July 2023.

As the world readied itself for the Women’s World Cup, Australia was already in a football frenzy – with the event touted as the biggest thing since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Ticket sales smashed records and Matildas (Australia’s Women’s National Football Team) fever gripped the nation.

A multi-million-dollar Rexona marketing campaign featuring Matildas Captain, global superstar, and GOAT Sam Kerr was being rolled out. The work showed Sam exercising whilst being protected by Rexona deodorant.

Hours before the first kick-off, news broke that Sam had suffered an injury and would be unavailable to play. With that, Rexona was left with months-in-the-making marketing materials that now seemed tone deaf in the face of Australia’s greatest hope being injured.

But every setback is a setup for a comeback. We took the opportunity to remind Sam and her fans of all the challenges she’s overcome, and that the story was #NotDoneYet.

Eight days after Sam’s injury news broke, amid the Internet and news media’s meltdown about Australia’s probability of remaining in the tournament, we launched a reactive piece reminding everyone why Sam’s the GOAT.

This ‘Letter to Sam and Australia’ wasn’t a sob story. It was an unapologetic, gritty celebration of her illustrious career – with all the setbacks and obstacles she’s overcome to achieve every history making milestone. The film’s narrative was driven by copy (in the form of supers), which was written like a never-ending sentence, with the last word of each line becoming the beginning of the next.

It showed that, time and time again, Sam’s always flipped the script and overcome anything that was thrown at her, so Australia shouldn’t count her out yet.

The film galvanized Australians and fanned the flames of belief that Australia could go all the way.

Given the magnitude of the tournament, Rexona’s Women’s World Cup marketing campaign was planned and prepped months in advance. But with any live sport, the unexpected and unplanned can happen – and derail any meticulous planning.

After the initial shock, Rexona gathered its internal team as well as external partners to strategize how to turn a setback into a comeback.

As the news continued to be extremely negative and undervalued Sam’s achievements, we set out to cut through the clutter by flipping what was reported with a new narrative.

We looked to leverage existing media placements and swapped out all these spots with our reactive film, to encourage Australians to rally behind Sam and the Matildas.

News of Sam’s setback broke on 20 July 2023, hours before the Matildas’ first game of the tournament. Reacting quickly to the Internet and the media's disappointment, the reactive film was finished in 8 days, and aired on 6 August 2023, ahead of the Matildas’ knock-out game against Denmark.

The film was released on both Rexona-owned and paid channels. Paid included broadcast TV spots that ran on free-to-air FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage on Australia’s Channel 7 and subscription service Optus Sport.

The film continued to run in the games against France and England, and had record accumulative viewership of 13.7 million – with the semi-final against England being the most-watched TV event in Australian history.

Despite the unexpected, unforeseen, and unplanned (but hey, that’s live sports), the reactive film turned a setback into a comeback for Rexona.

Reach:

13.7M Australians reached (within 2 weeks)

Earned Media:

$6.97M in Earned Media Value

Brand Awareness:

#2 Women’s World Cup Brand in Australia, ahead of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Optus & Visa

+8bpts uplift in association that the brand helps Australians to move

+16% increase in brand recall in Australia vs. New Zealand, with the reactive piece being the only point of marketing difference

Sales:

#13.8% uplift in Rexona sales (y.o.y.)

We aired an inspirational, feel good film that galvanized Australians – 21M of them in fact – during the largest cultural moment in Australian sport in 20 years, ultimately averting a potential PR disaster.