Making Goals, Playing the Game

Name any country you like, and if you’ve got a client that’s keen to sponsor football, there’s usually one style or another somewhere in the world that can provide you with the right coverage. Sponsor American-style football and you’ve got full national coverage. Sponsor U.K.-style football (soccer) and you’re okay from Lands End to John O’Groat’s. But turn your attention to Australia and you can get yourself in trouble. We at Rapp Collins Worldwide in Melbourne know. We played the football game for our client, Cadbury Chocolate.

Australia is the home of the kangaroo and the platypus, but also of two or three types of football that make it difficult for us to market the nation’s leading football sport, Australian Rules Football. AFL dominates the southern states of the continent, while the entire east coast (including New South Wales and Queensland) supports rugby.

There’s no doubt that soccer’s World Cup is one of the largest international events, with France ’98 attracting a cumulative TV audience of 35 billion in 195 countries. Comparatively, the AFL drew only 103 million viewers over the winter season, but Australia’s viewers represent a population of fewer than 19 million people.

In 1997, AUS $600 million was invested in overall sports sponsorships here, with AFL receiving 7.1 percent, rugby 4.4 percent, and soccer 3.3 percent. These statistics highlight the importance of AFL in the football marketing mix.

As a nation, Australia borrowed many of its early traditions from the U.K. During colonial times, the local game was a mixture of rugby, gaelic football, and soccer with more than a pinch of Rafferty’s Rules – and it has since evolved into a game unlike any other in the world. Australia has an unusually long tradition of spectator sports. Victoria’s top AFL clubs are ancient by world standardswith the Melbourne and Geelong clubs predating their counterparts in the U.S. and U.K.

A guaranteed success? Yes and no. As a result of football’s popularity in Australia, marketers involved in sponsorships are confident they will reach an audience of hungry fans. The three most populous states are Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, but the latter two are bastions of Rugby Union. That leaves Victoria, where the Australian Football League has its home base and fields 14 teams in the southern states, plus one team each in Sydney and Brisbane for a nominal presence.

So what does this mean to Cadbury? In concert with the AFL, Cadbury had four major promotions to run: Mark (catch) of the Year, Grand Final Grab, Classic Grabs Cards, and Family Frees. Mark of the Year received major support through Channel Seven’s Football Show, and involved weekly games with consumers and players over a 24-week period. Participants vied for chances to win a magnificent bronze trophy. But in the rugby states, the program generated interest with just 20 percent of the target audience due to lower viewing priorities and later telecast times. When combined with lower Cadbury brand share, plus the tropical Queensland climate (not always conducive for chocolate consumption), we really needed to work the promotion hard.

To involve non-AFL supporters, the promotions featured prizes with big travel components, including family AFL interstate trips, Grand Final packages in Melbourne, and a trip to London to see the AFL play. Secondary prizes included Sony Walkmans, PC football games, and chocolate.

Instant-win promotions are popular here, so we included them to remove further barriers to entry by the “not so footy” minded. Collectible cards in-pack with an instant-win element stimulated involvement from children. To start the ball rolling, 70,000 free posters and beginner cards were issued to AUSKICK, the junior league. We involved the local Victoria radio station and presented the Cadbury sales team with Cadbury Football guernseys (jerseys), posters, and sets of football cards. The grocery trade received framed posters and promotion summaries. During the promotion period, Cadbury successfully launched five new products: All Stars, Legends, Footys, Mascots and Gazelle.

Despite the popularity of rugby in two major states, it’s clear that Cadbury is now seen as a serious supporter of the AFL. In Australia, that’s huge.