Netball and the Robert Irwin effect
From viral to valuable: Why sports marketers need to think like entertainment marketers
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See you there?!
We’ve been blown away by the response to Thursday’s Happy Hour Sports Industry Networking event, presented by Groblox.
There’s a handful of tickets left so if you're planning to come along later today grab your ticket now HERE
Event details:
Date: Thursday 7 August
Time: 3:00pm - 6:30pm
Location: Sydney
Venue: Level 3, Hotel CBD, 52 King St
Tickets: $27
Who’s coming?
Here’s a list of some of the top sports organisations that people are attending from: Sydney Roosters, Surfing NSW, Australian Turf Club, Foxtel, Mizuno, Sydney Swans, YouGov Sport, Speak Communications, Global Institute of Sport, AFL, Maake, Rugby World Cup, SportsCloud Australia, Sky Media, Twenty First Group, Hoozu, Pitchup, Medibank, Sydney Catholic Schools, Prince Sports & Entertainment, Gemba, TLS Talent, St George Illawarra Dragons, Groblox, OneFootball, Asahi, Merivale, Banter, Supercars, Venues NSW, Ironman, KOJO, Rebel Sport, Newscorp Austraila, SWAARM, Sports Entertainment Network, Seeker Agency, Football Australia, NBL, Southern Cross Austereo, Total Sport + Entertainment, TGI Sport, Greenroom Digital, IMG, Rugby Australia, QBE, Always Human, Woolworths, Australian Olympic Committee, Sydney FC
🙌 Huge thanks to our event partners
MEE Agency - who we're partnering with to deliver this event
Groblox.au - our Presenting Partner who are helping to ensure that we're able to bring the sports industry together in a fun, sustainable and meaningful way
Asahi Super Dry who are helping us make happy hour extra special!
Can’t wait to see you there!
Cheers 🍻
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Guest Writer: Britt Bell, General Manager - Marketing at Sunshine Coast Lightning
Britt is a strategic marketer and brand builder with nearly a decade of experience across professional sport, major events and community-led initiatives.
Currently General Manager – Marketing at Sunshine Coast Lightning, Britt has helped shape the stories of some of Australia’s most iconic sporting organisations across Netball, NRL, AFL and the Commonwealth Games. From launching sold-out arena campaigns to managing PR in high-stakes environments, Britt’s approach is simple: don’t wait for the spotlight to be on you, build it. With a background in brand, marketing, media and commercial strategy, Britt has built campaigns that connect with audiences, deepen fandom and bring new audiences into the fold and drive commercial outcomes.
In today’s article, she shares her perspective on why sport doesn’t just need fans; it needs attention, avoiding waiting for viral moments in sport and how to start engineering them.
Enjoy the read!
Netball and the Robert Irwin effect
From viral to valuable: Why sports marketers need to think like entertainment marketers
In 2025, one of Super Netball’s biggest moments wasn’t just about the score. A recent campaign was proof that women’s sport has everything it needs to dominate the cultural conversation that resonates with Australians. A blueprint for how to turn “just a guest appearance” into a layered, multi-platform moment.
In an increasingly cluttered sports and entertainment landscape, breakthrough moments aren’t just nice to have - they are essential. Cultural relevance moves faster than traditional media can keep up. And in April 2025, Sunshine Coast Lightning saw an opportunity and sprinted with it.
This wasn’t just a celebrity appearance. It was a multi-platform storyline that sparked national engagement before the game even began. The surprise appearance of conservationist and TV personality Robert Irwin at their Round 3 clash against the Queensland Firebirds was the culmination of a calculated, PR and social media campaign that cut through the noise and delivered a measurable impact for their club and the league.
Build the moment before it happens
Creating a social-first strategy made fans care before the moment even happened.
The moment started back in October 2024, while sitting in the yearly strategy meeting asking the question – what’s the big idea and moment for the 2025 season to support our club and league? A wild idea: What if Robert Irwin attended a Lightning game?
A Sunshine Coast local, conservationist, TV personality and national treasure, he was extremely aligned and loved by the target audience but has yet to engage with the club throughout its history.
How could Lightning build a moment so compelling that Irwin, and fans, couldn’t say no?
