If You Make The Game you have to turn up to watch, right? Getting AFL fans to turn up to games – come rail, hail or blindingly cold Melbourne weather– is exactly the job Cummins&Partners was given to do.

The campaign began last year with an ad that applauded the fans of all shapes and sizes that support AFL.

It has been developed further to launch of the 2016 Toyota AFL Premiership. The 2016 campaign features crowds of supporters over the years, stitched together to create a continual story, celebrating some of the greatest moments of the game. The soundscape features a similar technique with some of the best known voices in the AFL (the commentators) coming together to call the action.

Julian Dunne, head of marketing & insights commented, “The atmosphere at footy games makes the live experience truly unique, both our new and traditional fans tell us this consistently. We have some of the most loyal and passionate fans in the world and we wanted to ensure our season launch campaign reflected the role that our supporters play in the game. The objective of the campaign was to communicate this to our fans and really build anticipation for the start of the season”.

Jim Ingram, executive creative director of Cummins&Partners added, “The AFL challenged us to create something epic and original, and we’d like to think we’ve done that.  Further, we’ve tried to balance capturing the energy and excitement of the game, without relying on footage of players taking species, and kicking bananas”.

The campaign is running across a number of assets developed by Cummins&Partners and AFL Media.

Credits:

Cummins&Partners: Creative agency
Jim Ingram & Ben Couzens: Executive creative directors
Trent Hendrick: Senior art director
Tom Vizard & Liam Jenkins: Copywriters
Heath Collins: Art director

Rod Mooseek: Group account director

Ollie Ward: Senior integration director
Shane Mitropoulos: Integration manager
Jess Thompson: Head of broadcast

Naomi Nienaber: Senior producer

Adam Ferrier: Chief strategy officer

Finch: Production Company
Patrick Hughes: Director

Kate Merrin: Producer
Corey Essey: Managing director & Executive producer
Ari Wegner: DOP

Post Production:

Don Mayes: Senior audio producer, AFL Media

Mark Farrow: Sound designer, AFL Media

Michael Houlahan: Offline editor

Finch Post & Blockhead: Post Production

Dmitri Golovko: Original Music Composition

AFL:
Darren Birch: General manager – commercial operations

Julian Dunne: Head of marketing & Iinsights
Jemma Wong: Marketing manager – brand