This story is about how the Cronulla Sharks National Rugby League (NRL) club wielded its fearlessness to turn negative sentiment, into pro-active support from fans and the media. In early 2014 the NRL Premiership season was fast approaching, but a hangover from the previous season had drenched the club in negativity. A drug investigation dominated news headlines, and the fan base was dwindling.

However, amidst the flurry of headlines, longstanding fans had remained doggedly loyal as they had for 46 seasons without a Premiership title. The club needed to fire up fans so that they could start the 2014 season with pride.

We were tasked to change the media story and attract new fans with a humble production budget of $40k. We drew upon two unique characteristics of the club to build our solution: its relentless forward momentum and its no-frills authenticity that had seen it through half a century, pursuing the evasive Premiership title.

Fans and the media were given a new story to sink their teeth in to, aptly named ‘IT’S FEEDING TIME’

We enlisted NRL legend Andrew Ettinghausen, and flew him to Cape Town, South Africa to meet with a real live version of the Sharks’ mascot, the Great White. Along with conservationists and shark documentarians, seal decoys dressed in each one of the 15 opposition’s team jerseys were thrown into the ocean by Ettinghausen one by one and torn apart by the a shark. Each account was recorded as a film, totaling 15 pieces of video content – creating the ultimate pre-game taunt for fans to send to rival supporters.

The films could be seen on YouTube, Facebook and on-screen at Sharks home games. The footage was also available as downloadable content in interactive print. The original tattered jerseys were then framed as memorabilia and auctioned via the club website, with proceeds going to Great White Shark conservation.

While the Cronulla Sharks did not bring home the title that year, there was definitely a victory in their community, the League and the entire nation. All major Australian TV Networks featured live footage of Ettinghausen feeding opposition jerseys to the Great White, with the campaign reaching in excess of 10 million people. 66,000 fans viewed the films at live games and 36,843 fans enjoyed them on YouTube before each of the live games. Even the membership base saw gains of 16%, and brought an additional A$1005,000 to the club in revenue.

With a A$0 media budget and a humble A$40k production budget, the A$257,574 media value gained, and $1005,000 membership revenue generated were clear indicators of campaign effectiveness. The campaign had sent ripples throughout the nation and had left no doubt in teams minds, about who was on the menu.