The Campaign

Don’t Believe in Never. We hear the word never far too much in society. We hear it at work, we hear it in politics and we hear it in the media. But there’s one place it’s rarely mentioned – and that’s in AFL, because the most magical parts of the game are built on ‘Never’ actually happening. In AFL, never say never. Never had a team won a Premiership from 14th on the ladder, never had a practicing Muslim won a Grand Final, never had women played in their own professional league. They all happened in 12 months. AFL is a game built on inclusivity and diversity. We wanted to attract new fans by asking them to believe in a world of togetherness and possibility. And we did that by showcasing the plethora of stories of people involved in the game refusing to believe in never.

Creative Execution

At the heart of our campaign launch sat three “Never” stories. These long-form films told the stories of the Richmond Tigers’ unprecedented 2017 Premiership season, Aliir Aliir’s journey from a refugee camp in Kenya to playing for the Sydney Swans, and the Bankstown Bull Sharks, a multicultural team of schoolgirls from the rugby heartland of New South Wales. These stories were also cut down to run across TV, social and digital assets. This mix of “Never” stories demonstrated the breadth of people the game touches from grass roots to the upper-echelons, the multicultural appeal of the sport, and the human emotion of sporting achievement. All have moments that make you cry and made you smile, just like the game itself. And all leave you wondering what can be achieved when you set your mind to it.

After three rounds, total attendance at games had hit 1.1M; 9% higher than the AFL’s previous round 1-3 record. And in a sign of the cultural potency of our work, national broadcaster Channel 7 commissioned us to produce a 30-minute TV program based on the Richmond Tigers “Never” story which aired in primetime after their season opener. That opening game also had the highest ever recorded crowd attendance for a 1st round game. Since launch we’ve racked up over 4 million organic video views and 19 million impressions across AFL’s social channels. Importantly, one third of these were from people new to AFL, and a high proportion of the 98% positive social commentary came from women and people with multicultural backgrounds, with common themes of inclusion, authenticity and inspiration. Additional content films are currently in production and will launch for the AFL Indigenous round, and the finals series.

In 2018, The Australian Football League (AFL) broke the mould of traditional sports marketing. In an effort to grow the game and attract a new multicultural and female audience, it commissioned a content series profiling the unique characteristics of AFL. Importantly, the ‘Don’t believe in Never’ series didn’t feature a predictable montage of in-game action. Instead, it was a series of stories about human emotion, togetherness and powerful tales of triumph over adversity. The work made a cultural impact in a culturally divided Australia and got a whole new audience talking about and attending AFL.

We had a bold ambition to move beyond competing within our sporting category to start competing for a broader share of culture in Australia. To do that we wanted to create, big, emotive human stories and showcase them in places that non-traditional AFL audiences hung out – primarily social channels. By harnessing the power of great content we used social sharing and broadcast partnerships to bring our stories to a new audience. Our content appeared on lifestyle, news, and entertainment programs, and was shared widely across a range of non-sporting websites and blogs. We also harnessed the power of the 18 AFL clubs and their existing fan bases. Proud of their sporting codes stories and the inclusivity of their game, we encouraged them to share the content on their own social networks and encourage friends and family to rally behind the code and give it a go.