The Australian Football League (AFL) rolled out a launch campaign for the 2019 Toyota AFL Premiership Season launch campaign that showcases a set of stories that demonstrate the league’s ability to create moments that prove anything is possible.
Launched in mid March and developed in harness with creative agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, the initiative builds on last year’s ‘Don’t Believe In Never’ platform and is led by a series of stories that reinforce the AFL’s proposition that for the last 150 years ‘the game has been evolving, skills have transformed, teams have come and gone, professionalism has risen, yet one thing remains the same – the game continues to produce a staggering amount of stories that defy belief’.
There is something of a storytelling focus on how every season a team/player rises from obscurity and beats the odds to make an impact and inspire the footballing community.
The campaign kicked-off with a short film that chronicles Mason Cox’s journey from being a college basketball player in the USA to becoming one of the cult heroes of the 2018 Toyota AFL Finals Series.
‘Don’t Believe In Never: Mason Cox’ launched on 10 March and ran across television and the league’s own digital and social channels.
The Mason Cox launch film will be followed by video stories starring Pepa Randall’s powerful fight to overcome continual adversity and break through in the AFLW and West Coast’s triumph in the face of almost insurmountable challenges.
“After the phenomenal success of last year’s launch campaign, we knew that we had a brilliant platform to continue sharing ‘Never’ stories from,” commented AFL marketing manager Tim Hirst.
“Thankfully, we didn’t have to look too hard to find the latest batch of stories, and can’t wait to watch new narratives emerge throughout the 2019 season.”
Richard Williams and Ant Phillips, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne creative directors added: “We launched Don’t Believe in Never to showcase the disproportionate number of amazing stories that are generated through this game we call AFL, and the response was incredible, including Channel Seven commissioning a 30 minute program based on our campaign last year. This year, we wanted to continue building awareness of our Don’t Believe in Never platform with new, inspirational stories that continue to prove that AFL is a game like no other.”
The campaign was created by AFL head of marketing, participation and audience development Alistair Dobson, marketing manager Tim Hirst and brand and audience coordinator Luci Kininmonth by a team at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne with photographer Chris Tovo and it was produced by Agent 99 Productions. The spots were directed through FINCH by Christopher Nelius, the producers were Corey Esse and Jackie Adler, the DOP and cinematographer was Matt Toll, the editor Rodrigo Balart and the colourist Martin Greer.
Post-production was handled by Doireann Lally of ARC Edit, the music supervisor was Karl Richter of Level Two Music, the music composer was Jackson Milas of Sonar Music, while the sound house was Nylon Studios (sound engineers Paul Le Couteur and Ramsay De Marco), with motion design from the Design Collective and Nakatomi.
Comment:
The new season work follows neatly in the footsteps of 2018’s ‘Don’t Believe In Never’ league platform (see case study).
Links:
AFL
http://www.thenevers.afl
https://www.afl.com.au/seasonlaunch
https://www.instagram.com/AFL/
https://www.youtube.com/user/BigPondAFL
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
https://www.clemengerbbdo.com.au
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.