What if social media could be used not just to reach him but to build a reason for him to want to come?
It wasn’t luck. It was a playbook.
At the start of the Suncorp Super Netball season in April, Sunshine Coast Lightning launched their official social media pitch to get Robert Irwin to attend a game activating largely on social media, trying everything from direct messaging to getting fans to tag him and saving him a reserved seat for whenever he was ready to join them for a Lightning game.
The Lightning also utilised some of their star power with the players posting and tagging Irwin to come along to a game, ranking in the top four posts across all platforms, showing the hype around the invite was just as engaging as Robert’s attendance itself.
Just a user-driven story, executed on TikTok and Instagram, with fans encouraged to tag Robert. The charm was in the simplicity, and it quickly caught on. Players amplified it. Fans flooded the comments. The league, broadcaster and Robert’s team noticed.
Behind the scenes, plans formed to turn the hype into something real. The story became the strategy.
Engineered to look effortless
Irwin arrived quietly. He visited players in the changerooms pre-game. And then, in a moment traditionally reserved for sponsors or special fans, Irwin stepped out onto the court after the lights went up to reveal himself to a sold-out arena and deliver the match ball.
The reaction? Pandemonium.
The stadium erupted. The moment aired live on Fox Netball. Social media exploded. And Robert reshared nearly every Lightning content piece to his 7.6 million Instagram followers - delivering staggering unpaid reach. After the reaction, Irwin also joined Fox Netball for a quarter-time interview and addressed the crowd at three-quarter time.
It was an opportunity for a bigger moment for what women’s sport and sport more broadly needs to do to create moments that cut through. A rare but highly strategic moment that reminded us what the sports industry is really competing for: attention.
Cultural capital converted to commercial value
This wasn’t just a feel-good stunt - it moved the needle.
Irwin’s appearance, timed with his viral Bonds campaign and “Dancing With The Stars” debut, generated over $1 million in estimated PR and media value according to reports, with News.com.au, DailyMail and The Project covering the moment.
The engagement didn’t stop there. Fox Netball, Super Netball and BINGE all posted live clippings of the moment, contributing to one of Super Netball’s top-performing Instagram posts of the season. The post alone accounted for nearly a third of the league’s total Instagram impressions, sparking cross-team banter, fans begging for Robert’s return, and widespread buzz well beyond Queensland.
The campaign’s best marketing came from the comments section
With hundreds of comments across every post, the comments became the campaign too.
“What a fun night! Thanks for having me 🙏🏼” - @robertirwinphotography
The Robert Irwin effect delivered on its goal to drive reach, engagement and cultural relevance for Sunshine Coast Lightning. Beyond bringing Robert into the arena to surprise fans, the social-first initiative became a viral campaign, with ‘Robert Irwin netball’ trending on TikTok with hundreds of user-generated content pieces.
This quickly became one of the most effective digital moments of the 2025 season for Lightning and Suncorp Super Netball. In just 48 hours, Lightning saw a 309% increase from their average game day impressions, 130% increase in engagement and 1.37 million impressions in the lead up to the game.
The moment extended for days with Irwin’s 7.6M Instagram followers, his personal reshares delivered unpaid global exposure money can’t buy. With 412k+ views on TikTok, the moment also captured the attention of people around the world and expanded Netball into a new market with a large US following.
The effect? Lightning saw its highest venue utilisation rate across its history and the league, with fans eagerly wanting to be part of the next big moment at UniSC Arena. The broadcast numbers also tell a story with this match sitting as part of Round 3, one of the highest performing rounds of the season for the league and Lightning, increasing average match and streaming viewership with streaming interest amplified by social media coverage before the game started.
Why slow-burn storytelling can win in a world chasing attention
The campaign and moment elevated the club and league to new cultural relevance, becoming evidence that creative, social-first storytelling can drive real ROI, not just ‘buzz’. Leading the cultural conversation, not just following it.
From TikTok snippets of screaming fans to headlines in national media, this integrated media, broadcast and social campaign created a content arc that fans could follow, interact with and share, helping generate ongoing conversation, not just a one-off spike. It proved that netball and women’s sport can own the mainstream spotlight. And the real question we need to be asking is not “How lucky are we?” but: How do we make moments like these happen more often?
