AIG had a problem that every global sponsor knows. They were paying big money to sponsor the All Blacks, but most of their 45,000+ employees around the world didn't know a scrum from a lineout. We helped them build a sports tipping platform that turned insurance workers into rugby fans and made their sponsorship investment actually matter to their own people.

The Challenge

As principal sponsor of the New Zealand All Blacks from 2012-2021, AIG wanted to connect and engage with their 45,000+ employees around the world and share the excitement of rugby. But there was a fundamental problem: rugby was not AIG's first language.

As an American insurance company with offices scattered across 65 countries, most AIG staff had never watched a rugby match, let alone understood why their company was so invested in this New Zealand team. The challenge wasn't just about building excitement around key fixtures. It was about educating people on how the game is played and injecting the importance of the All Blacks sponsorship into AIG's culture across the entire organisation.

How do you make people care about a sport they've never seen played?

How We Approached It

We worked with AIG and New Zealand Rugby to build something that was part education, part competition, and entirely engaging. The solution was a sports tipping platform that taught people about rugby whilst they played along.

But this couldn't be just another corporate engagement tool that gets ignored. We took a highly user-centred and inclusive approach to ensure staff from Tokyo to New York to London wouldn't be left out of the conversation. The platform needed to work for people who knew nothing about rugby, whilst still being engaging enough for the office experts.

We built in team information, form guides, and context that helped people make informed picks rather than random guesses. The real magic was in creating friendly rivalry through leaderboards and encouraging those water cooler chats about upcoming games and latest results.

What Made It Special

Most corporate sports platforms assume people already care about the sport. We started from the opposite assumption: that most people had no idea why this mattered but could be convinced if you made it fun and accessible.

The platform became a rugby education tool disguised as a tipping competition. Every pick taught people something about the teams, the players, or the game itself. The competitive element kept people coming back, but the learning element made the sponsorship investment meaningful.

The Reality

The platform transformed AIG's relationship with their All Blacks sponsorship. The results spoke for themselves:

4,810 registrations from AIG staff across the globe
65 countries represented in the competition
92% average engagement across all seven rounds of competition
Sustained participation with nearly everyone making picks every round
Global conversation starter that connected offices across time zones and cultures