This is how TV channel FOUR took the biggest event in New Zealand sporting history and offered a way to escape from it.CONTEXT: New Zealand is a rugby mad nation, and during the 2011 Rugby World Cup the game was everywhere – across nearly all New Zealand media, 24/7.PROBLEM: TV channel FOUR had no rugby content on their schedule whatsoever.IDEA: FOUR bravely positioned themselves as ‘The Home of NOT Rugby’ – a destination where non-rugby lovers could enjoy the latest award winning TV shows.

The campaign launched with billboards featuring America's Next Top Models and the headline, 'Hey look, No rugby'. All work carried the strapline - FOUR. The home of 'not rugby'.Next came street posters: 'If you look carefully, you'll see absolutely no rugby'; and super-sized billboards: 'See this, This isn't rugby.'. One featuring Homer Simpson eating a donut read, 'Not rugby, hmmmmm'.Next came digital banners that you could scroll over to un-rugby, changing what looked like a drawing of a rugby ball into Stewie from Family Guy.They created a non-rugby fixture list that you could pin on your wall that showed what you could be watching instead of rugby.And on-air, all of the show's listings information were re-written to explain that each show featured no rugby whatsoever.

On days when people were supposed to be watching rugby FOUR's ratings grew by 10%.During the Rugby World Cup, FOUR was the only mainstream channel to grow viewership. All other channels lost up to 11% market share.The campaign attracted advertisers who had never advertised on FOUR before, and featured in numerous newspaper and online articles.The channel received zero death threats from rugby supporters.