Optus is an Australian telecommunications company, this campaign leveraged their sponsorship of the Australian Olympic Team in a unique and relevant way.

When an athlete discovers they have been selected for the Olympic team the first thing they do is contact a family member or coach. We captured these, often emotionally charged, moments though an App installed on the athlete’s mobile phones.

The significant logistical and technical challenges we encountered in recording the calls was more than justified for the raw emotion that we captured.

We set the calls to deliberately simple footage of the athletes training in the weeks leading up to the Games. This pared down visual style ensured that the audio (the calls) were the hero of the piece.

As a result of their authenticity the resulting films achieved industry leading engagement and positive sentiment.

As this idea hadn't been done before, executing it presented many challenges. Would athletes give us permission to record this special moment? Technically how would record them? How would we ensure the process of capturing them didn't inhibit the emotion of the conversation?

How did we pull it off? First we contacted the hundreds of sporting bodies in Australia and made a database of the athletes likely to qualify. Then we contacted each of them to gauge their interest in allowing us access to their call. Those who were willing received an App for their phone to record the call along with instructions. We maintained ongoing relationships with multiple athletes as they sought team qualification to ensure they activated the App correctly at the key moment.

The footage to accompany the calls was filmed during brief windows of opportunity as the athletes trained around the world.