TCL is a global electronics brand and the Worldwide Olympic Partner in the TV category – but in South Africa the fight for consumer preference happens in Pick n Pay, Game, and Makro aisles, not at the Olympics.
The brief was to activate TCL’s Associate Partnership with the Vodacom Bulls across the URC season – build heat around the sponsorship, drive foot traffic to retail, and turn a logo lockup into an experience people actually remember.
Challenge
Sports sponsorships are hard to earn credit for. Most brands buy the badge, slap it into a still ad, and hope the audience notices. Fans see through it in seconds.
Rugby fans are also a specific audience – proud, tribal, high on Bulls content year-round – and they will not tolerate a brand that turns up on match day pretending to care. The activation had to feel earned. It had to give the fan something (participation, a chance to win, a piece of the season) rather than lecturing them about a TV.
And it had to be tight enough to run week after week for the URC season without going stale.
The work
We built the activation around one line and one mechanic – Go Big, Go Bulls. Take a Selfie Here.
In-store experience – large-format displays in participating retailers showing the Bulls players emerging from a TCL C6K Smart TV, with the Take a Selfie Here frame device inviting fans to snap themselves in front of it and share to social with #GoBigGoBulls #TCLInspireGreatness. Prize mechanic – Grand Prize 75” TCL C6K Smart TV, weekly store vouchers, two double tickets to Vodacom Bulls home games, monthly TCL Soundbar draw.
Match-day social system – templated posts for every URC fixture across the season: Bulls vs Leinster, Bulls vs Ulster, Bulls vs Connacht, and every match in between. Same brand chassis, TCL Associate Partner lockup with Vodacom Bulls, players locked in the frame device, fixture-adaptive copy. Post schedule aligns to broadcast times so the feed runs alongside the live match.
Retail print – A1 posters, in-store point-of-sale, and prize-draw entry mechanics.
The whole system was built so the TCL retail marketing team could keep running it week-on-week – swap the fixture, swap the player, keep the same brand feel. Sponsorship activation as a media system, not a one-off asset.
In collaboration with Sensesix
Made in partnership with Sensesix, who lead the TCL account and manage the Vodacom Bulls sponsorship activation. Sensesix owned the sponsorship strategy, retail integration, and prize-mechanic legal. Creature of Habit was the creative partner across the campaign concept, key visual system, and rollout across in-store, retail print, and match-day social.
If you have a sponsorship on the books that is not earning its keep, the badge is not the deal. Talk to us about the activation that turns partnership into preference.
