Grazed on greatness – Aussie cricket team to wear suits infused with victory backed by new campaign via Whybin\TBWA, Sydney
M.J.Bale, Official Tailors to The Australian Cricket Team, today announced its plan to ensure the continued success of Australian cricket by dressing the team in a first of its kind suit, pure wool threaded with victory.
M.J. Bale has been grazing an elite group of Merino sheep on grass taken from the site of Australia’s greatest cricketing successes, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Its wool, infused with Australian cricketing greatness, is being used to craft the team’s suits.
Last year, turf samples were taken from the SCG, with specific instructions from SCG Head Curator Tom Parker,(picture above on right with Shane Watson) on how to regrow it. The hallowed turf was regrown in Armidale NSW, where a lucky group of the finest Merino sheep, now graze on this grass infused with cricketing greatness. Eating the history, digesting the glory, the superfine wool from these sheep is used to make unique, handcrafted, tailor made M.J.Bale suits, the first of which are for The Australian Cricket Team.
To record the process a short documentary film has been made via Whybin\TBWA Sydney, starring Shane Watson, Michael Slater, Dougie Walters and superfine Merino wool grower Bill Mitchell. ‘Grazed on Greatness’ is the story of Australian Cricketing greatness creating the world’s only wool threaded with victory.
M.J.Bale founder, Matt Jensen said: “‘We wanted to do something unique. Something that would make The Australian Cricket Team not only look good, but also feel good too. If these suits help the team physically, mentally or metaphorically feel like winners on their way to the West Indies, then it’s all been worth while.”
Watson added: “What a fantastic idea. I can’t think of a single sporting fan that wouldn’t want a suit made from sheep grazed on Australia’s most hallowed turf. For us it’s a very special feeling to know where the wool has come from.”
Credits
Client: M.J.Bale
Agency: Whybin\TBWA
Creative: John McKelvey and Peter Galmes
Photography stills: Gerard Needham
PR: Eleven PR
Director: Stephen Oliver
Music: Nylon Studios
Post: Method Studios
59 Comments
Should’ve been wearing the suits last night.
I like !
Cracker
Now that’s cool.
Sweet idea. Really Australian in a good way and The Australian Team needs all the help they can get right now.
that is the lamest thing I’ve ever seen.
it’s like an ironic, sketch show parody of the cool stuff adidas nz used to do.
awful
What a sponsorship rarity – an interesting and relevant story.
First time in a while the Aussie cricket team have done something cool. Also the first time in a while I’ve seen them without pieces of fried chicken in their spare hands. Nice work folks.
Did England spank us and win the Ashes on those very same turf samples of the SCG last year?
Oops.
This is all backward.
All Blacks were ‘bonded by blood’ and Aussie Cricket team are ‘bound up by sheep’.
The Kiwi’s have the reputation, not the Aussies. We pride our ability to hide our sheep shagging well.
Great idea, good to see an idea as extendable, all Aussie and different.
Good one TBWA.
I love it.
How come Watto is already wearing the suit when the take the sod out of the turf to go and propagate the grass to feed the sheep to make the wool that makes the thread that makes the suits?
…even after 52 beers I could do better than this.
what an anti-climax that agency is.
Bonds are celebrating their birthday by letting you claim t-shirts displaying your own.
M.J Bale are celebrating their association with the Australian Cricket Team by cutting grass from the SCG, propagating that grass into a field, letting sheep feed from the grass, shearing said sheep, processing their wool to make fabric and then supplying that fabric to M.J. Bale so they can use it to make suits worn by the Australian cricket team.
Seriously, if an idea has to work that hard, how hard can its execution possibly work for the brand?
It really does seem like a lot of Whybin’s work needs an explanatory press release with it.
Feels very derivative.
Konzerthaus Dortmund Concert Milk
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/konzerthaus-dortmund-concert-milk/
I can’t hear “threaded with victory” without dry wretching.
I like it, a lot. It has nice depth and a unique thoughtfulness to it. Plus, it’s refreshing to see some good storytelling. Well done on a sponsorship brief, doubt any of the Negative Commenters could beat it, or anyone for that matter…
Looks like they’ve been watching way too many Adidas All Blacks case study films. Take these three and put them in a blender.
Bonded by blood – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLQAzu06ao
Of this earth – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOd4MmuroSU
AdiThread – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Wz4DBUvrU
Way to rip off the Adidas work by your own network, Whybin auckland.
how about whybin feed the cheep the ground up all black ads, then make their own ad from the sheep’s shit that comes out the other end, which is essentially what theyve done here.
agreed everything these guys churn out needs a manifesto to explain it.
Christ, it’s should read “threaded with done before.”
Looks like the just ripped this off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4F4r5AOsew
Lazy Whybins
Six!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Out of 10.
Did the client come to the agency, or the agency approach the client with this idea?
Feels like a lot of work for a very small brand, and I bet Whybin’s paid for it.
M J Bale made my wedding suit and f@#ked it up. They suck.
Whybins are good at making stuff that looks cool in award submission videos.
Normally the cricket team are used in the most obvious and ugliest of commercials. This has class and style. Top job for a sponsorship project.
