Driving viewership: World Rugby on utilising SVNS athletes and their social media connections to bring new fans to the revitalised tournament

World Rugby has utilised its SVNS athletes this year on screen in the linear broadcast, as well as leaning more heavily into social media and the ties that those athletes have on various platforms, to bring new and younger viewers to the sport

The new and improved Olympic format for World Rugby, SVNS, has just closed its first season and along with that, been able to evaluate how its equally revitalised broadcast of the tournament has succeeded in bringing in new viewers.

World Rugby has utilised its SVNS athletes this year on screen in the linear broadcast, as well as leaning more heavily into social media and the ties that those athletes have on various platforms, to bring new and younger viewers to the sport.

It has been a huge success, notes James Rothwell, World Rugby’s chief marketing content officer. “The size of our digital following has tripled in SVNS in one year,” continues Rothwell. “It’s grown more this year than in the five years before it,” he enthuses.

“We get great signals from social engagement and digital following,” continues Rothwell. “We test that in broadcast it works, and vice versa. The beauty of SVNS is that we are live eight months a year so we have so much content to experiment in.

“Digital gives us great insights to experiment with on broadcast and I think that ecosystem has become really rich for us.”

Building Olympic momentum

The new-look SVNS has helped build momentum for the Olympics, says Rothwell: “I couldn’t feel stronger about that. The energy, the momentum that we had in Madrid was incredible. The jeopardy of what’s happening on the pitch – because the Olympics were just round the corner – was incredible. The injection of Antoine DuPont and Michael Hooper – stars from the 15s game – created so much 15s interest in SVNS, and we’ve seen an enormous spike of fandom in France and in Australia.”

“With a player interview you can have a bit of a laugh, and there’s certain players that have their own great TikTok channels and Instagram that are funny. So it’s just using those people more and taking out a bit more of the serious stuff”

“And we know that we are on the precipice of an iconic Olympic Games for SVNS; after launching in Rio [rugby sevens joined the Olympics movement at Rio 2016], then unfortunately playing with no crowds in Tokyo, this is really going to be the coming of age for the sport.”

Rothwell adds that the Grand Final for the culmination of this first season of the rebranded SVNS competition spelled it all out. “It just feels like Madrid was a wonderful jump-off point. We’ve built so much momentum over the last year. I think the Olympics is going to be very special for SVNS.”

Integrating athletes

Part of that momentum has come through the broadcast of the SVNS and the way it has integrated the athletes and coaches themselves in the action, creating household names with lives and stories, which in turn attract viewers who are not invested in the sport for sports’ sake.

“One thing where we’re lucky with SVNS is they allow us to go into their huddles at halftime with a camera and a microphone. We hear everything; we hear the coaches, their plans, we get a bit of swearing – which we have to apologise for – but that’s something completely different”

Last season World Rugby started interviewing coaches during the match, which viewers enjoyed. This year it has pushed for player interviews for the SVNS broadcast. States Steve Jamieson, World Rugby’s executive producer and director of live events: “We’ve really pushed it now and said, “can we talk to players?”. We started off talking to players who weren’t playing, like the thirteenth player, but by the time this season ended we were allowed to speak to players as soon as they came off the field, so they’re puffing away, and that’s done through the commentary.

“With a player interview you can have a bit of a laugh, and there’s certain players that have their own great TikTok channels and Instagram that are funny. So it’s just using those people more and taking out a bit more of the serious stuff.”

Rothwell adds: “I think inevitably there’s a correlation between the athletes that see the opportunity with media and want to build a profile, and those who are brilliant in the media and on camera. We want to provide a platform through as many athletes as we can because it’s brilliant for their exposure, for opportunities when they hang up the boots, and because we want to provide as many perspectives on the game as we can. But we also want to work with athletes that are excited to work with us and really light up when they’re on the camera.

“Ilona Maher is such a wonderful example, the most followed rugby player in any format, who really capitalises on the opportunity with the Olympics, really understands the importance of building digital fandom across the US team, and across the Irish team, the Australian women’s team, you just have superstars in the making, brilliant athletes, brilliant personalities, people that really resonate with fans.”

Host broadcaster for SVNS, Sunset+Vine, has been able to push mics and cameras right into athlete huddles to get the lowdown on what is going on for viewers, all enhanced by graphics from AE Live

Now for something completely different

Commenting on the attitude of SVNS teams towards being on television, Jamieson comments: “One thing where we’re lucky with SVNS is they allow us to go into their huddles at halftime with a camera and a microphone. We hear everything; we hear the coaches, their plans, we get a bit of swearing – which we have to apologise for – but that’s something completely different. So we will always push the boundaries.

“I’ll always go to the managers and ask for things and we are lucky with SVNS, where they need us as well,” Jamieson continues. “We need them for their great rugby, but they know they need us for their players, for their teams. So we have a really good relationship. We all stay at the same hotels, we all eat in the same room. So it’s completely different feeling and relationship with teams and coaches than you would with the 15s.”

Jamieson concludes with how he has worked to develop the broadcast: “We just keep adding things as we’ve gone along and there’s ideas we’ll add to next year as well. So we’re continually looking at it.

“From the start of the season, that isn’t how the broadcast is going to be the whole way; we’ll change if we have to and if something doesn’t work, we get rid of it.”

All SVNS events in this first season of the new-look tournament have showcased the 12 best men’s and women’s teams, climaxing in a Grand Final weekend held in Madrid, where the top eight teams competed to be crowned Series champions. Teams ranked ninth to twelfth fought it out against the top four teams from the Challenger Series in a relegation play-off to secure their place in next year’s edition.

The SVNS 2024 Grand Final and Play Off events took place at Civitas Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on 31 May to 2 June 2024.