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Week Eleven: Telstra’s ‘Name in Lights’ Campaign

Telstra ran a campaign which gave small businesses around Australia the chance to have their advertisements shown on big screens at football stadiums around the country. The campaign aims to help small businesses after what has been a tough couple of years due to the pandemic. Many sports stars got around the campaign, helping to spread awareness and encourage people to enter.

I saw the campaign advertised through a couple different social media platforms of AFL players I follow on Instagram, but other than that, I didn’t really know it was happening. Many small businesses do a lot of the advertising through social media these days, so I think it was the perfect place to advertise the competition. Allowing people to find the competition through football players been that the businesses that enter are more targeted towards sport, therefore making the ads somewhat relevant to the places they’ll be shown.

I think it was a somewhat effective campaign, just because it did reach quite a few people through the use of social media platforms. I think what they were doing was nice for small businesses, but maybe advertising it more would’ve allowed for more entries.

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Week Ten: Golden State Warriors

The NBA team the Golden State Warriors begin their championship campaign as they face the Boston Celtics chasing the ultimate victory. Their slogan for their campaign is “chasing history” as they look to win their seventh championship.

The championship overall has not been advertised too much in Australia, as one can only see the news of the league if they’re a fan, however on the social media channels of the NBA and the Golden State Warriors they are heavily promoting the games. The use of social media to promote events and campaign is very important as we live in a digital age where everyone gets their news digitally. Their target market is also predominantly heavy users of social media.

#chasinghistory

I think that the way they are promoting the event is effective and pretty standard. If I were to be in America, I think that I would see all of this advertised a lot more, however this does not surprise me. With the way that the NBA has embraced social media over the last couple of seasons, it is something that they have become very used to and are actually quite good at.

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Week Nine: Mingle with the Magpies

The Collingwood Football Club are hosting an event where ticketholders can socialise with players, ask questions, and party with players from their favourite team. The event dubbed “Mingle with the Magpies” is a ticketed event which goes for two hours and is available to all ages. The event seems to be a yearly thing however with the covid restrictions it was probably cancelled for the past two years.

Personally, I haven’t seen much advertising for this event, however I am not a Collingwood supporter and I only happen to follow them on Instagram only. If I were a member or supporter, I may have known more about this, but there doesn’t seem to be too much in the way of media attention either. I think this event is more for their die-hard supporters, rather than the casual fans.

This doesn’t seem to be a very well-advertised event, and even though I am not a supporter, I probably should’ve seen it more than once as one of their social media followers. It may not be one of their biggest events on their calendar, however when clicking on their ticket link it is advertised as “one of the best nights on the member calendar”.

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Week Eight: Sir Doug Nicholls Round

Each year the AFL celebrates its indigenous culture with a dedicated round called Sir Doug Nicholls Round. This year it went for two weeks, and included specially designed guernseys, as well as advertising on all social media platforms celebrating and acknowledging the participation of its indigenous players. It is one of the landmark rounds of the season, as is home to one of the biggest matches of the year- Dreamtime at the G.

The amount of advertising for the round is huge. There are media calls, and photo shoots, as well as so much promotional material made before the season kicks off. The campaigns are always done by one of the most exciting indigenous players of the moment, this year it was Kysaiah Pickett of the Melbourne Football Club.

CAMPAIGN

Personally, I love how much media attention they give to the round. They make it a really special thing to celebrate, and it shows many young fans the history of the game. The limited edition guernseys are also a great way to showcase the round as many people tend to buy them and we learn about the stories behind them too. It is always a well-executed campaign since they have been doing it for years now, and they know how to hype up the round with their campaigns.

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Week Seven: Fight MND

Each year the campaign for Fight MND kicks off in hopes of raising money to fight and bring awareness to motor neuron disease. Usually, the campaign would be fronted by AFL legend Neale Daniher, however as his disease has progressed rapidly, the public speaking duties have been taken on by his daughter. This is one of the most loved campaigns in AFL, and each year high profile athletes, celebrities and public figures get around it.

The campaign can be seen through social media channels of many different teams, as well as the social channels of the AFL themselves, and different sponsors and partners. It is also talked about on many AFL specific programs in the lead up to the ‘Big Freeze’ event at the MCG.

When promoting this campaign, many different tools are used. There are so many media calls and alerts for photo opportunities and interviews, and pre-recorded content is used to show before and during the event. One of the biggest promotional tools used are the sale of the annual beanies. As soon as they come out many people buy them, and not only are they supporting the cause by donating their money, but when wearing them, they are also advertising the event and organisation.

I am always a big supporter of the Fight MND cause, and I think the way the entire AFL community has rallied around the cause for years shows just how well-loved Neale Daniher is in the community. I have already purchased by beanie for this year and will wear it for years to come. I hadn’t seen any of the advertisements yet, however seeing the beanies in store prompted me to buy one straight away.

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Week Six: Australian Open & Uber Eats

During the Australian Open, our televisions were inundated with advertisements for food delivery service Uber Eats. Uber Eats are notorious for having catchy ads and are always pairing up with the most unexpected celebrities- for example The Wiggles and Simon Cowell, but they reinvented themselves with their Australian Open campaigns.

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The ads would come on when watching the competition on prime time and offered viewers the chance to pick their own ending to the ad by scanning a QR code to be involved. It featured two of Australia’s most exciting tennis stars- Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios.

