A Report on the Marketing Strategies and Impact of Hong Kong Sevens

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens event, a premier annual sporting event attracting rugby players and fans worldwide. The report examines the event's background, purpose, and scope, including its stakeholders, event details, and historical context. Key factors contributing to the event's success, such as effective marketing strategies and the involvement of sponsors like HSBC, are highlighted. The report also identifies potential threats to the event's future, such as venue limitations and pricing issues, and offers recommendations for improvement. The impact of the event culturally, financially, and environmentally is also discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.

Running head: RUGBY SEVENS 1
Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

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Executive Summary
Rugby Sevens is a world premier event held annually and it brings together rugby players and
fans that come to watch the game. There are numerous teams that come to play the game from
the top clubs across the world. In 2017 event it was a huge success and it attracted 120,000
visitors who come to watch and enjoy themselves. The success of the event has been contributed
by the great sponsors they have and the marketing strategy they utilize each year. In this
research, it will examine this sport and identify both the success factors and threats which
threaten the success of the future event and how to address them.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Background.........................................................................................................................................3
Purpose................................................................................................................................................3
The scope.............................................................................................................................................3
Description of the event...............................................................................................................................3
1.1 who is staging event........................................................................................................................3
1.1.1 who is staged........................................................................................................................4
1.1.2 Main stakeholders................................................................................................................4
1.2 sort of event.....................................................................................................................................4
1.2.1 what happens.......................................................................................................................4
1.2.2 What makes it Hallmark events...........................................................................................4
1.2.3 Where is event held..............................................................................................................5
1.3 When the event is held.....................................................................................................................5
1.4 Why the event is held............................................................................................................................5
History of Hong Kong Sevens.....................................................................................................................5
Objectives and Aims....................................................................................................................................6
Successful factors........................................................................................................................................6
Marketing....................................................................................................................................................7
Impact of the event......................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Background
Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong is a world premier event and an annual sporting which allures
several of the world greatest rugby players and a large number of fans from every corner of the
globe to the wonderful Hong Kong Stadium every year.
Purpose
This event is a fast and furious rugby action which is along with the carnival atmosphere as well
as the world rugby largest prize pursue (Bridges, 2016). It is held in order to bring together
various rugby clubs across the world and the winner takes a large prize purse from the
competition.
The scope
The limitation which was imposed on the event was that of style. The children had to pay the
price of the adults’ ticket to come to the event. According to the Hong Kong Rugby spokesman
he said, “Kids are still welcome, but they will have to come on an adult ticket”. This is a
limitation because the children should get a lower price range to attend the event. This shows
that they are discouraging many to come (Bridges, 2016). Another limitation was the choice of
the stadium, the stadium in the Causeway Bay was overcrowded. The organizing committee
could have sought a bigger stadium that has capability of hosting more people.
Description of the event
1.1 who is staging event
Rugby Sevens is an event is organized by the Hong Kong Rugby Union, and it makes the 42nd
year of the sevens in Hong Kong with an approximate of one hundred and twenty thousand
visitors which are expected to attend to the event (CHEUNG, Roger, Jennifer & Jing, 2017).

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1.1.1 who is staged
The event is organized for the world best clubs in rugby countries such as New Zealand,
Malaysia, and Japan are hosted (Hui, 2016).
1.1.2 Main stakeholders
The main stakeholders of the events are the fans who have paid for watch the game, players,
government and HSBC which is the sponsor of the event along with the Hong Kong Rugby
union who are the organizers (Hui, 2016).
1.2 sort of event
The event is a rugby game that is attended by many visitors across the globe.
1.2.1 what happens
In Rugby Sevens that is a tournament event that retains its status as the largest on the HSBC
Sevens World Series, confirming to the tournament billings (Hui, 2016). The event has 28 teams
who play across three days.
1.2.2 What makes it Hallmark events
This event is considered a Hallmark event since it is attended by all teams across the world, there
are many individuals who come to watch the game and in 2017, according to the organizers they
highlighted that it was the highest paid ever in the tournament (Hui, 2016).
1.2.3 Where is event held

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The event is held in the Hong Kong football stadium and it is attended by many communities
who live across Hong Kong.
1.3 When the event is held
Rugby Sevens usually is an annual event that is held on a weekend in the late march or early
April of each year in Hong Kong. The tournament takes place within three days, which begins on
Friday and conclude on Sunday.
1.4 Why the event is held
The event was held for the commercial purposes (Fuller, 2017). The event is held each year in
order to market tourism in Hong Kong. There are many tourists across the globe that comes to
see the game; they are also able to visit other attractions that the country has which in return
brings them financial gains.
History of Rugby Sevens
(Wong, 2015)
(Hui, 2016)
Rugby Sevens is a variant of rugby union which teams are made up seven players who are
playing seven minutes halves, rather than the usual 15 players who plays for forty minutes
halves. Rugby seven originated in Melrose, Scotland in 1883. The popularity of rugby seven
increased further with the development of the Hong Kong Sevens in 1975 and the world Rugby
Seven series of 7 to 12 tournaments in 1999. Ever since 2016, the rugby seven has been
contested in the Summer Olympics.

