The silverware cabinets might be as empty as a politician’s promise, but there are some numbers floating around (including some revealed EXCLUSIVELY to G&GR) that point to an explosion in Australian Rugby – of the good kind. As unlikely as a good news story is these days, can this be true and if it can, what’s behind it?
First off, the numbers you may have already seen. About a week ago the ARU revealed to the world that 209,571 people had participated in Australian rugby in 2010. That’s an increase of 16,990 (or 8.8%) over the previous year, and beats 2006 as the highest level of participation ever in Australian rugby by 16,182.
Now, no doubt you wouldn’t have seen as much padding since your year 10 formal (if you can remember back that far), but you can rest assured that similar torturing of these numbers would have happened for the years before 2010. As such, unless they’ve decided to go in for mass fraud all of a sudden in 2011, this is impressive growth.
So, the question becomes, why? What’s causing the flood into the playing ranks that’s caused records across all ages and geographies like these:
• NSW Juniors up 7.0% to 20,708 (Record),
• Overall playing numbers in NSW up 8.1% to 84,428 (Record),
• QLD Seniors up 8.7% to 10,195 (Record),
• Overall playing numbers in QLD up 6.3% to 57,843 (Record),
• ACT and Southern NSW Seniors up 4.6% to 3,097 (Record),
• Overall playing numbers in ACT and Southern NSW up 16.9% to 16,436 (Record),
• VIC Seniors up 9.1% to 2,501 (Record).
I believe there’s a clue in some numbers you wouldn’t have seen, but that G&GR can exclusively reveal from a well placed source. Our information is that current memberships to the Australian Super 15 franchises (save for the Brumbies) stand at approximately the following
Now, there are plenty of interesting things to talk about in these numbers (including how with 44% of the player base NSW is currently capturing fewer memberships than WA with only 6.6%) but what I’d like to zero in on is the Reds tally.
Only two years ago the Reds membership tallied 3,000 for the 2009 season. Granted this was a spectacular low, but the previous highs had only been around 5,000 in the preceding years. Even if the Reds attracted no more memberships before the start of the season, this would be a stunning achievement.
So the question is, WHY? No doubt winning had a fair bit to do with it, with the Reds coming 5th overall. However, the Waratahs did better, making the semi-finals and finishing 3rd, and yet they languish behind in the membership stakes.
For me, the answer lies in the most important marketing commodity any brand can have in the modern age – being remarkable. As marketing guru Seth Godin wrote about in his book Purple Cow (you can see a video here), in a world where we have less time and more choices, for an idea or product to catch on, it has to cut through. It has to be worth making a remark about. Being “good” is no longer enough.
In 2010 the Waratahs were a very good rugby team, with results better than the Reds. But in terms of the story behind them and the style of play they employed for much of the season, they simply weren’t remarkable, unlike the Reds.
So, when we look at these overall Australian playing figures, what could be making the difference? For all their frailties and lamentable winning record (until late) the current crop of Wallabies – Beale, Pocock, Cooper, O’Connor – have been capturing imaginations not just in Australia, but around the world. Should their story unfold this year at the World Cup, these participation increases would be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of remarkability, and what that could bring for Australian rugby.
Hold on to your hats.
