The Campaign

AFL Grand Final Day is Australia’s biggest sporting event. It’s our Superbowl. And with so many Grand Final sponsors, it’s easy to be overlooked. National Australia Bank (NAB) is a long time AFL sponsor, but the public had no real association between them and the Grand Final. We not only needed to make NAB stand out, but create a vehicle linking the game to NAB’s well-established values as a fair bank. So we did the one thing no other sponsor would and chose not to attend. We instead used what NAB had plenty of - corporate sponsorship tickets and bankers, to champion all the AFL fans that were going to miss the game due to other commitments. We created the ‘NAB Stand-ins’. Individuals, who would literally stand in for them, so they could attend. On game day ‘NAB Stand-ins’ completely dominated game chatter, hijacking all media attention from other sponsors.

Success of the Campaign

When AFL Grand Final Day finally arrived, the nation witnessed through social media, online and even game day live crosses, the NAB Stand-ins selling cars, grooming dogs, printing newspapers, umpiring netball games, giving 21st speeches and even performing in ukulele concerts. They quickly became the most talked about thing during the AFL Grand Final, gaining 98% more social media attention than all the other sponsors combined. The mentions were not only overwhelmingly positive, but became a shorthand to social media fan game commentary. Fans would tweet that when players screwed up - they “needed a Stand-In”. The idea was also completely embraced by the media, including the national broadcaster of the game Channel 7 and their commentators. All of which helped NAB for the first time ever, completely dominate Australia’s biggest sporting event.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We invited all AFL fans that were going to miss the game due to other commitments, to apply for a “NAB Stand-in”. An official NAB Banker who would literally stand in for them wherever they were meant to be, so they could attend the game. As we progressed, we had to be enormously careful that people understood this was a real-world service, not just an advertisement, so we managed our traditional media and social media to ensure this. We promoted the application and selection process; then any special training our ‘Stand-Ins’ did to prepare for their duties. When game day arrived twenty NAB Stand-ins filled in for people around the country so they could attend the game live, sitting in some of the best seats in the stadium. As the game was played, Stand-Ins became walking, talking, twittering media for NAB. There were even live crosses to them during halftime.