Cracker of an idea. Nice one dudes.
The trolls are just copying http://www.4chan.org/ but no where near as well.
It promises to be entertaining but it isn’t.
A long winded, laboured idea that will not engage the average punter.
A lot of effort for very little reward.
well done all involved, a very good Australian story, and a smart leverage of sponsorship for a change….I know how hard dealing with australian cricket can be
Lovely idea and nicely executed. Sure it’s complicated, but they kept my attention right to the end and left me smiling. I wish I’d done it.
Wow. So lame.
Out for a duck. Boring.
Even tho it’s a nice idea, there’s a few holes in these suits.
You’d have to cut a shitload of grass to create enough runners to cover a sheep paddock. One little square isn’t going to do it, the ratio is 1m² to 4m² to get any decent coverage (which you need to re-cut the runners).
In summer/spring it takes 3 months before you can cut again, in winter / autumn, it’s dormant – especially in Armidale where it’s nice and frosty (the grass actually recedes as the frost kills it).
So for a 100m² paddock (20m x 5m, enough to feed 4 sheep non stop) 1m² would get you 16m² after 6 months of peak growing time, which is all you’d get in a year. If they cut 1m², it would have taken three growing seasons (years) to barely cover enough to feed four sheep.
Unless they cut 25m², a sizeable chunk of the SCG, they couldn’t have done it in under a year.
I’m fairly sure they would have needed 20 sheep grow enough wool just for the team, so you’d have to multiply that 100m² by 5. And then you’d have to cut 125m², which is a huge chunk of the SCG.
While it’s nice, and I admit statistics are boring, I’m calling sheep-shit on the whole thing.
Nah pete’s done okay with this it’s a nice idea that could be built on, it places the brand up at the top of it’s market, and appeals strongly to it’s sport loving professionals target perfectly. Nah this will do well and is way better than most of the waste of time facebook games and pointless shit coming out of most agencies.
Nicely told story for a brand I now know of and for the Australian team which I love. Not sure how you could hate it.
SCG is made from couch grass.
Couch is bad for sheep.
Well done fellas.
it’s shit
First crowded house then russell Crowe And now this Australia! Is nothing kiwi sacred
Even Adidas hasn’t been able to do anything like this for years.
World cup was last year – anything for the All Blacks?
Nope. Nothing of note. A home world cup final and even Adidas couldn’t do squat.
All I saw was billboards of them throwing loaves of bread like a football.
Sport sponsorship is hard. This is not shit as ‘voice of reason’ says.
Reminds me of a quote, “Critics never make mistakes, in fact, they never make anything.”
Funny write up of the idea on the back page of the The Age this morning…
I’m just glad I didn’t make this.
Agree with farmer on the grass.
It would take at least two years to cultivate enough grass to supply 20 sheep, then to rear the sheep on that grass to eventually shear their coats. No way you could achieve these results in six months.
I enjoyed it. nice doco.
I enjoyed this. Very funny.
The grass is not only cooch, it’s a mix.
Plus the grass takes over whatever grass is around it.
I enjoyed this. Very funny.
this is dull, to long and boring. sorry.
i’m less wooden than watson
@Pete, sorry ‘Actually’,
Why does your grass take over whatever grass is around it?
Surely it would be the other way around if you introduce a small patch of grass to a larger field of grass? Or is the SCG turf some kind of super-breed?
And you still haven’t explained the ridiculously short time frame to accomplish all of this: from laying of turf to finished suits.
I spent a considerable number of years in advertising before making my ‘tree change’ – starting a landscape business while living on a quiet farm in the Southern Highlands, that among other animals, has sheep.
Sheep in wolf’s clothing is indeed right, and I know my grass. Cooch / Bermuda grass is very toxic to sheep, and the grass in the shoot looks more like Kikuyu or Rye which is quite healthy.
And Armidale is a bloody cold place – take forever to grow anything up there.
I’m not saying it couldn’t have been done, but it couldn’t have been done without transplanting half the SCG and some seriously sick sheep.
This was done with the wool board, the groundskeeper and the farm manager using both turf and seed from the SCG trust.
If you want the proof, I have it.
This is the first doco and there’s more to come so perhaps don’t call scam until you have all the facts.
But then again, that’s what Aussies do.
I’m going to go buy myself a giant pair of teeth now.
Bye!
and just as exciting
they just can’t handle 30 secs round at Whybins.
No wonder they sail under the pirates flag.
Tell us more oh great pirate farming oracle.
@So many experts,
you don’t mention the seed from the SCG trust in your award entry case study.
So how does ‘seed’ fit in with your whole premise of Grazed on Greatness?
Doesn’t this undermine your idea somewhat?
On the one hand you’re making out these sheep have grazed on the hallowed turf of the SCG itself, on the other you’re admitting most of this grass has been nowhere near the place, it just come from the same seed provider.
Whatever work comes out of Whybin’s these day always seems to start a big conversation on the blog – well over 50 posts, and still not out!
they only get so many comments because so many people have been retrenched form the place over the years. There a lot of negativity about everything they put out.
Old wounds, you know.