In Australia, Colgate has used a sponsorship of the Australian Football League (AFL) as its key delivery mechanism for ‘Smile Strong’ brand platform. Throughout 2020 and 2021, feel-good content featuring popular AFL and AFLW players overcoming Covid adversity made the fans smile.

But in 2022, the impact of the warm fuzzies had started to wane. While still a clear category leader, Colgate’s brand tracking indicated it was losing distinctiveness and emotional connection. It was these declining metrics that the client charged us with reversing.

VMLY&R had created an emotionally charged TVC based on a football team learning to “sing” their club song in sign language. It spoke perfectly to the mainstream sentiment of diversity being a positive thing.

The media agency’s task was to ensure this story was more than just a TVC seen only by footy fans, and became a mainstream cultural conversation that built brand equity for Colgate.

The idea: Teach football fans a new way to rejoice in their team song so that everyone can feel included.

We partnered with Jamie to translate and sign the team songs of each AFL club through Auslan (Australian Sign Language). The content was dubbed “AusCheer”.

When you want to teach people new moves, there’s only one place to be: TikTok. When you want to ensure people participate and share those new moves, there’s only one format to use: Duets.

The content was designed specifically for the platform, reflecting users’ natural behaviour and ensuring it was accessible and easy to imitate and share. Further, being on TikTok imbued Colgate with a sense of optimism and community-mindedness that the brand was trying to build.

Distinct roles were assigned to different media channels to amplify and advance the idea.

The TVC was only scheduled to appear in AFL broadcasts. But the story was much bigger than footy. BVOD was used as an amplification channel that targeted Colgate’s grocery buyer core. For greater brand resonance, the full-length film was put into the most emotionally engaging channel of all, cinema.

Advancing the TVC required focusing on the heart of the story – the Yeronga Devils football team learning their club song in sign language to help their hearing-impaired teammate Jamie Howell feel more included. Social media could make the story more participatory, allowing players and fans throughout Australia to emulate the Yeronga Devils’ camaraderie.

When you want to teach people new moves, there’s only one place to be: TikTok. When you want to ensure people participate and share those new moves, there’s

Each media touchpoint played to its strengths, rather than simply replicate the role of the TVC.

Cinema’s unique audio attributes were harnessed to create high-impact interactions, producing a cinema version that made that audio effect even more memorable. The opening audio of the TVC is muffled, to imitate the hearing-impaired experience.

For social, we had Jamie create sign language tutorials for each of the AFL clubs. To draw a larger football audience, we recruited the AFL’s most popular men’s and women’s players and had them Duet with Jamie.

Extending beyond the football fanbase, we recruited leading Australian TikTok influencers, including some hearing-impaired creators, to also Duet with Jamie. Using personalities and behaviour endemic to the platform, we soon had the TikTok audience spreading the content and the companionship organically, becoming part of the #SmileStrong movement.

Timing coincided with a period when the men’s and women’s seasons overlapped, for maximum inclusivity.

By making it more than just a TVC, and more than football, the campaign made an entire community feel heard. It was picked up and praised by AFL fans, the Australian public, the hearing-impaired community, and even parliament.

Colgate recorded YoY increases in:

• Courageous, caring and a leader

• Does the right thing by the community

• Distinguishes itself clearly from other brands

• Increase in optimistic attributes

Colgate’s IPSOS 2022 report: “The communications supported this year have had a positive impact on equity and perceptions of the Masterbrand – particularly emotional attributes and those centred around brand distinction.”

Media overdelivered on impressions, views and engagements

This has culminated in a 5% lift in purchase intent from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022 and +8% dollar growth (YTD'22vs YTD'21)(3).

Today, Colgate sits as the #1 Personal Care brand and the #4 Best Brand in Australia, up from #6 in 2021.