The foundation and principal partner of the Melbourne Rebels, RaboDirect, achieved $1.97-million QI media value over the course of the 2015 Super Rugby season that saw the Rebels record seven wins – two more than in any other season in the club’s history – to finish a club-best tenth on the table.

Front of jersey branding exposure alone was valued at more than $900,000 for the season with back of jersey, field-side LED boards and interview backdrop contributing significantly to a 72 percent year on year increase in media exposure derived from the 2015 stanza of RaboDirect’s partnership with the Melbourne Rebels.

The partnership’s 2015 marketing campaign, entitled ‘This Is Rebels Country’, was used across marketing collateral and digital and social media platforms. The campaign, which embodied RaboDirect’s positioning as a challenger brand, featured a mix of online banking customers, grass roots Rugby Union volunteers and was broadcast to fans on the big screens at AAMI Park.

In addition to delivering significant media value, the partnership showcased RaboDirect’s commitment to its cooperative values by making a meaningful contribution to the burgeoning grass roots Rugby Union community in Victoria through the Conversions for Community program, and the Conversions for Clubs (C4C) program that preceded it.

Established to highlight the invaluable contribution made by volunteers to grass roots rugby in Victoria, C4C attracted 65 nominations in 2015, assisting the bank to improve brand awareness and connect with a large and diverse audience in Victoria, one of its key markets. C4C achieved significant exposure on Fox Sports with 2014 Volunteer of the Year Jess Treherne, 2014 finalist Mary-Lou Silveira, and 2015 finalists Sandi Ash and David Hawkins featuring on Australia’s most respected Rugby Union program throughout the season.

Voting for the 2015 Conversions for Community Volunteer of the Year began in September and achieved almost 4,000 votes and and the success of the 2015 program brought RaboDirect’s donations to Victorian Rugby Union communities to more than $200,000 over four years.

The Melbourne Rebels partnership also allowed RaboDirect to demonstrate its innovative approach to customer relationships through its unique inner-sanctum customer rewards program facilitating engagement with the Victorian Rugby Union audience.

More than 70 clients participated in AAMI Park inner sanctum experiences including back-of-house tours, ‘gold grass’ and VIP transfers over the course of the 2015 season, while a further 20 enjoyed interstate inner sanctum experiences.

RaboDirect’s engagement with the Victorian Rugby community provided the perfect vehicle for the bank to express its commitment to corporate responsibility in the form of charitable donations and equipment donations. Over the course of 2015, the bank also donated a wide variety of signed memorabilia to 20 separate fund-raising events.

In addition, RaboDirect threw its warehouse doors open to Victorian Rugby Clubs in April, giving away surplus game-day items including Segways, banners, storage equipment and furniture to clubs including Harlequin, Power House and Box Hill.

Renee Amor, General Manager, Marketing Rabobank Australia and New Zealand said she was delighted with RaboDirect’s fifth year in partnership with the Melbourne Rebels. “The 2015 Melbourne Rebels partnership allowed us to achieve a variety of key sponsorship and marketing objectives, and to surprise and delight a significant group of clients and customers, both in Victoria and interstate,” said Amor.

“I’m confident the achievements of RaboDirect’s 2015 partnership with the Melbourne Rebels will be of enduring benefit both to RaboDirect, and to Victorian Rugby at an elite and a grassroots level,” she said.

For media enquiries please contact:
Charlotte James
Charlotte James Communications
Phone: 0430 011 798
Email: cjames@charlottejames.com.au

Denise Shaw
Media Relations
Rabobank Australia & New Zealand
Phone: 02 8115 2744 or 0439 603 525
Email: denise.shaw@rabobank.com

About RaboDirect:

Launched in 2007, RaboDirect is an online savings bank that offers customers competitive rates on their savings and term deposits. RaboDirect offers products to personal, business and Self Managed Superannuation Fund customers and was awarded Savings Institution of the Year for a third year running by the AFR Smart Investor magazine.

RaboDirect is a division of Rabobank Australia Limited (ABN 50 001 621 120) (AFSL 234 700), part of the international Rabobank Group, the world's leading specialist in food and agribusiness banking.

Operating in over 40 countries through a network of more than 1000 offices and branches around the globe, Rabobank was founded in 1898 and has more than 115 years' experience servicing the needs of approximately 8.8 million clients worldwide, providing customised banking and finance solutions to businesses involved in all aspects of food and agribusiness.

Connect with RaboDirect on Twitter @RaboDirectAU and on Facebook.com/RaboDirectAU.