A Brief History Of The Mullet In Cricket
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Issue 9 | December 2008
Agency
BMF Sydney
Creative Team
Damon Porter - Copywriter; Luke Hawkins - Art Director
Production Team
Anna Kismet, Sora Nobari - Digital Producers
Other Credits
Nicci Van Driest - Account Service; Chris James - Interactive Creative Director; Dylan Taylor - Creative Director
Date
January - March 2008
Background
The Commonwealth Bank wanted to promote its sponsorship of the Australian One Day International cricket series, held in February and March 2008. The problem was, fans were already flooded with messages of sponsorship. The challenge was to prove that the Commonwealth Bank wasn’t just another sponsor; it was a true supporter with a genuine passion for the game. Specifically, the aim was to drive traffic to lovecricket.com.au, build a database of fans, create talkability and engage the audience with the brand.
Idea
BMF understood that cricket fans aren’t very receptive to corporate sponsorship, so whatever Commonwealth did had to stand out without being intrusive. Their strategy was to take a unique perspective on cricket. They created a 90 second spot that went live just before the One Day series started. It sat on the Commonwealth Bank’s love cricket website and had a ‘forward to a friend’ functionality so that fans could share it with their mates.
‘A Brief History of the Mullet in Cricket’ takes the viewer on a historical tour of the most celebrated haircut in Australian cricket. For decades, Aussie cricketers have been wearing the mullet with pride. So what better way to promote the Commonwealth Bank’s sponsorship of the Australian One Day International Series than to pay tribute to this Aussie icon?
Results
The ‘Mullet’ clip delivered 172 hours of brand engagement in less than five weeks. The Mullet got fans talking with the pass on rate being 80%. The love cricket website where the film sat was visited over 87,000 times. The ‘Mullet’ was even picked up by a major Australian television network and played on primetime.
Target audience
Average Aussie cricket fans. They are keen on cricket but are not the hardcore purists. They love the culture of cricket and enjoy having a hit in the backyard with friends and family.
Our Thoughts
What we have here is the major sponsor of Australian cricket taking the mickey out of the game they are sponsoring. Only in Australia! Can you imagine Budweiser running ads in the Superbowl poking fun at the whole palaver of American football? Ha! One small observation, though. Probably the finest mullet ever seen on a cricket pitch belonged to an Englishman. Remember I.T. Botham in his pomp? Now that, my boy, was a mullet.