Rexona launches cross-code sports series ‘Rivals’ on Kayo and Fox Sports

Rexona is bringing together elite athletes from rugby league, AFL and rugby union for a new eight-part sports entertainment series designed to tap into Australia’s fiercest code rivalries.

The series, Rivals, launches on 1 March across Kayo and Fox Sports, and brings together high-profile male and female athletes from each code to compete across a series of physical challenges designed in consultation with the Australian Institute of Sport.

For Rexona owner Unilever, the project represents a shift in how the brand shows up in sport - from rights-holder partnerships to building its own intellectual property that can live across broadcast, social and retail.

Unilever ANZ CMO John McKeon said the format was designed to tap into an existing cultural behaviour among Australian sports fans.

“Australia’s biggest sporting rivalries don’t just exist within codes, they exist between them,” McKeon said. “Rivals gives fans something they already do every week, debate which code is better, but grounds it in performance, not opinion.”

Rivals will lean into measurable athletic performance, with challenges made to compare the physical demands of each code. The aim is to create something credible enough for sports fans, while still functioning as branded entertainment.

The series has also been built with distribution in mind. Episodes will be supported by athlete-led social content, outdoor placements and real-time fan debate tied to each release. In retail, the rivalry extends into Woolworths stores via limited-edition Rexona packaging aligned to each code, encouraging fans to “support your code” at shelf.

Octagon, which co-created the series, said the format was deliberately designed to feel authentic to sporting rivalries rather than imposed by a brand.

“For brands, the challenge isn’t access to sport, it’s relevance within it,” Ben Hartman, chief impact officer at Octagon, said. “This works because the rivalry already exists. The brand’s role is to structure it, not manufacture it.”

Rivals is produced by Ronde Media, with WPP Media’s Motion Entertainment overseeing audience strategy and distribution. Foxtel Group is the broadcast and streaming partner.

The launch comes as brands increasingly test whether owned entertainment can deliver deeper engagement than traditional sponsorship, particularly in categories where performance and credibility matter.