We first worked with the AFL on the first AFL Women’s (AFLW) league in 2016 providing consumer insights and gender education through our Bec Brideson - Gender Intelligence consultancy as they navigated their way towards the launch of the national women’s competition. Through multiple workshops and speakerships, we were able to bring AFL’s entire commercial team up to date on the movements of women economically, politically, socially over the past decade as well as give them practical insights on the nuances of gender communication. They were very happy when we were able to provide a uniquely developed framework in order to ensure their success in the space.
Given the happy and successful commercial relationship and our history and expertise creating campaigns for the female consumer, we suggested that a specially tasked all-female creative team with some all-stars would not only mean great optics but an authentic female touch on this extremely important first launch campaign. The marketing team jumped at this recommendation and put us as the lead creatives to create the team and create the concept that would successfully build the hype before the very first AFLW game.
With an all-star MVP team of notable female creatives including author and social commentator Jane Caro and Bec Brideson (our agency head) herself; they came up with an idea to redo the epic 1994 AFL ad “I’d like to see that”. The ad ‘I’d Like To See That’ featured female AND male sports stars and figureheads including Cathy Freeman, Lee Lin Chin, Sabre Norris, Michele Payne, Turia Pitt, and Melbourne FC Captain Nathan Jones holding his young and very enthusiastic daughter.
With no media spend, the ad was launched on Facebook and later on Channel 9 News with a 1.5 million organic reach and 4,000 shares on Facebook. The opening round weekend had 50,000 people attending and 24,000 fans filled out the opening game turning it into an epic ‘lock out’.
Since then, there has been a 76% increase in AFLW attendees. On the back of these unprecedented numbers, women now account for 30% of the total participation numbers in the game, helping drive a 10% increase overall on participation figures in the sport for 2017.
Further research has found that 70% attendees who attended an AFLW game had never been to a men’s game before.
In short, it exceeded the success we had initially set out. And proved beyond a doubt that female creativity is a powerhouse in and of itself.