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Objectives and Aims
The aim of the event is to boost the rugby presence in Asia where teams from the world top
rugby nations compete. Moreover, the event has proven to be a fertile ground for nurturing of the
young players to become start in the 15 man game (Tsui, Yuen & Fung, 2017).
Objectives
 To help the local rugby community in building a number of the young leagues. There has
been thousands of kids, both local as well as expats, who are playing mini rugby in a
town which traditionally had put little emphasis when it comes to physical activity.
 To offer sporting and entertainment options to individuals (Fuller, Taylor & Raftery,
2016). Many people across the globe to be part of this magnificent event.
Successful factors
The event was a success, Hong Kong Rugby Union has been able to raise the profile of the sport
in the city and beyond through this event (Chan, 2014). There were more than 120,000 visitors
who were able to attend the event as well as rugby fans around the globe. This was the most
commercial thing that the union was doing rather than selling the Sevens.
Hong Kong Rugby Union contributed to the success by making the event a family-friendly event
and the children were allowed to attend the game (Rizi, Yeung, Stewart & Yeung, 2017). This
gave fans a chance to attend these popular events whereby many visitors came to the events as a
holiday with their families. Additionally, the cost of the event was not expensive which made the
number of the visitors to be very high and as a result there was overcrowding as some did not
find space to the stadium

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One of threatening factors to the future events was on the aspect of the location. In the 2017,
there were more than 120,000 visitors who attended the event. The stadium for the event could
not accommodate many fans (Ho, Yiu & Lam, 2016). It would be important that the union which
is the organizer finds a bigger venue which could host large number of people. Another threat
which could affect the success of similar event in the future would be on the prices. Changing the
children and the adult the same price for the ticket is not fair even though they wanted to curb or
a reduction method of people who attended the event, because the stadium could not hold the
number of fans. It is important to set a given price for the adults as well as that of kids.
Marketing
The sponsors of the event have done the marketing of the event through TVs, but they have
changed this and the focus is on the digital channels especially the You Tube. In the You Tube
HSBC they have put stimulating cartoon to capture what the sevens is all about. Another
strategy used for marketing is via social media, where they have put ads of the events. There are
also brand campaigns in Hong Kong offering free tickets are shared widely in the social media.
Other campaigns are as follows; Foodpanda nailed their campaign by encouraging the users to
input Hong Kong Sevens voucher order any time they made an order through their app. Through
these marketing strategies the event was a success (Chan, 2014).
Impact of the event
Culturally the event has impacted it positively, through the event local rugby community are
building a number of the young leagues. They will be able to borrow the knowledge gained from
the events (Lam, 2016). Financially, the country would gain significantly through the foreign
exchange. There are many visitors across the globe that came to attend the event and with them

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they will pay to see the event or book rooms and other expenses while in the country. On the
aspect of environment, to some degree it would be affected negatively. This would be from the
products which would be consumed some are containers of beer that could be disposed
anywhere.
Conclusion
Rugby Sevens is an event that is the world premier sport and the most popular annual sporting
that is held in Asia which has attracted both greatest players and visitors globally. The 2017
event that held in Hong Kong was a success, which could be attributed to the HSBC sponsors
and the Hong Kong Rugby Union who organized the event. During the event there was increase
in the number of visitors from the previous years. The event has been Hallmark since there are
many visitors who attend and it is marked with magnificent action in the field where there are
greatest players from different clubs in the world. Additionally, the event was a success
following the marketing strategy utilized such as; use of the digital channel for example, You
Tube that played a crucial role in advertisement of the events. Nonetheless, there were some
threats which could lead to failure of events in the future. Some of these are on the location; the
previous location was small to hold a large number of fans. Another issue was on the pricing. As
much as it was aimed at reducing the number of fans who attended, the price ticket of the
children should not be same as the adult ticket.
Recommendations
The recommendations are based the threat which were previously observed and if addressed the
future event would be a success. One of the recommendations would be change of the venue.
The organizers should find a new venue which has capability to host a large number of people.

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Another recommendation would be on the price adjustment. They need to come up with a fair
price for the ticket for both the children and the adults.

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