The Challenge
Turning 30 rugby matches into 3 months of measurable consumer engagement across South Africa.
Carling Black Label's sponsorship of the Varsity Cup gave the brand a powerful sports platform — but the challenge was turning match-day excitement into sustained, measurable digital engagement that drove consumers into retail outlets and delivered genuine insight. A TV spot or stadium banner is fleeting. The brief demanded something that would keep fans actively engaged across the entire 3-month tournament.
The platform needed to work for three distinct audiences simultaneously:
— Rugby fans who wanted to predict scores, earn rewards, and compete on a leaderboard
— Retail consumers who needed incentives to visit the 92 participating outlets and check in
— Promoters working across all 92 venues who needed to be signed up, tracked, and managed through the campaign
On top of that, Carling Black Label needed a rich data pipeline — surveys, polls, and user profiles — to capture genuine consumer insights across the campaign period. The platform had to handle all of this under a single white-label branded experience.
"We needed a platform that kept fans coming back for every single Varsity Cup match — not just the final. Something that made Black Label feel like it was part of the rugby conversation, not just a sponsor."
— Carling Black Label Campaign Team
The Solution
A white-label Consumer Experience Platform built around rugby — end-to-end.
Social Wiiv designed and deployed a fully white-labelled Consumer Experience Platform for Carling Black Label's Varsity Cup campaign. The platform unified six distinct pillars — gamification & CRM, predict the score, a custom rugby game with voucher rewards, location check-ins, surveys & polls, and a complete promoter management system — into a single seamless brand experience.
1. Consumer Experience Platform — Gamification & CRM
The foundation of the campaign was a fully branded Carling Black Label Consumer Experience Platform — a white-label web application complete with Google Auth registration and login, a full CRM backend, and a gamification engine that rewarded fans for every action they took across the platform.
Google Auth — frictionless one-tap registration and login via Google, lowering the barrier to entry and increasing sign-up conversion
Points / Tokens — every action on the platform earned points: predictions, game plays, surveys, polls, check-ins, and referrals all contributed to a fan's running total
Live Leaderboard — a real-time leaderboard ranked all participants, fuelling competition and repeat engagement across the full 3-month campaign
Invite a Friend — referral mechanics built in, earning points for both the referrer and the newly registered participant
Points History — users could view a full chronological list of all points earned, keeping the gamification transparent and motivating
Email Campaigns — 9 email campaigns deployed across the campaign period, keeping fans informed about upcoming matches, leaderboard standings, and new platform features
2. Predict the Score — 30 Varsity Cup Matches
The Predict the Score mechanic was the campaign's primary match-day engagement driver. Before each of the 30 Varsity Cup matches, fans submitted their score prediction directly in the platform. Correct or close predictions earned points, and the mechanic ensured that fans returned to the platform for every single fixture across the full tournament.
30
Varsity Cup matches covered across the full tournament
5,635
Total Predict the Score submissions across the campaign
188
Average predictions per match, sustained across 3 months
With predictions available for every match — from the pool stages through to the final — the Predict the Score mechanic created a weekly engagement rhythm that kept participants coming back throughout the campaign. Prediction windows opened before each fixture and closed at kick-off, creating a natural sense of urgency.
3. Custom Rugby Game — Kick the Polls (Win a Voucher)
Social Wiiv built a fully custom rugby penalty kick game — "Kick the Polls" — embedded directly in the platform. Players had to kick the ball over the goal posts by navigating real-time wind speed and swiping to direct both the power and direction of their kick. It was a genuine skill-based mini-game, not a simple tap — and the reward was real.
Wind Navigation — players had to read and account for a dynamically changing wind speed before every kick attempt
Swipe Mechanic — a swipe-up gesture controlled both the power and direction of the kick, requiring genuine skill and coordination to score
Win a Voucher — successfully kicking the ball over the goal posts awarded the player a real voucher, redeemable at participating outlets
My Vouchers — a dedicated section within the platform showed all earned vouchers, their unique codes, and step-by-step redemption instructions
Points for Playing — every game play earned points regardless of outcome, incentivising repeat attempts and sustained platform engagement
The game generated 12,713 plays across the campaign — with 3,044 vouchers won and 2,929 vouchers redeemed, delivering a 96.2% redemption rate on won vouchers.
