The initiative began several days ahead of the 2017 Telstra Premiership Season opener with a nostalgic teaser phase revolving around last year’s Grand Final led by a short clip asking ‘Who will make history this year?’.
This NRL teaser, launched on 15 February, is a taste of nostalgia from the week leading up to last year’s grand final.
Agency Archibal/Williams developed the 30-second film in tandem with the rights holder and the creative used a well known quote from iconic former Cronulla coach Jack Gibson: ‘Waiting for Cronulla to win the Grand Final is like leaving a porch light on for Harold Holt’.
So the footage depicts the suburbs of the Sutherland Shire turning their porch lights on and ends with Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks captain Paul Gallen smiling as he finally turns his own porch light off.
The core phase of the new integrated campaign, which launched a week later on 23 February, also taps into the insight that in recent years the NRL has been ‘anyone’s game’.
After all, while in the 13 years prior to 2009 just five clubs dominated the league, but ever since then every single club has made the finals at least once: including some genuine fairy-tale results.
Indeed, current 2016 champs Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks won their first Premiership for 50 years of heartache.
‘Our campaign this year acknowledges the important role fans play in driving their team, and acts as a rallying cry for fans to show their support on game-day. ‘Let’s make history’ is about fans and players coming together, with the opportunity to help take the club all the way to the Grand Final. Importantly through this campaign we also want to showcase some of our emerging young stars, and also bring to life the role social media plays in galvanising fans, and players,’ explains NRL general manager of marketing and brand Peter Jarmain.
The core phase of the ‘Let’s Make History’ campaign for the 2017 Telstra Premiership Season launched on 22 February with a 60-second spot coincided with the start of tournament ticket sales for all first round premiership matches.
Building on its 2016 ‘History Happens’ work’, the creative delves into just what it is that contributes to ‘history in the making’: hard work, determination and passion from the players, coaches and supporters alike.
The hero commercial is rolling out on free to air and subscription TV and amplified socially,
The 2017 #NRL Season was officially launched today!#LetsMakeHistory pic.twitter.com/ogLsA3D7DL
— NRL (@NRL) February 23, 2017
and its launch coincided with the live launch event which saw all club captains attend a PR function which was pushed across the nation’s media and amplified digitally (http://www.nrl.com/lets-make-history/tabid/10959/contentid/894240/default.aspx) with further assets carrying the campaign’s #LetsMakeHistory hashtag – including the ‘Captains’ Selfie’
Here's all the action from today's #NRL Season Launch at Martin Place pic.twitter.com/AFUKbkNs1O
— NRL (@NRL) February 23, 2017
The campaign will be further supported by on-the-ground experiences and a social media component that focuses on putting fans ‘in the moment’ and urging them to ‘share the moment’.
‘Last year’s thrilling finish, proved that not only can history happen but in a competition that’s so close on the field, when fans rally behind their team en masse, this can make the difference,’ adds Jarmain.
‘Our campaign this year acknowledges the important role fans play in driving their team, and acts as a rallying cry for fans to show their support on game-day. ‘Let’s make history’ is about fans and players coming together, with the opportunity to help take the club all the way to the Grand Final. Importantly through this campaign we also want to showcase some of our emerging young stars, and also bring to life the role social media plays in galvanising fans, and players.’
‘I’d love to say that our ‘History Happens’ campaign from last season was the sole reason The Sharks won the Premiership, but I think they would come after me,’ adds A/W executive creative director Matt Gilmour.
‘What our campaign did do was prove that fans need to be at the games, because historic moments can happen at any time. So for 2017, being able to build on that same strategy and creative platform is very rewarding for us as an agency. ‘Let’s make history’ highlights the active role that fans play in getting their teams over the line game after game, so fans shouldn’t just go and watch history happening, we think they should go and make history happen.’
According to the NRL, the campaign (which is the result of a serious research and planning phase that included the use of behavioural scientists to maximise cognitive fluency and ensure the message takeaways are positive and right) focuses on ‘drawing fans to the game to get the full experience of the code’ with a strategy that seeks to ‘capitalise on the on-field action’ and also ‘highlight emerging players’ as well as reflect the diversity of the fan base and the league’s commitment to inclusivity.
‘We wanted to wrap that up with this unequalled sense of community and spirit around all different people, but younger people as well,’ said A/W agency founder Williams.
Indeed, the campaign aims to ‘target the youth market in particular’ and build on the NRL’s 16% increase year-on-year for memberships and to bring a younger audience.
‘I think one audience that we need to sharpen our focus on is youth, and that applies to males and females,” Jarmain said.
‘You will see some of those cues come out quite strongly. It’s not to say we want to walk away from our core audience, that is extremely important and they always will be but we do need to make sure Australian youth are engaged with our product.’
The campaign will evolve round by round – including strands focusing on the ANZAC round, the indigenous round and the women’s round – (while State of Origin will be marketed separately and it will again pick-up gear as the finals approach.
‘This is a great campaign for the finals, when you think about history defining moments,” concluded Jarmain.
The NRL team on the campaign was led by GM Marketing & Brand Peter Jarmain, senior marketing manager Matt Baker, club/premiership & membership marketing manager Nicole Chesher, marketing executive Rita Khouri and marketing manager Samantha Feyzeny.
The agency team was led by partner Bram Williams and included ECD Matt Gilmour, head of strategy Mary Perebzak, creative director Jonny Browne, art director Nate Martin, copy writer Mark Rosenberg, group account director Jasmina Krnjetin, account manager Lauren McMahon and senior producer Amanda Cain.
The agency partners including production outfit Photoplay, director Scott Otto Anderson, executive producer Oliver Lawrance, producer Emma Thompson, editor Simon Njoo, plus post production by Cutting Edge, sound design by Nylon Studios.
Activative Comment:
This campaign builds on the back of the agency’s successful ‘History Happens’ campaign last year (see case study),
Interestingly, the campaign isn’t just the end result of a significant set of research, but it also marks the start of a further programme which will see the NRL takd an in depth look at its brand health in a new project which aims to benchmark where the brand sits in coming months.
Its roll out also coincides with a campaign promoting the launch of the new Fox League channel dedicated to rugby league (which will also be made available to stream for Foxtel Play and Foxtel Go subscribers).
Fronted by Aussie singer, actress and Cowboys fan Jessica Mauboy, this campaign uses the tagline ‘Everyone’s team deserves to be seen’.
It was developed by agency TBWA Sydney and spearheaded by a spot that showcases how rugby league fans will be able to watch their favourite team wherever they are – even at one of Mauboy’s concerts).
‘If you’re into NRL like me, and think that the might JT should be our next prime minister, then you should be able to watch your team play everyone round live,’ says Mauboy (who gently mocks supporters of other clubs calling the ‘Bulldogs’ puppies.
‘Jessica Mauboy’s passion as an NRL fan (and Cowboys fan) was on full display for this campaign, and most Australian’s are fans of Jess, so she was the perfect person to spread the word of the launch of Foxtel’s Fox League channel. Jess may appear sweet but her love of the North Queensland Cowboys can change all that in an instant,’ said TBWA CEO Paul Bradbury.
The launch of Fox League follows the successful roll out of its dedicated Fox Footy channel last year.
Links:
NRL
https://www.youtube.com/user/NRL
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111783403239677285131
Archibald/Williams
http://www.archibaldwilliams.com/
Fox Sport
TBWA Australia
