Football is a bit different in Australia. For one, we call it ‘footy’. And our love for our footy would rival fan fanaticism in any nation.

That’s why Australia’s biggest brands battle it out every single week on the side lines for a slice of the attention. But, unlike footy in other countries, celebrity cameos and special effects don’t really do the job. If you’re not doing it for the real fans, they will call bullshit.

Telstra, Australia’s biggest mobile network, is also the biggest sponsor of the game, but they were only putting their logo on signage which wasn’t making any meaningful connection with fans.

We needed something that broke through, appealing to fans of both sporting codes. Something that got people feeling Telstra understood the game and made them a part of the fabric of footy.

Rather than using expensive, elite clubs or athletes, the creative idea focused on the heart of the game, which can be found at the heart of Australia – Country football.

It’s where footy came from, where heroes are grown and where the footy clubs keep communities together, in regional and remote areas across the country. Away from the big stadiums and broadcast coverage, it’s also very underfunded.

“This Is Footy Country” was a love letter to country football. A suite of films that followed a footy club president rallying members of the town to fill in for their missing team. It was a campaign that felt like Telstra not only understood the spirit of footy but was truly a part of it.

Focusing on country footy made sense for a few reasons.

Telstra plays a crucial role connecting people, since no other mobile provider reaches those parts of the country. It gave us the right to play in this space without it feeling odd.

60% of the Brownlow winners (a medal awarded to the best player of the season each year) come from regional or remote Australia. This means our audience believe the best of footy comes from the country.

Culturally, regional and remote Australia holds a special place in all of the country’s heart, including Metro and coastal areas. It is seen as the home of the Australian spirit, tenacity, hope, humour, and hard work.

Our team went and spent time in regional clubs, talking to coaches, players, and the volunteers who make every footy match possible.

The time spent at these clubs became an invaluable resource to build our script.

The film opens on a broken down bus filled with a country football team. The steam pouring from the engine means one thing: they aren’t going to make the final match. The captain puts in a phone call to their club president with the bad news. Rather than forfeiting, the club president comes up with a plan.

We see her race around the town, picking up a motley crew, the pub owner, the policewoman, the priest, the stay-at-home dad, the delinquent, the Chinese restaurant server, the mechanic, amongst others.

It’s a bizarre looking team of back-ups who take the field. But they all have one thing in common, team spirit.

As the other team smirks at this odd bunch of ring-ins, the pub owner smiles back, revealing a few missing teeth. This isn’t his first rodeo on the field…

Our line “This isn't country footy. This is footy country.”

We had hugely encouraging results for a campaign that was only in market for 4 weeks.

55% of respondents said “it was the best ad they’d ever seen.”

Consumers felt that “the campaign reflected the best parts of Australian life and humanity in general”.

Results also showed that the campaign represented Australian ideals we don’t see much of anymore, like ‘a sense of community’. It gave consumers a feeling of nostalgia to see these values played out on their screens.

It stood out so much compared to the usual advertising that radio shows and footy shows began speaking about it during their own coverage.

The campaign was such a success that Telstra plan to keep it as a platform for years to come.

The campaign also validated the focus on regional footy, and Telstra invested a further 8 million dollars’ worth in grants used to help fund regional footy clubs.