The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Bundaberg Rum's Bundy Mixer gets male NRL fans picking women's rugby stars
Diageo's Bundaberg built the first mixed-gender NRL fantasy league, sliding women's players into the stats game men already loved — NRLW viewership rose 50%.
Bundaberg Rum (Diageo) · National Rugby League (NRL) · Leo Burnett Australia
What it had to solve
Bundaberg Rum sponsored both the men's and women's National Rugby Leagues, but while the NRL thrived the NRLW was in its infancy and most Bundy-drinking fans were men with little respect for women's sport. Diageo wanted to grow NRLW viewership and shift those perceptions without alienating its core drinkers, who would switch off any message of female empowerment.
How it works
Diageo's Bundaberg Rum sponsored both the men's and women's National Rugby Leagues, but the audiences did not match: the NRL thrived while the NRLW was in its infancy, and most Bundy drinkers were men who had no intention of following women's sport. The brand's objective was to grow NRLW viewership and change perceptions of female players, knowing empowerment messaging would repel its core fans.
The insight was statistical: women's numbers were as good as men's, and male NRL fans worshipped stats. So Leo Burnett Australia and the NRL created Bundy Mixer, the world's first official mixed-gender fantasy competition, built into the NRL's own fantasy website and launched with the 2022 NRLW season. Fans picked their best performers each week regardless of gender, and real-game stats earned points and prizes, so winning meant studying the women's players.
The trojan horse worked: Bundy Mixer drew 13,000+ registered players and more than 10 million media impressions, and NRLW viewership rose 50% versus the previous season. The case reports that men converted from rejecting the women's game to following it, and the work won the ADFEST 2023 Entertainment Grande and a 2023 Clio Gold for Partnerships.
Why it lands
- Fantasy football is a stats-first culture, and you cannot argue with stats: they have no gender.
- The trojan-horse design avoided empowerment cliches that would have switched the target audience off.
- Embedding the game in the official NRL fantasy site gave it scale and credibility with the exact fans the brand wanted.
- Weekly gameplay forced sustained engagement with women's players rather than a one-off gesture.
What it did
Bundy Mixer attracted 13,000+ registered players and generated over 10 million media impressions plus national news coverage. In its first season NRLW viewership rose 50% versus the previous season, and the case reported that men shifted from rejecting the women's game to following its players. The work won the ADFEST 2023 Entertainment Grande Lotus and a 2023 Clio Gold for Partnerships/Co-Creation.
What you can take
To reach a resistant audience, borrow the game they already play: Bundy hid women's rugby inside men's fantasy stats, turning existing male behavior into exposure to a sport they refused to watch.
Since then
Bundy Mixer ran as the first season of a multi-year platform and won the ADFEST 2023 Entertainment Grande Lotus plus a 2023 Clio Gold for Partnerships/Co-Creation. NRLW viewership rose 50% in that first season, and commentators called it a masterclass in women's sport sponsorship — an approach that grew the women's game by giving men a reason to learn its players, not by telling them they should.
Sources
- ADFEST 2023 winners details — Bundy Mixer (Bundaberg Rum)
- Bundy Rum & Leos Launch First Mixed Gender Fantasy League For NRLW
- Bundaberg Rum: Bundy Mixer
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card