1:1, 4:5, 9:16 and 1200×628 formats, with budget shifted toward top performers weekly. Phase two: six eDM sends anchored by ambassador content featuring NSW Waratahs player Max Jorgensen and the Tafua family, with urgency-led messaging in the final fortnight. Phase three: five affiliated rugby unions activated as co-distribution partners, each receiving co-branded creative and unique tracking URLs to measure contribution at the club level.
What it delivered.
392 active registrations confirmed against competition entries, with 265 completing formal registration and 130 flagged as future-season leads. 54 participants were brand-new to rugby. $75,274 in revenue generated at 750% ROAS. The final two weeks of the campaign accounted for 76% of all submissions — validating the urgency-led eDM strategy. Community-driven creative (Avoca RFC, Tafua family) consistently outperformed generic campaign formats. 83% of completed registrations chose full Season memberships.