4. Location Check-ins — 92 Outlets Nationwide
The platform included a geo-tagged location check-in feature covering all 92 participating Carling Black Label retail outlets across South Africa. Fans could check in at their nearest outlet to earn bonus points, directly driving foot traffic to key retail partners and giving the brand a real-time view of where campaign engagement was happening on the ground.
92 Verified Outlets — all check-in locations were pre-loaded and verified, ensuring only genuine on-site visits counted towards points
Retail Foot Traffic — 1,577 verified check-ins across the campaign period, directly attributable to the platform's gamification incentive
Geographic Insights — check-in data gave Carling Black Label a granular picture of outlet engagement and campaign reach by region
5. Surveys & Polls — Deep Consumer Insights
Beyond engagement mechanics, the platform served as a primary data capture tool. Ten surveys totalling 42 questions were deployed across the campaign period, alongside regular polls that kept fans engaged between matches. Both survey responses and poll votes earned points, ensuring consistently high participation rates.
10 surveys deployed over 3 months
42 questions across all surveys
27,488 survey responses collected
Points rewarded per completion
Quick-vote polls tied to match-day moments
5,614 poll responses across the campaign
Results shared back to fans in-app
6. Promoter Management — 92 Outlets, 305 Activations
Beyond the consumer-facing WebApp, Social Wiiv's platform managed the complete on-ground promoter network deployed across all 92 outlets. The promoter management system handled sign-ups, shift assignments, venue allocation, and activation tracking — giving Carling Black Label full oversight of their nationwide field force from a single dashboard.
1,189 Promoter Sign-ups — promoters registered and onboarded through the platform, with their profiles linked to specific venues and activation dates
305 Activation Shifts — shift scheduling and assignment managed centrally, ensuring every outlet had promoter coverage across the campaign
92 Venues — all participating outlets registered and mapped within the system, enabling granular reporting by venue
Real-time Visibility — the admin dashboard provided Carling Black Label with live tracking of promoter check-ins, shift completions, and outlet-level activation status
The Results
11,444 registrations. 27,488 survey responses. 1,107,320 combined points earned.
The Carling Black Label Varsity Cup campaign delivered sustained, multi-layered engagement across every platform pillar for the full 3-month tournament. Here's the complete picture of campaign performance.
3,571
Verified Invites (Invite a Friend)
1,107,320
Total Points Earned (All Users)
Engagement Breakdown
5,635
Total predictions across 30 matches
12,713
Custom penalty kick game plays
27,488
Survey responses across 10 surveys & 42 questions
Vouchers & Location Check-ins
96.2%
Voucher Redemption Rate
1,577
Location Check-ins (92 Outlets)
Email & Polls Performance
Polls
5,614
Total Poll Responses
Promoter Network
305
Activation Shifts Completed
92
Venues & Outlets Covered
With 13,886 unique logins against 11,444 registrations, the campaign generated strong return visit behaviour — fans weren't just registering once, they were coming back repeatedly across the full 3-month tournament. The 3,571 verified referrals from the Invite a Friend mechanic show that a substantial portion of the user base was acquired organically through peer recommendation, rather than paid media alone.
The custom penalty kick game was the campaign's standout engagement metric — 12,713 game plays over 3 months, with a remarkable 96.2% voucher redemption rate demonstrating that the rewards were genuinely compelling and that the promoter network was effectively driving in-outlet redemption. The 1,107,320 total combined points across all users is a testament to the depth of sustained engagement the multi-mechanic platform delivered.
"The depth of engagement across the full 3 months was exactly what we needed. The predict-the-score and rugby game kept fans coming back for every match — and the voucher redemption rate told us the rewards were landing where it mattered: in-store."
— Carling Black Label Campaign Team
