Telstra’s new footy advert kicks more than marketing goals

A new advertising campaign and creative platform for Telstra’s 20-year partnership with AFL and NRL captures the hearts – and attention – of footy fans across the country.

A still from Telstra's campaign as part of the brand’s longstanding partnership with NRL and AFL

As AFL and NRL fans are in the throes of finals season excitement, a new advertising campaign and creative platform from Telstra ­captures the unwavering community-binding spirit of footy.

The platform and ads have been titled This is Footy Country and they come through advertising agency The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song. They also mark the beginning of a new creative era for the telco’s partnership with the AFL and NRL of more than 20 years.

It’s an advertisement, but not as audiences may expect. Telstra’s chief marketing officer, Brent Smart, said: “This work is not asking you to buy a mobile plan from us. This work is not trying to give you an offer on a new iPhone.

“This is a really generous piece of work that just says, ‘You’re passionate about footy, we’re passionate about footy too. And let’s share that mutual love of footy.’”

A more fitting description of the video would be a short story about community and connection – two things a telco such as Telstra is well-placed to communicate.

Telstra chief marketing officer, Brent Smart. Jane Dempster/The Australian.

In a one-minute video spot, the story begins with a local football team stranded on a country highway due to the questionable driving skills of a character named Rocket on the day of the club’s ­final.

The hero of the story, club president Mick, is played by a woman named Jaki Raynolds, a casual bus driver in the region who lives in Southern Tablelands town Braidwood.

In a panicked call to the club president, one of the stranded ­players explains, “We’re gonna have to forfeit”. But Mick is having none of it. “Nup,” she says adamantly. “Leave it with me.”

The club president proceeds to recruit an incongruous group of “players” to save the day and make the final.

From the local priest to pub owners, as well as car mechanics and even the police, the team is successfully assembled, just in time.

While the new team’s performance on the field looks unlikely to lead them to victory, the community rallied – and avoided that unacceptable fate of a forfeit.

Like the club president, the majority of the characters were locally cast from both Bowral and the location where the advertisement was filmed – Goulburn, NSW.

Acclaimed Hollywood film director Mark Molloy, who hails from the town of Waubra, Victoria, jumped at the opportunity to work with Telstra. The subject matter was close to his heart, as a former Waubra Kangaroos Football Club player.

Mr Smart said the choice of director was integral to the creative approach.

“It’s something that I’m really passionate about,” he said.

“I think craft makes all the difference when we’re making advertising. Too often, I think marketers don’t put enough importance on it or spend enough money on it.

“I think we’ve got this sort of view that production can only be 10 per cent of media or something.

“(But) to create something special creates its own media. Because it will get shared and talked about and will get into culture.”

But it’s not all about the split of spend, he said.

“It’s just about choosing someone who is going to bring a really unique vision to the work.

“I place a very high level of importance on craft, and focus on craft, and I think ultimately the reason I do that is that the audience notices. They can feel it.”

This is Footy Country offers a story to audiences with heart and personality.

These are qualities that are fast emerging as two distinct creative hallmarks of the telco’s marketing under the steer of Mr Smart.

The shift in tone is part of a deliberate move to both grow the brand and cultivate closer connections with the telco’s audience.

This started with the brand’s cyber security campaign, released in February, which also came from The Monkeys.

Group chief creative officer, The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, Scott Nowell

Group chief creative officer of The Monkeys Scott Nowell said of This is Footy Country, “We’re sort of playing with the tone a little bit. And I think what’s happening is that the overall tone of Telstra is, under (Smart’s) leadership, becoming a little bit more bold (and) charismatic, under the guise of doing more creative work, to get more attention to increase our share of voice and get an unfair share of voice. That’s our aim.”

“Over time, it’s coalescing around this nice, fun, bold tone that’s still grounded in what Australians find relatable.”

Mr Smart added: “We do want to be heartwarming, and we want to bring more personality and humour to the brand, and not take ourselves quite as seriously. I think we’ve taken ourselves a bit seriously as a brand.”

The TV advertisement represents grassroots support that Telstra is providing to the NRL and AFL codes in regional communities across the country throughout the finals season.

The NRL component began last week in Aurukun, a remote town in far North Queensland.

Until October 1, the brand is engaging with more than 55 local schools and around 10,000 kids with a goal to inspire the next generation of fans and players.

It’s also providing more than $200,000 in grants to 72 local clubs across the country.

The new campaign champions local volunteers who are the lifeblood of local and regional football clubs. This is true of both the TV ad and the work the brand is doing to engage with regional communities.

One part of this includes field banners to celebrate local heroes.

Last week in Buchan, Gippsland, Victoria, one banner was emblazoned with the name (and face) of the canteen manager at Lindenow South Football Club in Gippsland, Tracy Bakos, who has served more than 6000 dim sims, 4500 hot dogs and 5000 pies to the local community.

Telstra’s creative assets for this campaign have a stage enviable to many marketers of major brands across the country, thanks to the telco’s partnership with the sporting codes. While it champions regional football, its intended audience is national.

The work will appear on broadcast channels, online, billboards and in stadiums through ­finals season, and in Telstra’s retail environments.

Mr Smart said that the Footy Country marketing aimed to carve out a part of sports that Telstra could “own” as a brand.

The Monkeys’ Mr Nowell added: “We figured that the relationship between footy clubs and their communities is probably at the heart of what makes football such a strong thing in this country.

“(And) the relationship between the community and the football club is never stronger than when you’re in the bush.”

The campaign comes at a time when, according to Mr Smart, attention is becoming harder for brands to buy. He said this is not only due to a fragmented media landscape, but because customers more broadly are increasingly cynical when it comes to content presented to them.

“You’ve got to earn their time, their attention. You can’t just buy it,” he said.

“You can’t just interrupt your way into their lives anymore.”