The Campaign

Meet Jayden. Age 11. Hardcore Sydney Swans fan from Broken Hill. A remote country town 1,146km from Sydney. Jayden has never left his home town, let alone been to his team’s home ground. Until now. We engaged Sydney Swans legend Michael O’Loughlin to travel to Jayden’s home, bringing the famous home ground (the SCG) with him. Captured in 360 degree Virtual Reality, we took Jayden on a never before seen behind the scenes tour. Experiencing the pre-game pump up, running into a roaring stadium and experiencing the exhilaration of the post-match celebration. All shot live, fans could now get 100% closer to the game (and team) they loved. We then made this experience available to 100% of Swans fans everywhere via a dedicated VR Swans App, a live activation site at Swans games and even surprised the Swans of tomorrow with a special experience at the QBE Girls Academy.

The Brief

Not available.

Creative Execution

For 100% of Swans fans and QBE customers to feel our commitment, we needed to take the story to them, wherever they were. Even further, we wanted to place them in the story. We developed nine short films, beginning with a teaser showing the Swans players experiencing VR for the very first time. We followed up with our Hero spot ‘The Most Remote Swan’, filmed over 1,000km from Sydney in rural Broken Hill, a herculean production clearly landing our message of 100% commitment to fans. We then engaged a younger, female audience, surprising members of the QBE Swans Girls Academy with a Virtual to Real Life experience. All shared via social and owned channels. Finally, we built two bespoke scale replicas of the famous SCG Members Stand, with seven VR viewing booths and made the immersive experience available at home games, trade shows and other public events.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

To date our campaign has delivered more than 6 million impressions and over 1,100,000 unique video views (an epic result considering there are only 1 million Swans fans in the entire world). The full physically immersive VR experience has been delivered to over 2,000 fans in 22 locations including home games, VIP corporate suite, trade shows and expos. Our 100% committed message has reached over 90% of the target audience. And the response has been exceptional, with 98% of viewers rating their experience as excellent and 82% indicating the film makes them feel more positively about QBE’s 100% commitment to customers after watching (an increase of 50% on traditional QBE marketing activities).

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Using a 30-year-old sponsorship to reposition a 130-year-old company? Not easy. With so much time passed, the partnership had become ‘wallpaper’, with many Sydney Swans fans not even knowing what QBE does as a business. Through the use of relevant, emotive storytelling, immersive technology and interactive activations, we used the power of sport to reawaken a sleeping partnership, reminded hundreds of thousands of fans of our passion for their team and re-established QBE not just at a logo recognition level, but as a brand that was 100% committed to its new audience (for the very first time).

Whilst there are almost 1 million Sydney Swans fans, research revealed 87% will never have the opportunity to experience the excitement and energy of the Swans famous and historic home ground - the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). As a brand transitioning from a trade to consumer focus, this group provided a perfect audience to demonstrate QBE’s newly found 100% commitment to the individual consumer. Swans fans are 100% committed to their team, and as the longest standing sponsor of the team, so are QBE. We wanted to bring that excitement and passion for the Swans to the fans – no matter who they are, where they lived or their lot in life. Our commitment must have no boundaries. QBE is 100% committed to its customers, the community and the Swans. Now we needed to prove it.