AAMI covers AFL grand final ‘clanger’ with star-studded stunt

The AFL grand final was awash with brand sponsors on Saturday. As part of its partnership with the code, insurance company AAMI offered audiences an ad campaign to kick off the game.

Magda Szubanski brings her iconic Kath & Kim character, Sharon Strzelecki, to the campaign

At the 2023 AFL grand final, insurance company AAMI prevented the biggest “clanger” of the game in a staged advertising campaign and stunt on Saturday.

Spectators watched giant screens at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and TVs across the country, where an ad showed an all-star cast kick and pass a missing match football through a series of imagined scenes to safely return it to the game. The ad campaign then transitioned from screen to the live match, as the well-known “AAMI girl” delivered the football, after the staged bungle threatened its arrival into the stadium.

The campaign comes from media agency OMD and AAMI in partnership with the AFL, the Seven Network and the channel’s production partner, Whooshka.

It follows the same stunt that took place at the grand final last year, when the Suncorp-owned insurance company staged the same “Super Bowl” moment and marketing campaign that traversed TV and on-field action.

Executive general manager of brand and customer experience at Suncorp Group, Mim Haysom, told The Growth Agenda the success of the 2022 campaign was “off the charts”.

As a single activity, it delivered the same level of brand recognition as it would usually see from a 12-week TV campaign.

In 2022, in addition to the national audience of 5.76 million Australians it reached on Channel 7, and 100,000 attendees in the stadium, it also generated thousands of mentions and “fan noise” on social media channels; and AAMI received 64 per cent of all sponsor mentions combined around the grand final.

Last year’s campaign featured football icons past and present, including Robert “Dipper” DiPierdomenico and Sabrina Frederick.

This year, the campaign united sports fans across the country, and takes its inspiration from TV and other sport codes.

National comedy treasure Magda Szubanski brings her iconic Kath & Kim netball-loving character, Sharon Strzelecki, to the campaign, alongside former AFL forward Warwick Capper, Matildas soccer star Courtnee Vine and former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting.

The integration points to the powerful marketing momentum behind sport more broadly in 2023, including the FIFA: Women’s World Cup,which broke audience records.

Mim Haysom is executive general manager brand and customer experience at Suncorp Group

“The context is really around some of the really culturally relevant things that have happened over the last year,” Ms Haysom said.

“Obviously the Matildas, the AFL playing more in Tasmania and talking about having a team down there – all of those things are really culturally relevant from the year that’s been.

“It was very intentionally creatively anchored in that.”

Clearly, mass-reach stunts retain their power to capture attention in an increasingly competitive and content-rich media landscape.

This creative approach also wields sizeable commercial power for brands.

“When you look at it from a TV investment alone, that was significant for our return-on-investment just (from) creating that one integration piece, because it only ran on the day,” Ms Haysom said.

“And then it lived on in social channels and online. But it really struck a chord with fans. There was great verbatim across social (media). There was no way we weren’t going to do it again.

“It was such a success. And I think if you do it once and it works, you’ve got the opportunity to own that space and make it almost your own media channel for a day,” she said.