In a year dominated by the rise (again) of science, “we won them over on masturdata.” (Josh Bryer, Game of Balls co-creator and copywriter)
When the going gets tough, marketing gets scientific. It would be great if science could predict the weather as well as it’s believed to be able to predict human behaviour right now.
This year, a bunch of adpeople at M&C Saatchi had a hunch and gave it a shot. Granted, the data on men watching porn probably supported M&C’s leap of faith and the agency may even have used it to make itself and client, The Blue Balls Foundation, feel good about it.
It’s safe to assume, though, that GOB (even its acronym is memorable) doesn’t have programmatic chromosomes.
And yet it achieved:
It won:
5 AC&E Awards – Won 4 awards from the 4 categories entered – Media, Branded Content, Not for Profit, Digital / Social Ads. Plus the Pinnacle Award for Courageous Client Work.
5 LIA Trophies: Gold in Branded Entertainment – Scripted Short Film, Silver for Innovative Use of Online Film and 3 Bronzes, 1 for Integration and 2 for TV/Cinema/Online Film – Branded Content and Public Service/Social Welfare.
7 Spikes (from 9 shortlist positions) – 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze Spikes across six categories.
5 W3 Awards – a Gold (3) or Silver (2) in every category it entered.
The story of Game of Balls here:
Game of Balls credits:
Agency: M&C Saatchi Sydney
Executive creative director: Ben Welsh
Creative director: Ant Melder
Writer: Josh Bryer
Art director: David Jackson
PR manager: Matt Porter
Chief executive officer: Jaimes Leggett
Chief strategy officer: Justin Graham
PR: Bang PR
Managing director: Annalise Brown
Account manager: Peta Frost
Account executive: Zoe Finlayson
Production company: Digital Playground
Marketing & PR coordinator: Jeanette
Director: Jakodema
The Blue Ball Foundation
Founder: Jamie Morgan
The Stable’s other four awards are:
The Stable Work for Good of the Year award was won by Colenso BBDO’s DB Export Brewtroleum
The Stable Persuader of the Year award was won by The Monkeys’ Australian kids talk sport
The Stable Insight of the Year award, went to Clemenger Melbourne’s The Boys
The Stable Impact of the Year award went to 303Lowe, Captain Risky
