Getting Ready for Kickoff: Rakuten’s Big Game Journey

With the big game just days away, we’re overwhelmed with a whirlwind of emotions: excitement, anticipation, pride, and so much more.

Rakuten is advertising in the Big Game for the second year in a row, and as we count down the days to kickoff it’s important for us to reflect on our journey as a company and what got us here. Just four years ago Rakuten rebranded from its former identity of Ebates. Over those four years the Rakuten brand has grown with relentless speed, achieving milestone after milestone—from several celebrity partnerships with the likes of Stephen Curry and Gwyneth Paltrow, to a complete overhaul of our visual identity and tone.

All these moments led up to our biggest brand awareness play as a company: advertising in the big game 2022. After our Big Game debut, we were faced with a question that all Big Game advertisers are asked—both by external spectators and internal stakeholders. “Was it worth it?”

For Rakuten, the answer is a resounding “yes!”

Undeniable Results

We went into last year’s campaign focusing on overall brand awareness. From a messaging standpoint, our goal was simple: explain Rakuten’s value prop.

We wanted consumers to know the emotion and winning feeling that comes with earning Cash Back and shopping on Rakuten. We tapped the beloved Hannah Waddingham, star of the hit show Ted Lasso, to help telegraph that message.

The results that we saw were undeniable. Not only did Rakuten move 4 points in brand awareness, but we saw significant spikes in member growth and activity. We saw a 10% uptick in signups from February, going into Rakuten’s Big Give Week sales event in May. We also saw that the campaign drove former members back to the Rakuten platform, with a 20% increase in lapsed members during Q1 and Q2.

Next Level Ambitions

After the success of last year, we knew right away that we were going to return. But this year, in addition to seeking the brand awareness that comes with advertising on the Big Game stage, we’re getting more prescriptive with our strategy. Our #NotSoClueless campaign, starring 90s shopping icon Cher Horowitz from the cult classic Clueless, was created to telegraph that Rakuten is a place where they can save while they shop all their favorite brands.

Cher Horowitz is essentially the first-ever influencer and communicating saving with Rakuten through her voice will resonate with our core audience: the millennial woman. The Clueless IP comes with a ton of nostalgia, something that consumers are leaning on as they face economic volatility and looming threats of a recession. That intersection of nostalgia and shopping made Cher the perfect partner for us.

Extending Beyond the Big Game

But things don’t stop there. We’re taking our campaign one step further and tapping into another iconic cultural event: New York Fashion Week (NYFW).

As part of our campaign, we integrated a partnership with world-renowned fashion designer Christian Siriano into several touchpoints across our campaign. Not only did he design a modern version of Cher’s iconic yellow plaid suit that is featured in the new spot, but Siriano is debuting multiple Clueless-themed looks down the runway during his show at NYFW. Cher’s iconic suit and the three looks debuted at NYFW will eventually be available to Rakuten members as part of an exclusive “Christian Siriano x Rakuten Giveaway.”

As part of his partnership with Rakuten, Siriano also curated Rakuten’s “Not-So-Clueless Edit”, where Rakuten members can earn Cash Back by shopping Siriano’s exclusive picks of Clueless-inspired fashion looks.

This partnership elevates our campaign beyond more than just a game day ad. It reinforces our strong partnerships with fashion and luxury retailers and conveys to shoppers that they can save on the hottest fashion looks and brands by shopping with Rakuten.

Are you ready for the Big Game? Keep an eye out for our ad during the first quarter of play!