The Hong Kong Sevens is the biggest partying and sporting event of the year. Marriott International chose to use their ongoing sponsorship of the Hong Kong Sevens to launch their new rewards program. Marriot Bonvoy now bundles all their existing rewards programs into one, covering all thirty of their brands. That made it the biggest travel rewards program in the world.

Outspent by title sponsors Cathay Pacific and HSBC they faced an uphill battle for awareness and attention at Hong Kong’s showpiece sporting event. If we somehow managed to break through the noise, even then we still had the problem of using a local sports sponsorship in Hong Kong to sell people on the idea of using Marriott Bonvoy for trips and travel out of Hong Kong. We were a minor, outsider sponsor of an event that didn’t seem to really fit the business challenge we had.

If you love the Sevens Bonvoy will help you get into the spirit. If you hate it Bonvoy will help you get out of town.

Our spokesperson, French rugby legend Sebastien Chabal, donned fancy dress and played both sides. He debated himself as a lover of the Sevens and, himself in drag, as a hater. He described how lovers could enjoy the sevens with Bonvoy (GO FIJI) and how haters could escape to somewhere quiet and peaceful (GO TO FIJI).

These ads ran in the buildup to the event explaining the Bonvoy travel deals available, culminating in an in-stadium surprise experience for the fans.

Fans loved seeing a legend in fancy dress. The haters were offered the holiday escape with Bonvoy they wanted.

We sponsored an event and then encouraged people who hated it to avoid going to it by using our brand. We’re pretty sure this is a first.

As sponsors of the Sevens, we assumed that everyone loved the event. But social listening revealed a city divided. On the one hand, we had the Sevens fans, on the other hand, the majority of Hong Kongers couldn’t stand it. In fact, the sevens was their worst nightmare of drunk tourists running riot in fancy dress in their home town.

Since the target for Bonvoy is literally anyone that travels, we had to find a way to appeal to both groups. What if we embraced the fact that more than half the city hates this event? Could we use a rugby icon, beloved by partying fans, to also sell the idea of getting away from all that drunken stupid nonsense? Could we massively expand the base of people the sponsorship appealed to by talking to the lovers AND the haters of the event?

For one weekend a year, it feels like every square inch of the city is taken over by the games and fans. So, we knew it would be important to create memorable on-site activations and Out of Home. That said, to connect with both a local and global audience, we created a flexible digital and social campaign on youtube and facebook that sparked the debate - Hong Kong Rugby Sevens: Are you a Lover or a Hater? The campaign ran in the build-up to the main event, and ran throughout, culminating in a surprise live performance on game day from our spokesperson – rugby legend Sebastien Chabal.

In the end Marriott Bonvoy succeeded by encouraging people to stay away from a sports even that we sponsored.

Tackling the polarising nature of the Sevens head-on gained us the awareness and exposure we needed.

19mm impressions

2.5 MM complete views TTD and YouTube

1.3 MM Engagements Facebook

76% of attendees recalled Marriott Bonvoy brand commercial

More importantly finding a way to include and talk to people that hated the event improved results from the year before (when we just talked to fans).

We had effectively increased the size of our audience, and our business results followed

23% increase in points redeemed over the campaign period vs 2018 campaign

33% increase in program enrolment over the campaign period vs 2018 campaign

Telling people who hated it not to come and helping them get away worked better than just telling people who loved it how great it was.