Interview with Fraser Holland Sponsorship and Marketing Manager New Zealand Rugby Union (2006)

The All Blacks have been synonymous with New Zealand identity for over a century. The team's sporting legacy is impressive: the All Blacks have won 75% of their matches and their legendary black jersey and pre-match performance of the haka continue to captivate audiences around the world. In recent years the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) has been forced to confront, and indeed embrace, globalisation to ensure that the national sport and the All Blacks remain competitive on and off the field. More specifically, in 1995 the sport of rugby union underwent a radical transformation when the NZRU, in conjunction with the South African and Australian rugby unions (SANZAR), signed a ten-year $US555 million broadcasting rights agreement with Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, which signalled the advent of full professionalism. A five-year $US323 million deal was signed between SANZAR and News Limited in January 2005. Meanwhile, the NZRU has secured additional revenue through a range of sponsorship agreements with key commercial partners, including principal sponsor adidas. In this interview, Jay Scherer (JS) talks to NZRU Sponsorship and Marketing Manager Fraser Holland (FH). They discuss a number of global issues and contemporary commercial challenges for the NZRU as it navigates the somewhat turbulent waters of professionalism. Holland comments on the value and meaning of the All Blacks brand, the NZRU partnership with adidas, and a range of other issues that have materialised as a consequence of rugby's emergence as a global commodity. JS: Can you tell us a bit about your background, how you became involved with the NZRU and if you have a rugby background? FH: I have been with the NZRU for about five and half years now and I was originally the marketing manager. About eighteen months ago I took the lead for the entire commercial team, of which marketing is approximately fifty per cent. How did I come into the job? Well, my background is in sales and marketing and predominantly within consumer goods. I had five years experience with Lion-Nathan, which owns the Steinlager brand globally, based here in New Zealand. Steinlager were, I would suggest, the first commercial brand to leverage a commercial association with the All Blacks. I worked with Lion-Nathan in those formative years, so that was certainly the background which gave me reasonable insight. I dealt with pre-professionalism and worked with a brand such as the All Blacks from a client side, prior to and during the early stages of the current professional rugby environment. Do I have a rugby background? Well, like the vast majority of male kiwis, I have a rugby background, but my pedigree is not at a level that I think you may be looking for! Certainly I played rugby all through my school and university years and played some senior club rugby, but that's as far as I go. JS: What do you see as your primary roles and responsibilities as the sponsorship and marketing manager for the major sporting organisation in New Zealand? FH: First and foremost I think we are a sporting organisation with a unique position in that we are responsible for both the amateur participation levels of rugby in the country and the professional and commercial aspects of rugby union. In that regard, with the responsibilities that come with sponsorship and marketing for the New Zealand Rugby Union, there is always a balance between commercial and non-commercial, or commercial and straight participation. Then, when you dig down into the roles, ultimately I am responsible for all NZRU sponsorship and licensing revenue. With that I am responsible for sponsor and stakeholder relationships; once we have a relationship, to manage that relationship, or my team manages that relationship. And then on the marketing aspects, I am ultimately responsible for brand strategy and communication, and across a variety of products from the All Blacks at the top of the tree, through to our respective competition products, the Rebel Sport Super 12, the Air New Zealand NPC and then down further to the particular initiative we have instigated at the moment called the Smallblacks, which is all about kids' participation and getting kids in their very early years involved in rugby. …