FEATURE

ASB & New Zealand Rugby enter major multi-year sponsorship deal

By Anthem

ASB has today announced a multi-year partnership with New Zealand’s most successful sporting team, the All Blacks. The sponsorship also includes New Zealand Rugby’s World Champion sevens teams; the All Blacks Sevens and New Zealand Women’s Sevens.  As part of the relationship, ASB will be known as the official bank of New Zealand Rugby and the All Blacks.

The New Zealand Rugby and ASB agreement will see the two organisations bind together through shared values of passion, ambition and success. The sponsorship was unveiled at an ASB staff event at the Bank’s North Wharf head office in Auckland, attended by All Black Brodie Retallick, All Blacks Sevens Coach Sir Gordon Tietjens and Sevens players Huriana Manuel and Sherwin Stowers.

ASB’s Chief Executive, Barbara Chapman, says today’s announcement is much more than a conventional corporate sponsorship, and it is ASB’s aim to work with the All Blacks and sevens teams to benefit its people and customers around the country. “Rugby fans come from all walks of life and include people of different ages, nationalities, genders, locations and lots of other backgrounds, just like the people we employ and the customers we serve every day.”

“This is about a partnership between two organisations with closely aligned values, ambitious goals and a track record of success.  The team at ASB are passionate about rugby so it’s enormously exciting for everyone to be coming together with an organisation like New Zealand Rugby that shares our passion and ambition,” says Ms Chapman.

The sponsorship term will see ASB backing the All Blacks as they compete for another Rugby World Cup this year, our women’s and men’s sevens teams as they go for gold in Rio in 2016 and the British and Irish Lions tour when they hit our shores for the first time in 12 years in 2017.

New Zealand Rugby Chief Executive, Steve Tew, says the new partnership is a great fit for both organisations. “ASB and New Zealand Rugby share the same values and goals. We both want to be the best we can be in very competitive environments and to strive for constant improvement.

“We know that customers and fans are happy when we’re on top of our game and successful. Success comes from planning well, working hard, being flexible, smart and innovative and above all; team work.”

As part of a light-hearted celebration to mark  the new partnership, selected ASB offices and branches the length of the country along with the Bank’s website and social media channels have been rebranded “ABs”, with the letters of ASB’s name transposed to spell the abbreviated All Blacks moniker for the day and illustrating the synergies between the two teams.

In addition, ASB has kicked off its sponsorship with a launch campaign that sees All Blacks Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock, Cory Jane, Sam Cane, and Patrick Tuipulotu take creative licence with the ASB brand initials, transposing them to form “ABs”, filmed in front of the ASB stadium at Eden Park (click here to view).