The National Rugby League (NRL) teams up with legendary Canberra Raiders captain Alan Tongue for a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the ‘Voice Against Violence’ program: an initiative which uses Rugby League drills to educate and boost awareness around domestic violence.
Working with regular agency Archibald/Williams, the NRL’s primary objective is to ‘shine a light on social changes being made in community teams’.
‘Power for Change’ highlights the work that the NRL’s ‘Voice Against Violence’ program does across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific to educate young men and to stand up and to speak out against domestic violence.
The campaign launches with a five-minute content piece in which Tongue (2016 ACT Australian of the Year Alan Tongue) discusses his family, talks about his early days with the Raiders and explains why he works as an NRL ambassador and a supporter of the ‘Voice against Violence’ program.
Launched on 1 May, the film revolves around Tongue explaining how the ‘amazing power of sport’ helps young members of the community understand the messages they are receiving.
This content piece is supported by a shorter, 30-second TV ad which features the Queanbeyan Blues junior rugby league team – which participates in the Voice Against Violence program.
These two flagship videos are further supported across digital (nrl.com/forchange) and social channels such as Facebook,
and Twitter,
Alan Tongue delivers the Voice Against Violence program to #NRL staff as a part of the Power For Change campaign.
https://t.co/YjSp7Z6qVN pic.twitter.com/RdX0vsHvKf— NRL (@NRL) May 1, 2017
as well as via OOH, in-person, experiential and event campaign strands.
Plus, the Australian Kangaroos and Harvey Norman Jillaroos ANZAC Double Header Test Match teams showed their own support for the Voice Against Violence message and commitment from the game to help eradicate domestic violence by wearing a White Ribbon insignia on their jerseys.
The ‘Power for Change’ campaign is slated to run through the year and further story-led content pieces supporting various other NRL Community initiatives such as the ‘State of Mind’ (see case study), ‘Women in League’, ‘School to Work’ and ‘In League In Harmony’ programs.
“I’ve been involved in Rugby League my whole life and when I stopped playing professionally, I knew I wanted to remain involved in the game and ensure that there was support and guidance provided to the next generation of players, no matter what level or skill,” said Tongue.
“Men’s violence against women is a big problem and as a father of three young daughters, it’s very personal.
“Seeing the NRL’s long term commitment to their community and the results they’re getting made us really proud to get involved and make sure their powerful stories are heard,” says Archibald/Williams ECD Matt Gilmour.
The NRL’s head of community Jaymes Boland-Rudder adds: “Our Community programs and our Power For Change campaign is at the heart of our game and is an opportunity to share our stories and show another side of our game that supports and nurtures fans of all ages.”
According to Boland-Rudder the NRL’s community programs are focussed on three pillars – Respect, Learn and Health – and together with the league’s past and present NRL players and ambassadors, it aims to reach hundreds of thousands of people across many communities every year.
The NRL team working on the project under marketing and brand GM Peter Jarmain included community and participation marketing manager Courtney Mace, community GM Ellen Beale, operations and partnerships marketing manager Nicole Chesher and marketing executive Rita Khouri.
The Archibald/Williams team led by ECD Gilmour, also included creative director Jonny Browne, art director, Emma Frizzell, head of strategy Mary Perebzak, group account director Jasmina Krnjetin, account manager Lauren McMahon, account executive Nicola Ramsey and senior producer Elizabeth Nunan.
Production was handled by Occulus Productions, post by Cutting Edge and sound by Nylon Studios.
Links:
NRL
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Archibald Williams
