The 2015 Rugby World Cup has thrown up a number of surprises to date, on the field and off it. But as we head into the third week of the tournament, one of the most surprising and unexpected aspects of the tournament is the advertising presence of Apple’s earphone company Beats by Dre. A US-based company that hasn’t had too much to do with rugby in the past, Beats by Dre has sought to use key players of the Rugby World Cup to access the hype around the tournament in order to further it’s brand.

Using England Captain Chris Robshaw, All Black captain Richie McCaw and French back Wesley Fofana, Beats by Dre has launched an advertising assault on the World Cup that seeks to connect the brand to the emotive background of the players and the emotion involved in the Rugby World Cup.

Beats by Dre has sought to ride on the back of the rugby wave despite not having any sponsorship rights for the Rugby World Cup. And it’s fair to say that they haven’t done a bad job either with the adverts encompassing very high quality production values sure to engage and please.

This isn’t the first time that Beats by Dre has beat the ‘brand police’ after employing an ‘ambush marketing campaign’ during the 2012 Olympics which saw a lot of high profile athletes provided the earphones during the event.

This was followed by athletes rushing to social media to express their gratitude to the company which not only gave the organisation a huge boost but increased their notoriety after the IOC very publicly expressed their anger.

Despite concentrating on Beats by Dre, they’re not the only company that is riding on the back of the hype of the Rugby World Cup with Guinness also tying its brand to the tournament without being official brand sponsors.

In a very clever yet incredibly subtle advertisement campaign, Guinness have effectively used their advertising nous after being ranked second in digital engagement (thedrum.com) throughout the 2015 World Cup to date despite not being an official sponsor of the tournament.

It’s the likes of Beats by Dre and Guiness that seem to be paving the way for big brands to increase their engagement by attaching to the hype of tournaments without actually forking out the big bucks to be official sponsors.

The methods that these brands are employing are very clear in what they want to achieve. And the added value of not being an official sponsor is that they have more control about what they execute and they can also tailor campaigns more to their objectives.