‘This is Footy Country’ is a commercial that celebrates the origins of Australian Football and Telstra’s (Australia’s largest mobile network) ongoing sponsorship and support. It aired throughout finals season broadcast, during the biggest games of the year.

Culturally, regional and remote Australia holds a special place in all of the country’s heart, even though the vast majority of the population live in Metro and coastal areas. It is seen as the home of the Australian spirit and character – one of tenacity, optimism, humour, and hard work.  

This is also where the authentic ‘heart’ of football is, in grassroots and community clubs. The places where the community rallies together to support the teams, turning up to games and training, volunteering at the club canteens.  

Not only does country footy play a huge role in bringing together rural and regional communities – it’s also the lifeblood of the game nationally, with many of Australia’s best players hailing from country areas. Proof of this is the fact that while just 28% Australians live in regional and remote areas, 50% Dally M Winners (NRL player of the season) and 60% Brownlow Medal Winners (AFL player of the season) are from the country. 

In choosing to base our football story in this heartland, eschewing footage of star players and sporting prowess, we were tapping into something deeper and more relatable to Australian audiences: the belief we approach sport in the same way we approach life – show up, give it everything, help each other out. 

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, 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.”  

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. As a result, it punched below its weight in sponsorship awareness and brand metrics.

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 involving 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)

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. 

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’.

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%

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 amateurs.