![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/RIVALS-NRL-TEAM.jpeg\"\/)
Rivals NRL team: Ali Brigginshaw, Josh Addo-Carr, Jaime Chapman and Reece Walsh.<\/p>\nUnilever\u2019s Rexona has put the ultimate pub conversation to the test, producing its own eight-part sports entertainment series that settles the age old debate of which footy code reins supreme.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rexona has upended the sponsorship playbook by producing its own sporting property RIVALS, where the brand is pitting the fiercest rivalries in sports up against each other. These athletes won\u2019t be competing against their usual rivals, they will be competing against the top athletes from rival codes.<\/p>\n
RIVALS, co-created with Octagon and in partnership with WPP Media\u2019s Motion Entertainment, is an unprecedented original sports entertainment platform conceived, developed and produced by Unilever. It tackles the nation\u2019s most intense sporting debate by bringing together elite athletes from rugby league, Australian rules and rugby union to determine which is the ultimate code.<\/p>\n
Unlike traditional methods of sports marketing, where brands sponsor a player, sporting team or sports broadcast, Rexona has \u201cshifted its marketing philosophy\u201d by creating its own sporting property.<\/p>\n
The deodorant and antiperspirant brand chose to take this unorthodox approach to sports marketing so it could leverage fandom and talkability about the brand because its content is \u201cengaging and meaningful, and not just a \u2018blasting global asset\u2019 type approach,\u201d John McKeon, chief marketing officer of Unilever ANZ, told B&T in an exclusive interview ahead of the series\u2019 March release.<\/p>\n
Lisa Squillace, general manager of WPP Motion Entertainment, told B&T that Unilever aren\u2019t alone in wanting to own its own sporting property, but have set new ground in this market; America has plenty of case studies, good and bad, where brands create an entertainment platform adjacent to sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrands are looking to own things. Brands are looking at ways to not necessarily just sponsor anymore. They want to have a voice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey understand that quality editorial is so key to audiences and their customers, and they\u2019re looking for ownership. They\u2019re looking to move away from potentially funding somebody else\u2019s IP and building their own footprint, and looking at how they\u2019re able to commercialise content in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Unilever, this wasn\u2019t just an opportunity to own something, it also aligns with the FMCG giants\u2019 strategy to move half of its media spend to social media. But, McKeon explained it\u2019s not as easy as just paying athletes to clog up people\u2019s feeds.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need viral and organic content,\u201d he said. \u201cThe algorithms won\u2019t allow you to pay your way to success anymore. You actually need great creative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, you can partner with sports and athletes to create that content, but it is quite limited. So creating your own platform where you can engage with fans and have exclusive footage and content for your own social channels is what is really exciting for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
RIVALS features some the biggest names in Australian sport, such as Reece Walsh and Jaimie Chapman (rugby league); Scott Pendlebury and Monique Conti (AFL); and Joseph Suaalii and Desiree Miller (rugby union). The series pits the three codes against each other in an elite competition developed in consultation with the Australian Institute of Sport.<\/p>\n
RIVALS tests athletic excellence across multiple disciplines, with male and female athletes competing as equals. The aim is to prove the age old debate of which code truly is superior, a pub conversation that this series is unlikely to solve, but will stir up debate and brand loyalty in trying to do so. Fans will get the opportunity to vote on the winner.<\/p>\n
Rivals NRL team: Ali Brigginshaw, Josh Addo-Carr, Jaime Chapman and Reece Walsh.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia is home to the most concentrated sports market in the world,\u201d McKeon pointed out. \u201cWe have the best athletes and the most fierce rivalries, none bigger than rugby league, rugby union and Aussie rules. Every fan and media outlet has a view on what differs between these great sports; RIVALS provides the ammo to finally settle that debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cRexona has a long history of partnering with high performance athletes and high-performance sports. The invention of RIVALS is a way to directly link Rexona\u2019s high-performance attributes to high performance sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owning and producing your own show is not be cheap, and McKeon said that RIVALS forms a \u201csignificant part of the media budget\u201d, which has led Rexona to adjust its spend in other areas, although Rexona continues to value sports broadcasting and sponsorship in the right context.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last three or four years we\u2019ve gone down the route of individual athlete sponsorships. We\u2019ve had partnerships with Nathan Cleary, Max Gawn, Dylan Alcott and Sam Kerr ,and we\u2019ve been activating around those personalities and bringing our brands to life that way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we pulled back a bit on that to go after the RIVALS opportunity, and invested there through the 12 great athletes that we got on the show, and tried to rebalance how we would invest.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order for this large investment to work, Rexona is banking on the tribalism of Australian sport. The true fanatics don\u2019t just watch the game\u2014they debate it, dissect it and defend it across social channels.<\/p>\n
RIVALS has been built as a social-first platform that will also run on Kayo Sports, Out-Of-Home (OOH), athlete driven social content, interactive fan participation and real-time debate baked into every episode release. It has partnered with Woolworths to translate tribalism and passion into sales of Rexona at the supermarket till, and will be monitoring how this tracks among other brand metrics.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/RIVALS-Teams.jpeg\"\/)
Rugby, AFL and rugby league contestants on RIVALS.<\/p>\n
The show hasn\u2019t even aired yet but is already generating hype. Across all social media channels, there has been a cumulative total of 4.7 million views and 125,4oo user engagements.<\/p>\n
The hero promotion video achieved more than half a million views (558,600 thousand) and 24,400 thousand interactions, with an average engagement rate of 4.37 per cent. This was also supported by the team tiles\u2014Instagram posts announcing the teams\u2014garnering more than 1.5 million views and 37,500 thousand engagements on Instagram alone.<\/p>\n
Unilever will be hoping fan engagement continues to grow as the show officially launches on 1 March during the NRL\u2019s Las Vegas Round weekend.<\/p>\n
Squillace added that this was the bonus of working with the likes of Fox Sports and Kayo.<\/p>\n
She said RIVALS is launching off the back of the Las Vegas because it is \u201cby far where we will receive the most amount of eyeballs for our target audience of men aged between 18 to 45\u201d. This will be an hour long launch episode followed by weekly episodes. Unilever will also be leveraging the Australian F1 grand prix in Melbourne for the third episode.<\/p>\n
If all goes well, Rexona will be looking to extend the concept into further seasons and potentially bring on other Australian codes.<\/p>\n
RIVALS was brought to life by an integrated agency village working together to build one of Unilever\u2019s most ambitious brand-led entertainment properties. Octagon (creative, concept development, event and activation, talent management), WPP Motion Entertainment (audience and distribution platform), Ronde Media (production), Foxtel Group (platform, streaming and social) Mindshare (media strategy), Thinkerbell (earned) and Wonder (event execution of launch press conference), with RIVALS foundation partner Woolworths taking it from screens to in-store, plus the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Hamilton Island.<\/p>\n
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