2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

We commissioned illustrations of three players; Tim Cahill, Bruno Fornaroli and Thomas Sorensen. We identified a character trait for each player; Tim Cahill – The warrior. Shown with his Samoan tattoos that compliment his combatitive style of play. Bruno Fornaroli – El Tuna. The club’s leading scorer fast and silky skills accompanied by a prickly and spikey character. Thomas Sorenson – Ice Man. The great Dane, totally unflappable and cool under pressure. The illustrations all featured the heavy use of the clubs main colour – sky blue and some calligraphic style typography to add a sense of passion and urgency.

Creative Execution

We began by searching for pictures of the chosen players that reflected their key attributes. We then created mood boards with which we could brief the illustrator. Each illustration was designed to highlight what made each of the players individual and special. Once the illustrations were complete we added the calligraphic style typography to create a sense of passion and urgency. Each poster featured the players name and nick name and ‘This is our city’ and a call to action. The posters had to be designed so that they could be reconfigured to a wide range of different formats from portrait to landscape without losing any of their impact.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Fans, players and the club all loved the posters. Following the posters appearing all around Melbourne membership rose 37% year on year. Match day attendance rose 5% year on year and retail sales are up 10% year on year.

The strategy was simple. Show the fans the quality of the players that make up the team. Share the character traits of these players and create a connection between the players and the fans that would create an emotional bond and ultimately drive ticket sales and membership. The posters featured the line ‘This is our city’ together with a call to action to join the club.