Footy is a crowded space, and while Telstra has long been a sponsor of AFL and NRL, its approach had historically been a badging exercise, featuring giant logos pitchside and regular brand spots in broadcasts.

Our task was to develop a genuinely entertaining campaign that would reconnect with everyday Australians by giving Telstra a distinctive and authentic voice in footy culture. By doing this we hoped to significantly increase Telstra’s sponsorship awareness and boost brand consideration among footy fans. We set ourselves three key objectives:

1. Creative impact: Outperform creative norms for likeability, as well as distinctive and humorous advertising

2. Sponsorship Awareness: Increase unprompted sponsorship awareness of NRL from 22% to 26% and AFL from 6% to 10%

3. Brand consideration: Increase consideration of Telstra from 52% to 60% (among fans aware)

‘This isn’t just country footy – it’s footy country’: in country Australia, footy isn’t just a peripheral pastime – it’s the fabric that binds the community together.

Our idea celebrates country Australia’s role as the spiritual home of footy, where our game is at its purest. There’s no stadium or bigtime sponsors. Just two towns, two teams and 80 minutes. 

We do our best to bottle this feeling for fans by telling the story of fictional footy team -The Waubra Emus: 

When the team bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, it looks like our beloved Emus aren’t going to make the big final. Luckily, the entire town of Waubra comes to the rescue – rallying a team of ring-ins made up of past player from around the community. They haven’t touched a ball in years, but that won’t matter. Because as they say in Waubra: Once

Telstra was a long-time sponsor of NRL and AFL but was punching below its weight in sponsorship awareness. And our ethnographic research reinforced it was seen by many as a corporate brand that was out-of-touch with everyday Aussies.

But as Australia’s biggest network, Telstra had long been committed to connecting the parts of the country others couldn’t reach. And these country areas were universally recognised to be the spiritual heart of footy culture. Where footy wasn’t just about what happened on the field, it was what brought the community together off it. And where tenacity, teamwork and a sense of humour still meant more than fancy facilities and cutting-edge coaching techniques.

While other brands aligned themselves with the elite, we instead set out to re-establish Telstra as part of the cultural fabric of football - by giving country footy the credit and support it truly deserved.

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 devises 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 football. This is footy country"

Despite running for just four weeks, ‘Footy country’ quickly established itself as one of Australia’s most loved ads - and prompted Telstra to invest $8m in grants to regional footy clubs. 

1. Creative impact

55% respondents said it was “the best ad they’d ever seen”, smashing norms for distinctiveness and involvement. The campaign “reflected the best parts of Australian life and humanity in general”, earning coverage on popular TV and radio shows and winning Mumbrella’s ‘ad of the year’.

2. Sponsorship Awareness

The campaign exceeded its targets and outperformed every other footy sponsor:

Increased NRL prompted awareness from 66-80% and unprompted from 22 -27%

Increased AFL prompted awareness from 43-54% and doubled unprompted from 6-12%

3. Brand consideration

It boosted consideration among NRL fans from 52% (unaware) to 66% (aware), and among AFL fans from 50% (unaware) to 64% aware (Vs general population 52%).

Not bad for a bunch of