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The primary focus for the first eight months of the year was to raise the profile of sevens, engage with new fans and satisfy the existing global fans’ thirst for original and engaging content in multiple languages.Two key activations were introduced to educate and communicate as well as engage and entertain. The dynamic video hub was the driving factor in the 70 per cent increase recorded in all video views from the previous year. The hub aggregates match-oriented clips focusing on key in-game action that can be filtered by player, team, category or time. This interactive platform – worldrugby.org/sevens-series/video – combined with the other World Rugby digital platforms delivered more than 500 million minutes of viewed videos. That equates to watching 6.25 million full 80-minute rugby matches!Making sevens stars household names was the objective behind the Rugby7Stars game launched at the beginning of 2016. The game attracted initial support of 10,000-plus registered fans from 162 countries. The web-based gaming platform – rugby7stars.com – generated substantial buzz and interaction, and heading into the 2016-17 season was expanded to include the women’s series and an additional three languages (French, Spanish and Japanese) to provide even more global appeal. Building on the success of the Olympic Games, World Rugby also launched a sevens App to further support the men’s and women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and to reach into new markets, providing fans with even more access to the live The digital world never sleeps and so it was that after a record-breaking RWC 2015 we dived straight into a new HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, leading the way for rugby sevens’ debut at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. SEVENS SPEARHEADSYEAR OF INNOVATIONcoverage and streaming. More details can be found at worldrugby.org/sevens-series/app.The spike in interest seen after the Olympic Games and the success of the sevens series has sparked significant growth in the women’s game with increased appetite for broadcast, in-depth statistics and social media. In addition, World Rugby is working with global broadcast partners to optimise the number of regions who have access to live streaming of events. In 2016, more than 70 events and/or matches were streamed live on World Rugby digital platforms.Fuelled by the launch of the Rugby World Cup 2019 website – rugbyworldcup.com – in early 2016 and the interest from the hosts’ enthusiastic fans, the desire for Japanese language content increased by nearly 50 per cent. This was helped by more memorable performances from the Japanese national teams on the pitch with the men’s sevens team causing a huge shock by upsetting New Zealand and just missing out on an Olympic bronze medal in Rio, and then qualification being secured for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 to end a 15-year absence from the showpiece event. As a result, the expected engagement in Japanese content, and multi-language content as a whole, is only going to increase moving forward. World Rugby continues to keep pace with digital advances, ensuring the stakeholder and fan experience and absorption of educational and entertaining content is relevant and user-friendly, while adding value through the delivery of innovative features, multilingual and engaging content to support the growth of rugby into new and existing markets.increase in average time spent reading Japanese content Key statistics33%30%39%50%increase in page views across World Rugby sitesincrease in average time spent reading French contentincrease in Spanish language page sessions92 WORLD RUGBY YEAR IN REVIEW 2016CELEBRATE | DIGITAL MEDIA