FFA launches Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League 2018/19 season with ‘Where Heroes Are Made’ campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney
Football Federation Australia has launched its new season for the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League with the “Where Heroes Are Made” campaign.
The campaign is the first work from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney since the agency won the business in a joint Publicis Groupe pitch with Starcom back in June. The campaign will be further amplified in conjunction with TLA Worldwide and Switch Digital, FFA’s PR and Digital Agencies respectively.
FFA has once again chosen to launch the women and men’s leagues with equal prominence, through one joint integrated campaign. The campaign focuses on football’s uniting aspect and leveraging off the men’s FIFA World Cup and upcoming AFC Asian Cup, and the women’s FIFA World Cup in 2019, and reminding Australians that their heroes that feature in these global tournaments started in the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League.
It places the spotlight on the current and future football stars of today and leverages off the success of the Caltex Socceroos and Westfield Matildas, and encourages our young football families to support the current and next generation of heroes every week around the country.
Following the launch of teaser content on social media, featuring former Socceroo Tim Cahill and former Matilda Amy Duggan, the campaign rolls out with an in-cinema brand film, TV and executions across radio, OOH, social and digital. The campaign will feature hero players from all Hyundai A-League & Westfield W-League clubs.
FFA’s Head of Leagues, Greg O’Rourke, believes that this new campaign across the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League will appeal to the established football fan and those who are experiencing the competitions for the first time
“Since their inception, the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League have proven to be ideal competitions to develop our top male and female footballers,” said O’Rourke.
“From the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, 18 of the 23-players in the Caltex Socceroos squad, and all the starting players in our first match against France, had at some time played in the Hyundai A-League. Similarly, all the Westfield Matildas at the recent AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Jordan had played in the Westfield W-League.
“Even if our heroes end up overseas playing in leagues around the world, they all start here, in the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League. We are fortunate that we can see these heroes, week-in, week-out in the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League in our own backyard.”
Says Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney deputy executive creative director, Sesh Moodley: “Aussies love to get behind a hero, so it’s time football celebrated its own world class heroes.
“The fact that so many Matildas and Socceroos end up playing overseas should serve as an inspiration to the quality of both leagues – as they all started here. ‘Where Heroes Are Made’ is a platform to support all aspects of football in Australia, not just a campaign, so we’re looking forward to continuing to discover and promote new heroes as the season unfolds.”
Says FFA Chief Marketing Officer, Luke Bould: “Where Heroes Are Made celebrates the stars of the game – the players – and promotes the role they play and their commitment to the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League. Our brief to Saatchi & Saatchi was to create a platform that has the scope to roll-out different elements at different stages of the season, and even future seasons, and we feel we have delivered that very strongly. There’s much more to come from the campaign and we believe it will engage our target audience and get them supporting their heroes at a match in stadium, by watching on FOX Sports and ONE, or streaming via the My Football LIVE app.”
Client – Football Federation of Australia
Chief Commercial Office: Luke Bould
GM Marketing & Fan Engagement: Jess Laycock
Leagues Marketing & Membership Manager: Angela Colless
Marketing Coordinator: Nathan Sammut
Creative Agency – Saatchi & Saatchi Australia
National CCO – Mike Spirkovski
Executive Creative Director – Sesh Moodley
Associate Creative Director – Piero Ruzzene
Associate Creative Director – Flavio Fonseca
Chief Strategy Officer – Kate Smither
Senior Copywriter – Anton Posa
Senior Art Director – Simon O’Neill
Executive Producer – Renata Barbosa
Junior Producer – Georgie Patching
Integrated Producer – Holly De Roy and Adam Currie
General Manager – Toby Aldred
Senior Business Director – John Larkin
Business Manager – Matthew Susko
Production Company – In The Thicket
Director: Jason Bock
Producer: Megan Ayers
Executive Producer: Genevieve Triquet and Stephan Renard
Post Production – The Butchery/The Refinery VFX
Offline Editor – Joseph Morris – The Butchery
Colourist – Fergus Rotherham – The Refinery VFX
Online Artist – Drew Downes – The Refinery VFX
Post Producer – Carla Mercer – The Butchery & The Refinery VFX
Music & Sound Design – Song Zu
Music Composition: Ramesh Sathiah
Sound Design: Myles Lowe
Executive Producer: Katrina Aquilia
Voice Casting: Lesley Chambers
25 Comments
Nicely shot. Great message!
Great to see the Women’s league represented. Finally!!
Sam Kerr rocks! Better than most of the male players.
Best sports spot in I’ve seen in a while and probably on a lean budget. Bravo. AFL, Cricket – take note.
Great campaign.
Well done Saatchi & Saatchi. Keep it rolling
All the very best.
GM
Excellent campaign start! Two thumbs up…
Lovely spot. Wollongong Wolves for HAL though pls!
Good to see a lot of positive commenters tuning in to Campaign Brief midday on a Sunday… Also, this is an expected piece of drivel. Nice pictures accompanied by a voice over that’s been used in no less than 10 other manifesto style ads.
Couldn’t wait until Monday to spruke your own work, Saatchi? What happened to the old powerhouse? Saatchi has been in decline for the past 5 years.
This is great, best ad we’ve had for the league yet.
Feel like I’ve seen this before…… for the same product….. just last year.
https://youtu.be/OjjWB-t92FU
Out of ideas??
Not bad.
Be good to see more Sydney FC in play though. Where’s Milos?
Excellent.
Credit to the A league for a joint male/female promotion, the AFL could learn a thing or two
Heroes are made at Central Coast Mariners…
Nah. He’d be getting to many Offsides. Too fast for his own good. Hahhahaha!!!
My cousin plays in the W league. So great to see this league supported in the same manner as the Men’s League. Great shift FFA and Saatchi.
Client: ‘Can we have the manifesto film from the pitch meeting?’
Saatchi: ‘Of course, that’s why we presented it’
Pretty generic soccer ad.
They needed to run a pitch for this?
Credits?
Pretty generic soccer ad.
They needed to run a pitch for this?
Love it! Who’s the voice?
By doing nothing new you’ve actually stumbled onto a genius marketing ploy…. the Womanifesto. Female voice, female content, maybe even a female director. Going to sell 50% more pitch work now $$$
Salah approves!
This is really good for what could of been a pretty easy generic soccer ad.
I like the edit and pace. Excellent.
Couldn’t view promo ?
Now that ABC are showing a game a week, what promotion will the ABC giving A League ? So far, it’s now mid evening Monday, I haven’t seen anything about it at all !