An early November time-jumping, motivational campaign from Australian A-league side Western United FC (WUFC) saw a voice from the future address the whole population on Victoria’s west that ‘The Future Is Now’.
Rolling out ahead of the 2021-22 A-League Men’s season on 20 November, the campaign celebrates the club’s values, its commitment to hard work and belief as it builds buzz ahead of kick-off.
Developed in harness with agency Twenty3 Sport + Entertainment, the call-to-fans campaign is spearheaded by a hero spot called ‘The President’ which features a narrator from 2068 offering a locker-room retrospective to the current team about the club’s history and its rise to success.
The ‘Ms President’ narrator – a character partly inspired by Western United’s Events Manager Jessica Sage as well as acting as a representation of all the club’s staff, volunteers, partners, members, fans and footballers who joined at the start committed to the long road to glory – explains how she first took an entry level job with the club from high school in 2019 and that in 2068 she has become president of a thriving, successful club.
Current midfield star Alessandro Diamanti and several teammates appear in the campaign along with Aussie football legend and current coach John Aloisi, and the narrative arc offers plenty of insider references and nods to the club’s
‘The President’s Speech | Future Is Now’ was first posted on 7 November and includes the copy: “There’s a special bond when you’re part of something from the beginning. In this short film, Western United’s future ‘Ms President’ tells her story of the ‘Western Journey’. She talks to a future generation of footballers about her memories from the 20s and how the essence of the club was formed.”
The two-minute brand video spans the main social media platforms and is part of a broader campaign which also includes OOH, in-stadium and offline media.
“The insight we built this campaign from was that very rarely do you get the opportunity to build a football club from scratch – the pride and emotion that comes from the experiences shared and the stories that will become memories, perhaps even folklore of the club,” explained WUFC General Manager Of Marketing & Media Chole Alsop. “The idea is that Ms Queen has been there from the beginning, and she knows the humble beginnings the club was formed on. We are a super-ambitious club. We are building our own stadium in the western suburbs of Melbourne, and it will be the only privately owned stadium in the country. While it is a hard road now, the future is set to be amazing if we meet our ambition. What we need now is the fans to stay on the journey.”
WUFC star Dylan Pierias added: “The fans are so special to us. The ones that have been behind us from the start, they will be rewarded in the future. In a few years’ time when we’re filling our stadium and celebrating all of the successes we’ve had on- and off-the pitch, that will be so special.
The campaign was created for Western United FC General Manager Marketing & Media Chloe Alsop and Media & Communications Manager Lucy Jones by a team at Twenty3 Sport + Entertainment which included CEO John Tripodi, Managing Director Michael Leeds, Head of Sponsorship & Events Ricky Marcy, Account Director Wade Gwynne, Director Benjamin Jaensch and Cinematographer Cesar Salmeron.
Comment
We’ve seen a few time-travelling soccer campaigns in recent years and, while this doesn’t quite match up to the scale and skill of Corona’s award-winning, pandemic ‘Match Of Ages’ (which created a mash-up match from 70 years of match video of games between Mexican rivals Águilas del América and Chivas Guadalajara), there is plenty to like and admire about this furutistics origin story Western United initiative.
Based in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, Western United FC is a new Australian A-League side which only formed three years ago (originally as Western Melbourne FC) when it began playing in the 2019–20 A-League season.
The club was established as part of an expansion process in Australia’s elite A-League which itself rolled out a men’s and women’s league unification rebrand campaign called ‘We Are All The A-Leagues’ in September.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.