Outdoor sports marketing campaigns that reached beyond the billboard
Outdoor sports marketing campaigns that reached beyond the billboard
Part one features NRL State of Origin, XXXX x QLD Maroons, Vegemite x Ash Barty, Jordan x Jayson Tatum, TravisMathew x Jon Rahm, Nike x Colin Kaepernick, Cotton ON x Bailey Smith, Surreal.
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Outdoor and beyond
Outdoor (OOH) advertising is a form of paid media that brands use to capture attention and deliver high-impact brand messaging on a large-scale, targeting specific geographic locations.
Various forms of OOH can provide a platform for sports brands to communicate to existing customers and fans, and those outside of their owned channels.
Although geography limits who will see an OOH advertisement in real-life, successful OOH activity can:
Form the nucleus of a broader brand campaign
Enable brand messages to spread well beyond a billboard organically, into other forms of earned media
This article is part 1 (of 2) which showcases some examples (good and bad) of sports-themed OOH that reached far beyond the billboard.
The NRL launched a provocative advertising campaign during AFL Gather Round, that later backfired
In the lead up to State of Origin Game 1, the NRL launched a provocative OOH campaign in Adelaide (one of the AFL’s heartlands) announcing that:
“Real Footy is coming soon to Adelaide”
This bold campaign was a cheeky jab at its AFL rival, and aimed to drive ticket sales. Unfortunately for the NRL though, it ended up attracting a lot of negative attention, and delivered the opposite impact to the one it desired.
The AFL Gather Round in Adelaide that same weekend ended up being a huge success, providing clear proof that many people who walked past the billboard above would’ve disagreed with the definition of “real footy”.
Speaking on 4BC Brisbane Live, Neil Breen labelled this billboard
“… the dumbest piece of marketing I’ve ever seen”
Others called out the “lack of awareness” of the people in charge trying to promote the game in a non-rugby league state, and gave the opinion that the NRL have actually deterred people from buying tickets to the game.
The evidence suggests that the critics were right
The fans didn’t show.
During the game, large sections of empty seats were clearly visible and the atmosphere was negatively impacted.
The crowd ended up reaching 48,613, falling short of Adelaide Oval’s 53,500 capacity.
XXXX celebrates community contribution
Although the NRL may have got their pre-promotional ad campaign wrong, XXXX got it right.
To activate their sponsorship of the Queensland Maroons during State of Origin, they launched a community-themed campaign, repeating their highly successful stunt from the previous year - removing their iconic logo and replacing it with localised postcodes across various forms of media, including player’s sleeves on match day.
The success of the previous year encouraged XXXX to go bigger and this year they are so committed to the campaign, that they’ve even branded their own beer tanks.
Vegemite activated their Ash Barty sponsorship in real-time during the Australian Open
Working on behalf of Vegemite, Thinkerbell teamed up with QMS to broadcast messages of support, live scores and custom commentary during the Australian Open.
How did they do this?
QMS provided Thinkerbell with a custom portal where they were able to log in, create and edit each billboard, enabling them to showcase relevant creative in real-time.
The campaign went live across 19 premium QMS digital billboards, but was extended well beyond that through social media, mainstream media and trade press.
The Vegemite example is one of many that showcases how brands have used OOH in a “reactive” manner…
Jordan brand pays tribute to Jayson Tatum’s record breaking Game 7 performance
Following Jayson Tatum’s recent monster performance in Game 7 of the NBA playoffs where he scored a record 51 points (the highest ever in game 7 NBA history), the Jordan brand published an equally monster-sized billboard in New York.
TravisMathew capitalised off the Masters
Jon Rahm recently agreed to enter into a sponsorship agreement with TravisMathew, so when he recently won the Masters, the golf apparel brand leveraged this relationship by activating this giant digital billboard in Times Square to celebrate his win.
Nike x Colin Kaepernick
As part of Nike’s 30th anniversary of their “Just Do It” campaign, the embattled quarterback appeared in black-and-white across large format billboards which read:
“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”
Powerful and inspiring for most, provocative for others, this image (and the broader campaign) became instantly famous across the globe.
Bailey Smith catches eyes for Cotton On
Want a simple way to capture people’s attention in public? Put a shirtless Bailey Smith in your OOH campaign.
In 2022, Cotton On teamed up with AFL player Bailey Smith to launch their “Organic Cotton men's underwear range” across street furniture in Melbourne.
Smith’s trademark mullet and chiseled six-pack featured across a mix of 200+ static and digital OOH placements… so did the Cotton On clothing he was promoting.
Following the OOH campaign, many of Smith’s fans (football and non-football) took to social media to express their appreciation.
Surreal activated a cheeky OOH ambush campaign that went viral across the internet
UK-based cereal brand “Surreal” activated an attention-grabbing OOH campaign using creative that featured the names of some of the worlds biggest stars.
The catch? The asterisk that accompanied the headline…
The use of the names were not actually endorsed by the “famous” people who we all know, instead the people who featured were in-fact ‘regular’ people that the brand paid to take part.
As noted in the subheading:
‘Dwayne Johnson’ is actually a London bus driver
‘Serena Williams’ is a student
‘Michael Jordan’ is just a ‘normal bloke’ from St Albans
This campaign is very much in line with Surreal’s brand personality, which is playful, fun, cheeky, innovative… and risk-adverse.
It’s one of many highly successful creative campaigns that many other large established brands wouldn’t have the risk appetite for, but it’s one that has led Surreal to develop a cult following across social media.
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