Rugby is an Olympic sport. It’s official! And Rio 2016 will host the first ever Rugby Sevens Olympic tournament. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Today’s vote by the IOC to include Rugby Sevens in the Olympic Programme is the culmination of nearly five years of hard campaigning by the International Rugby Board (IRB) – campaigning which we at Seven46 are exceptionally proud to have played a part in.

Since January 2008 we helped provide a wide range of content for the IRB in support of their Rugby Sevens mission.

This has included:

- A mail campaign directed at IOC members;

- Magazines, in multiple languages, for both the Olympic Family and grassroots supporters;

- Interactive PDF presentations; and

- Digital banner ads.

IRB Sevens Olympic campaign brochure - just one of the creati... on Twitpic

The most exciting, and interesting, thing about the campaign was that it wasn’t just a straight magazine production job.

We helped create, from scratch, a brand identity for the Olympic campaign and applied it, not only to the magazines, but across other platforms. Items such as the postcards, posters and desk calendars we produced sat perfectly alongside digital items including interactive PDF presentations and banner ads.

Each piece of collateral was highly focussed on its audience and fulfilled a distinct purpose. And each piece of collateral presented a different challenge of its own - whether it was producing a brochure in three different languages or making sure the high-impact poster we printed for the IOC members folded out in an engaging and original way.

In addition, we also worked with the IRB on their scripting for all of their presentations. Today’s 20-minute showcase in Copenhagen was the conclusion of all that hard work and we were delighted as anyone this afternoon to hear the announcement that Rugby will be making a return to the Olympic Games for the first time in 92 years.

Roll on Rio and 2016…

Ed: Read an interactive version of Drive - the magazine we produced for the IRB to encourage Rugby’s grassroots supporters to get behind the bid. The title was published in English, French and Spanish editions and distributed to hundreds of clubs via the global rugby unions.