With the Springboks leading the way on the field, rugby was the big winner off the field at the annual South African Sport Industry Awards, which recognise outstanding campaigns and sponsorships over the past year and was held in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening.
The rugby industry cleaned up at the ceremony with a hatful of awards, showing solidarity amongst different agencies as they helped bring the game to the people of South Africa.
SA Rugby’s production of the six Springboks home Tests – against Ireland, Portugal, New Zealand and Argentina – was judged to be the Event of the Year in South Africa in 2024.
All six Tests were sold out as more than 300,000 supporters flocked to stadiums in Pretoria, Durban, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Mbombela to see the double Rugby World Cup champions in action – and be richly entertained both off as well as on the field.
Furthermore, SA Rugby’s #ForeverGreenForeverGold campaign, done in conjunction with Black and White Stripes and which helped create unity behind the Springboks as they embarked on a new season after defending the Webb Ellis Cup in France last year, won the award for Best Campaign on Social Media.
SA Rugby and Dialogue Communications’ #BokFriday campaign won the Fan Engagement Award for the second year running.
Chasing the Sun 2, the documentary series showcasing the Springboks’ rise to Rugby World Cup champions in France in 2023, won the Audio-Visual Content of the Year Award. The series was co-produced by SA Rugby, Supersport and T+W, who walked away with the Agency of the Year Award.
The marketing campaign behind Chasing the Sun 2 won the award for Campaign of the Year and Springbok prop Ox Nche was named the Sports Personality of the Year.
“This is a very proud moment for the rugby industry, and I would like to congratulate and thank everyone involved for countless hours working behind the scenes to bring joy to the people of South Africa through all these different campaigns,” said Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby.
“People don’t realise how much work goes into putting on a Test match, formulating a campaign or producing a movie, but the end results were there for everyone to see and to walk away with all these awards is really rewarding and something we are all very proud of.”
Mr. Lucky
The highest-scoring international rugby player of all time is New Zealand’s Dan Carter, who amassed a total of 1,598 points throughout his illustrious career.
Mint Ness
Mahela Jayawardene is the only batsman to have scored centuries in both the Semi-Final and Final of a World Cup.