NAB Stand-ins

Background

NAB (National Australia Bank) has been sponsoring the AFL for over 10 years. Throughout this time they have demonstrated their support through the many programs they have helped to foster. From Auskick through to NAB Rising Star, and the NAB Cup. Never have they used this sponsorship as a true brand vehicle.
From NAB’s perspective the reason they sponsor the game is to garner good will with Australians. But in a cluttered sponsorship environment, how do they get fans to identify with NAB and align NAB’s brand philosophy of ‘More give, less take’?

Idea

Fans feel like they are a part of their team and want their voices to be heard. However, over the years the AFL has gone from being a regional game to a professionally run national enterprise. And consequently, access to the game for real fans has decreased. Where once there was no gap between the fans and players or the fans and the game, there are now media partners and corporate sponsorships that are separating fans from the game more and more. Fans are just as passionate about the game today as ever, but their voices are being lost.

The Grand Final is the pinnacle of the AFL season and tickets to the game are hard to come by. A vast number of seats are given over to corporate hospitality and the real fans often struggle to get a look in. NAB decided to use its sponsorship for good and hand over its corporate seats to people who’ll be missing it through no fault of their own. The ones who’ve scored the weekend work shift, got stuck looking after the kids, or to their horror, been asked to attend a Grand Final day wedding. The idea was to liberate these unlucky footy fans. Give them a seat at the 2012 Toyota AFL Grand Final, and give them a NAB Stand-In to fulfil their game day duties.

20 lucky fans and their guests got to enjoy the biggest AFL game of the year, whilst 20 NAB Stand-Ins were sent across the country to cover the game day commitments. From Water skiing to entertaining a party of small children as a pirate, the NAB Stand-Ins gave it their all to make sure the winners responsibilities were safely looked after. 

Results

The competition received over 8,500 entries from around the country, with all states well represented. The bulk of entries came from VIC, NSW, WA and QLD, validating the national appeal of the game and the partnership between NAB and the AFL.

There was a large increase in NAB Facebook fans in the final days of the competition, with 7991 new fans joining in just three days.

Social media sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, with positive mentions tracking consistently at around 75% throughout the campaign.

Twitter conversation was at its highest during the match on Grand Final Day. Stand-Ins became a part of the vernacular on Twitter with many fans' using it as a tongue-in-cheek poke at certain players.

By the end of the campaign, #nabstandin had a stronger association with the official AFL Grand Final hashtag, than the naming rights sponsor, featuring together on over 300 more occasions.

The campaign tracked well in earned media. Sportspeople including Jobe Watson, Liz Cambage, Brendon Goddard, Matthew Pavlich, Jason Dunstall, Steve Johnson, Joel Selwood and Cameron Smith lent their support through various PR and social media opportunities. The campaign featured in over 150 editorial hits across TV, Radio, Print and online.

Our Thoughts

It must be wonderful to get a brief that asks you to come up with an idea that will just make people like the brand. None of this mucky stuff actually selling stuff.

I imagine that tracking analysis will show a strong increase in recall and in likeability. But will it get NAB any more customers? That’s what I get asked again and again when I show great work from Directory. I try to explain that advertising and entertainment are becoming ever closer bed-fellows and the effects of a campaign like this are long-term. But, of course, most marketers are incentivised against short-term sales targets and simply don’t get it. Yet.