Personally, I think it was such smart marketing. Nick and Ash are two stars which younger Australians love to watch, and their demographic are right in the target market for Uber Eats too. It features an interactive component for fans at home to make them feel involved, and by now, everyone knows how to scan a QR code, so older viewers can join in too.

I didn’t interact with the ad, because I found myself not having the time to watch too much of the tennis, but I did see the ads a few times when I did get to watch and I think they were brilliant. I’m sure that because the ads were on repeat so much that Uber Eats was used by many throughout the tournament, and that they continue to be the most popular food delivery service.

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Week Five: Fremantle Dockers Membership

Throughout the year, I am always bombarded with emails and social media posts telling me to buy a membership to support my football club. This year is no different. I have been sent a great deal of emails already and we’re not even halfway through the season. I will say the emails are effective, or they would be if I had money to spend.

The emails do a very good job in promoting what the club is about. They always send them whenever the team has a win and call you to be a part of their future and support what they’re trying to build. They use very persuasive language, and as a passionate supporter, it works, and it works quite well.

They push these emails at every time of year, and I’ve noticed that they push them especially hard at the start of the year. I got many of those, but I feel that when they send the emails in the middle of the season after we win games, it works a lot better, as it builds on that excitement that our team is doing great things.

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Week Four: Great Ocean Road Run Fest

The Great Ocean Road Run Fest was held, and I only knew about it because I saw sponsored posts on Instagram. It was a two day running festival held over one weekend and had plenty of sponsors. One of those sponsors was Brooks, who in their sponsorship gave away plenty of shoes over the course of the weekend.

As mentioned before, I saw these posts only on Instagram, and as sponsored. The posts were all just competition posts, and I found them quite annoying because I don’t wear their shoes, however I guess if I didn’t care about that fact, I could see why some people would enter. Reading further into the post, it is a way for them to get people to sign up to their event, as you can only enter if you have registered for the event. The way that they have designed their posts suggests that all you must do is click a link to enter, so they may get many clicks on their posts, however I doubt many are converted into actual ticket sales for their event.

Their competition also lasted throughout the two-day event, with a new way to enter the competition being to be physically at the event on race days. This is another way to get people down to the event, and hopefully spend money at the sponsor’s shop.

I think this is not a very effective campaign. Sure, you get people to click on your post, but it leaves me wondering how many sales are generated. If someone was already thinking about entering the competition, then I guess it’s a bonus, however a person is better off buying a new pair of shoes, rather than I ticket to a competition with hopes of winning these shoes.

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Week Three: Melbourne Grand Prix

The Formula One was finally back in Melbourne and many different sporting players were promoting it. There were four different Victorian based athletes leading the campaign- Scott Galloway of Melbourne City, Marcus Bontempelli and Tommy Sheridan of the Western Bulldogs, and ex-professional basketball player Peter Hooley. Promotional photos were taken in Albert Park with the intention for those photos to be posted on various social media accounts.

I first saw these promotional photos posted to Scott’s Instagram account. He is the only one I follow out of the four of them. Being Facebook friends with him I also saw it posted to his personal page, as the same content was posted there. I did see a follow up post on Scott’s Facebook page after the initial post which also seemed a little promotional. So all up it was two different posts I saw, and only on social media.

This campaign I think would only be successful for those that follow multiple of these athletes as I feel it had no effect on me seeing it once. It does make sense as to why they used these athletes, though maybe more widely known ones with bigger followings would have been much more effective. Using social media to promote is a great tactic as I think the audience they were targeting were a younger audience of about early twenties to late thirties, and specifically Melbourne based.

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Week Two: Commonwealth Games Victoria 2026

The host city for the 2026 Commonwealth Games was announced. Many different news outlets and social media channels posted about it, but one of the first to break the news was the Facebook page of Premier Dan Andrews. A simply worded post announced the news, and then various types of content were made by news sites. Another page that posted the announcement was the official Facebook page of Commonwealth Games Australia. The post featured a photo which included Dan Andrews, making him the spearhead of the entire campaign.

I saw the post by Dan Andrews on Facebook before I saw anything else. There was not much of a campaign, and I didn’t see any media release, however looking at the photo posted by CGA, there was a media call for promotional photos, and possibly a press conference. I don’t think there was too much of a campaign for the Games and many people wouldn’t care too much about it because of how far away it is in the future, but to see that the news was covered on all news outlets for the day was a small success.

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Week One: Buddy Franklin & The 1000th Goal

The amount of coverage Sydney Swans player Buddy Franklin received in the lead up to kicking his 1000th AFL goal was immense. It plagued every back page, news segment, and you couldn’t go one day without seeing a Buddy Franklin post on various social media pages. Various promotional material was made including tribute videos, video and radio interviews, and media releases.

Leading the campaign is the AFL. Buddy Franklin is one of their biggest assets, and they love to exploit him and his talents every chance they get. In preparing content to post, old media footage was used to create promotional videos, as well as tv advertisements for the lead up to game in which he would eventually kick the infamous goal.

For me, I saw most of this promotional material on social media. There was a great deal of it on both the official AFL Facebook and Instagram pages. The other Instagram pages I saw promotional material was on the AFL Players Association page and many AFL players personal accounts. Video promotional material was seen on streaming service Kayo as ads, as well as segments in shows such as Bounce, AFL 360, and The Front Bar. I think the promotion of Buddy’s 1000th goal was extremely effective. It was all anyone could talk about for a few weeks. The story saturated every news site and social media site with the story, both before and after the goal. This was an extremely effective campaign done by the AFL to celebrate a legend of the game.