Sponsors of individual teams "struggle for visibility" at the Rugby World Cup because of World Rugby's "understandable desire to maintain exclusivity for its global partners," according to Daniel Farey-Jones of MARKETING MAGAZINE. However, as "O2 in particular has demonstrated, Home Nations sponsors can still grab people's attention while remaining within the rules." The mobile network, which has partnered with the England Rugby team for 13 years, has been "spending big to whip up the support of the home fans" and is "not fazed" by the fact its logo will not be featured on players' shirts in matches. O2 Head of Sports Sponsorship Gareth Griffiths said, "We're very respectful of the rules and we're not going to do ambush marketing. We lose all the branding we have at Twickenham but there will still be thousands of fans at the game wearing the [O2-branded] England shirt." While O2 has been "unable to give away match tickets, it is giving away 50,000 England rugby shirts to members of its Priority loyalty scheme." O2 stores have been given rose branding and are giving away 1 million rose badges, while O2 has "also pulled together a hundred of the country's most passionate fans online under the banner Rose Army." Griffiths: "That creates a powerful grassroots social footprint for us and we've been delighted with it." Other national shirt sponsors include BT, which sponsors Scotland. It is sponsoring Scotland House, "a takeover of the Lane 7 bar near to St James Park stadium." Wales shirt sponsor Admiral released an online video in the run-up to Wales taking on England on Saturday. It "shows the company's own choir singing the Welsh national anthem in England territory -- Victoria Station in London." Other national commercial partners include Dove Men + Care, the supplier to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the RWC. The Unilever skincare brand has "covered all the bases and secured official World Cup supplier status, allowing it to conduct a ticket giveaway as well as provide samples to the players." Wales kit supplier Under Armour "launched a marketing and PR stunt" showing off its sponsorship of a number of int'l rugby players, just before the RWC (MARKETING MAGAZINE, 9/24).
