We ran a digital promotion in the UK to select 4 Lions fans to represent their nations in 'The Mane Event'. We then flew them to Australia and filmed them on tour as they tackled the locals in five epic (if somewhat unusual) challenges (see case study film).

Well-known Aussie actor and comedian Rob Carlton served as Mane Event Tournament Director.

Filming by day and editing by night, we produced webisodes that were released on days on which there was no rugby for fans to watch. They were broadcast online through Microsoft and Bing and in Qantas inflight entertainment.

1.75 million people tuned in to the series.

Lions and Wallabies players got into the series too, sending messages of support to their athletically-ungifted counterparts via social media.

The Mane Event generated a PR reach of 79 million.

Australian national free-to-air television network Channel 10 chose to feature 'The Mane Event' series finale as part of the TV build up to the final Lions vs. Wallabies test match.

Post-campaign research showed that viewers of the series were 37% more likely to consider using Qantas for their next flight.

In 2013, Australia’s national airline, Qantas, was official sponsor of the British and Irish Lions rugby tour to Australia. Qantas wanted to use this opportunity to increase brand consideration among fans in the UK and Ireland. But the Lions tour consisted of just ten games over a five-week period; so our challenge was how to keep fans back home in Britain and Ireland engaged by the tour in the downtime between games.

The rivalry between the “motherlands” and Australia is over 200 years old, and everyone in Britain and Ireland loves a chance to try and beat the “Aussies” at anything at all. So we gave them the opportunity to do just that: we created and filmed 'The Mane Event' - a “Lions tour for the athletically ungifted” that pitted four ordinary Lions fans against local fans of the Australian national rugby team (the Wallabies).