Flash back to 2023, the Matilda’s captured the hearts of Australians with over 11 million Aussies tuning into their FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final, making it the most-watched TV broadcast in Australia history (not just sport. In TV. Ever).
The impact didn’t come from results alone, it came from the narrative - heroes with humility, role models with edge and personality.
It came from storytelling, visibility and emotional connection that created viral, feel good moments that captured the attention of more than just Football fans. Bigger than just a moment in sport. It was a cultural reset. And it’s a formula every sport can apply - men’s, women’s, emerging or elite.
Take Netball. In 2025, it continues to be the most played team sport by women in Australia, with 1.2 million registered participants nationally (both male and female) and the highest attended women’s sport in Australia but does participation always translate into fandom?
While the Suncorp Super Netball league saw record-breaking growth in 2024 and again in 2025, with the recent 2025 Suncorp Super Netball Grand Final recording a record breaking crowd - the sport has the opportunity to do more with the media and its mainstream cultural presence.
The question we can ask is: is there a performance, product or a visibility and storytelling barrier?
The answer? We need more Robert Irwin effect moments to drive visibility and relevance.
Why the Robert Irwin effect landed
Right person. Right platform. Right time.
It was unexpected but relevant - It was the right person, at the right time in the right place. A Sunshine Coast local with global fame, his appearance felt natural, not forced.
It transcended the game - it wasn’t just a highlight from the match. It was entertaining and earned attention from outlets that don’t typically cover netball.
It activated new audiences - Irwin’s 7.6 million followers on Instagram and infatuation from Millennials and Gen Z’s gave netball access to connect with a new demographic - TikTok loving Gen Zs, nature lovers, reality TV fans and lovers of Australian icons - Australia-wide and even in the US.
It was aligned with broader media cycles - with Irwin’s Bonds campaign launching and his DWTS stint not far away, the timing added momentum to the moment and allowed netball to leverage momentum already building elsewhere.
5 lessons for sports marketers
The takeaways every club, code and brand could apply immediately.
Think like entertainment marketers, not just sports administrators
If we want sport - across all levels and genders - to grow and thrive, we need to think like entertainment marketers, not just sports administrators. The job isn’t just filling seats, it’s capturing screens, headlines and hearts.
It’s always better to earn eyeballs than try and buy them
Eyeballs are earned, not guaranteed. Moments like Irwin’s appearance earn attention that ads can’t and help bridge the gap between sport and mainstream pop culture. The aim should be to generate conversation beyond the field of play too.
Organic is good. Strategic is better
Plan for spontaneity. Build moments with purpose. Planning for moments that feel real but are backed by strategy makes them scalable, helping to take a local moment national (or global).
Sport doesn’t live in a silo. Talent should be part of the ecosystem
Every team has connections to talent. We can bring them into the stories, not just the seats. Bring them into your ecosystem and ‘universe’, not just as spectators but as storytellers.
Chase moments, not just metrics
Data matters. But moments are what people remember - and share. Fans remember, media amplify and sponsors and broadcasters invest in. Chase moments not just metrics for fandom and lifelong loyalty.
The Bigger Picture
This case study is proof that women’s sport has everything it needs to dominate the cultural conversation that resonates with Australians.
Treat the Robert Irwin effect as a case study to inform scouting talent, timing media drops or building player-led hype series. But also as a way to show up differently and stop waiting for the media space. To start creating it.
To not play it safe and start chasing moments that can capture the next generation of fans, inspire investment and remain competitive among the sports industry.
Women’s sports don’t need to change what they are. They just need to tell its story in a compelling, creative and culture-led way to cut through and build relevance with new markets.
Because when you build something memorable, people want to be part of it. Fans. Brands. Broadcasters. So give them something to remember.
Sport isn’t just competing with other codes anymore. It’s competing with everything.
And in a world where sport competes with everything for attention, the message is simple: Let’s not wait for the next viral moment. Let’s build it.
Want to make noise in sport? Don’t just chase attention. Create it.
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Not a subscriber yet? Discover specialised sports marketing insights, tailored for sports industry professionals within Australia and across the globe. If you work in sports for an agency, brand or rights-holder then this is for you.