Where is the publicity for the RWC 2011?
As I write, it’s only 2 months, 3 weeks and some change till the start of the Rugby World Cup 2011. A number of the new rugby kits have already arrived and are on sale now. We’ve got release dates and embargoes and technical info all lined up ready to go live… it’s just waiting to be unleashed on the world.
But where’s the publicity? where’s the buzz?
If this were a football tournament, we’d be getting bombarded by stuff all over the popular media and specialist press, but for the RWC, it’s just not happening yet. The questions is, why not?
The RWC is the third biggest sporting event in the world; surpassed only by the FIFI World Cup and the Olympics. In 2003, over 3 billion people watched RWC on television and more than 1.8 million tickets were sold. The press have been talking about the 2012 Olympics for the last 3 years, with it being an almost daily feature on the news these days and still over a year to go. Why isn’t the RWC afforded anything like this level of exposure?
Is it the fault of the IRB, the specialist rugby press? Are the daily press not interested yet because it’s too soon to be making a fuss of something that’s on the other side of the world? Is it the fault of the manufacturers not kicking up enough fuss about the release of the product?
In all honesty, I don’t know, but I fear it could be a combination of all these factors.
What do you think? Are you excited yet? We’re very interested to hear your thoughts on this topic… have I got it all wrong and I’m just not reading the right newspapers?!
