Fans were losing pride in the game. And new fans, especially women and families were becoming even harder to attract. The NRL had a leaking bucket, which modelling showed would lead to big issues in the coming decades if we couldn’t bed down the next generation of fans.

Years of bad press centred on the bad behaviour of a few players had fuelled negative narratives. This was reinforced by the behaviour of select fans; sexist comments and negativity toward women in NRL. People saw NRL as backward, masculine and conservative.

This is all despite the fact that the NRL, is actually one of the most progressive organisations in the country. Leading the charge in important social arenas like women’s sport, Indigenous rights and community-led activism.

In 1990, Tina Turner fronted rugby league Australia’s iconic Simply the Best campaign, where it promoted the code for the first time, as a sport for everyone. Despite the initial shock of using a black, American grandmother to promote the game, the campaign was hugely successful at attracting a new audience and the song itself, went on to become the game’s unofficial anthem.

30 years later, faced with a similar problem of attracting new fans, we decided to again called on Tina Turner to show how progressive, and inclusive the game has become. We launched the 2020 season, by reinventing Tina’s classic campaign, with her endorsement, to show why rugby league is ‘Still Simply the Best’.

The target audience were laxed, casual fans, predominately younger women and families. Fans who tuned in for State of Origin and Finals but little else.

The strategic approach was to generate media and press outside the traditional sports media which acts as an echo chamber for hardcore NRL loyalists. We needed to insert the NRL onto the screens and pages of mainstream media, places where our laxed fans could be found. Tina Turner and her mainstream hit – Simply the Best – gave us the cultural credibility to go beyond sports fans.

The film was released during the news on a partner network. It was then distributed to all major outlets to run in full.

The components of the film, with cultural relevance outside of NRL, such as Macklemore performing at finals, were used in shorter snippets across social to talk to a diverse audience about a modern NRL.

The film tells the story of Rugby League Australia over the last 30 years, beginning with the one of the country’s most iconic ads, led by Tina Turner. This kickstarts a journey through the moments that have defined the progressive culture of the game and the country.

To bring this to life, we engaged Tina Turner and the producers that helped create the original ‘Simply the Best’ track. With her endorsement, we re-recorded part of the song with a young schoolgirl. We worked with rugby league archivists to find the greatest moments of the sport, and paired it the NRL’s greatest current players.

The film aired live within a national news programs, and was discussed and debated daily across national radio, national, press, sport programs and social media – all before paid media kicked off a few days later.

The campaign wasn’t only successful in drawing fans back to stadiums – with first round games sold out (Covid restrictions stopped crowds attending games after the first round). It also got the nation talking about the role sport can play in inspiring a more progressive and inclusive culture in society.

The film first aired live within a national news programs, and was discussed and debated daily across national radio, national, press, sport programs and social media – all before paid media kicked off a few days later.

On TV, the campaign was discussed over 250 times and there were 130 press articles written.

In total, there were over 1,486 pieces of news coverage written with $43m+ in earned value reached, massively extending the reach of the campaign and discussion amongst Australians.