The Campaign

Introducing BLUiE, the first bionic team mascot and the 18th member of the Blues. We worked with our friends at Streaker to build a bespoke robot that was loveable, engaging and a little bit cheeky. He could be controlled with an iPhone app, featured a 360 degree VR camera in his head, was completely mobile (on most surfaces!) and could project a very distinctive voice.* BLUiE gave fans access to BLUiE TV by streaming everything he saw through Facebook Live with tens of thousands of fans tuning into every stream. *It is rumoured that, Rugby League legend, Paul Sironen was actually the voice of BLUiE, we can neither confirm nor deny this.

The Brief

The total campaign budget was AUD$700,417 The breakdown of costs was as follows: Project Management $135,000 Creative Fees and Content Production $196,350 Event Activations $85,253 SMARTWiG Production $200,227 BLUiE Production $83,537 TOTAL AUD$700,417 As you can see from the above nothing was spent on paid media.

Creative Execution

We engaged Blues coach Brad ‘Freddie’ Fitler to take BLUiE with him everywhere he went, to training, the team sheds, official team meetings, announcements and pre game warm ups. BLUiE streamed everything he saw through Facebook Live with tens of thousands of fans tuning into every stream. We launched BLUiE six weeks out from game one allowing us to create content all the way through the lead up to the series, in between games and of course, on game night.

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

A four minute lead story on Channel Nine news ain’t bad. As the campaign period only just ended we are still waiting on the Nielsen tracking report to get a full picture of the results. But early signs are good. We had LOADS of media coverage with every major news channel and newspaper around the country covering it. The night before the match Channel Nine news led with a four minute BLUiE story. BLUiE TV including live streams, organic editorial and produced content had a total reach of 4,151,000 without a dollar spent on paid media.

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

As sponsors of the Origin Blues The Star want to give fans extraordinary experiences that make watching the footy better. We created a bionic team mascot, BLUiE, that gave fans access to BLUiE TV that broadcast never before seen behind the scenes content. BLUiE provided a brand experience that lasted for months in the lead up to the series and made some big noise on the night.

THE FANS WANTED EXCLUSIVE ACCESS, SO WE GAVE IT TO THEM The Star are not only a sponsor of the Origin Blues but the major sponsor of the Blatchy’s Blues. They are a passionate supporter group who love to get involved and embrace any chance to get close to the team they love. And in the absence of any team mascot the Blatchy’s had almost become, as a collective, the unofficial team mascot. How could The Star give the Blatchy’s more access than even SMARTWiG gave them while also celebrating their near mascot status within the game? We had to keep in mind that this was an authentic grassroots group being sponsored by a commercial enterprise. Badging and other traditional sponsorship strategies were likely to alienate them. Our guiding principle is to always behave authentically and speak their language of irreverence and humour.