Your AFL team is losing. You have better things to do than watch its final humiliation. So you leave. According to research nearly one in three AFL fan admit they’ve left a game early because their team was losing.

Official AFL partner, DiDi, is turning that behaviour into a penalty, with a fiendish idea by Sunday Gravy and EXIT director, Conor Mercury. Loser Saver rewards fans who stay until the final siren, with fares getting cheaper the longer they remain at the ground. Leave early and you’ll pay the price.

The campaign, fronted by four-time premiership coach, Kevin Sheedy, calls out “sore losers with sore loser attitudes”, urging supporters to “sit down and watch your team lose like a champion”.

The campaign was pre-seeded across social, with a staged video of Sheedy telling off Essendon fans for trying to leave the game early. In just 48 hours, the video gathered millions in organic reach, bringing sore losers into the cultural conversation for DiDi to own.

Timed to appear on stadium big screens at three-quarter time, when the temptation to leave is highest, the campaign also rolls out across TV, out-of-home, social, influencer and digital.

Tim Farmer, head of marketing at DiDi Australia, stated, “Some of the best nights out are at the footy, and the fun shouldn’t stop at the final siren. Sore Loser Saver rewards those loyal fans who stay until the end, regardless of the score, with cheaper rides to wherever the night take them next.”

Mary Graham and Phoebe Joiner, senior creatives at Sunday Gravy, added, “The easiest thing to do when your team’s getting beaten is leave. We wanted to make staying the better option, rewarding fans who stick with their team right to the end.”

Credits:

Client: DiDi
Head of Brand Marketing: Tim Farmer
Senior Marketing Manager: Josh Dorevitch
Marketing Manager: Dylan Vale

Creative & PR Agency: Sunday Gravy
Post Production (Offline, Grade & Online): Sunday Gravy 

Production Company: EXIT Films
Director: Conor Mercury
DOP: James Haskard
Producer: Luke Kneller 
Music Composition: Electric Sheep