Lanna Hill: More than a sporting chance for brands to win more fans
As the world settles into two weeks of Olympic coverage, Australia is also preparing for its biggest sporting event of the year, the AFL grand final.
Last week announcing global superstar Katy Perry as the headliner act for this year’s big dance, the AFL would be well aware of the need for the halftime entertainment to hit the mark this year (pun intended), musically and culturally.
Whether we like it or not, the AFL is one of Australia’s biggest and most powerful brands, and it plays a strong role in Australian culture, as does the NRL, soccer’s A-Leagues, and Cricket Australia.
In years gone by, our expectations of the biggest events on our sporting calendar were far simpler; in most cases, it was just about the game.
In 2024, these brands have a far bigger platform and in turn, a far bigger opportunity to make social and cultural impact in a lasting way and reap the rewards that go along with it.
Similarly, our expectations as a population have increased and when the connectivity and immediacy of social media gives us the ability to compare the AFL grand final with the super bowl, Wimbledon or the World Cup, the stage is far bigger than it used to be.
As a sports enthusiast, I can understand the temptation to dismiss the suggestion that sports and their biggest events could be doing more to contribute to social and cultural change.
After all, shouldn’t it just be about the game?
The inconvenient truth is that 82 per cent of consumers want the values of a brand to align with their own, and they’re increasingly voting with their wallets, and contributing to the discussion on their own social media platforms in positive and negative ways.
As generation Z moves into pole position in Australia’s economy, forecast to account for 48 per cent of total retail spending by 2030, brands need to drastically sharpen their focus on community, authenticity and transparency or risk serious brand damage.
Last year, 4.98 million people tuned into the AFL grand final.
Two hundred million viewers watched a portion of the Super Bowl LVIII.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics pulled in a staggering 3.6 billion viewers worldwide.
These are some of the biggest platforms in the world, and when brands take a moral stance on the bigger social and cultural issues, the numbers, too, stack up.
One of my favourite examples is the partnership between Ally Bank and CBS to move the National Women’s Soccer League championship game into its first-ever prime time slot, boosting viewership by 71 per cent.
Isn’t it time for Australian brands and advertisers to start making the same moves?
As well as being a sports enthusiast, I’m an optimist.
I do believe that our biggest sporting codes can make a difference in issues such as gender equality, mental health, LGBTQIA+ awareness, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, reconciliation and more.
And progress has certainly been made in many of these areas — who could forget what the Matilda’s World Cup campaign did last year for women in sport?
But I would argue more could be done, and these brands (and their advertisers) should be grabbing these opportunities with both hands.
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