Gruen challenges agencies to sell soccer as the football code to rule them all
Tonight’s edition of The Gruen Transfer on ABC1 sees ad agencies Sense and 12:20 go head-to-head in trying to persuade the Australian public that all football codes should give way to soccer.
The show also sees new BMF CEO Jeremy Nicholas make his debut on the panel along with Jane Caro and regular panellists Todd Sampson and Russel Howcroft.
The show will be looking at the selling of religion and the spat between Harvey Norman and Kogan which saw Seven refuse to air an attack on the retail giant by its online rival.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Number 2 for me, but both play for laughs as opposed to getting to heart of the matter that it’s the only sport with true international competition.
There was definitely an angle on the players of other codes taking bookies money and generally being drunken/drugged up arses.
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Neither of these adds actually do anything to attempt to meet the brief presented, in fact they are both mildly insulting towards association football and continue to categorise it in the perview of only sheilas, wogs and poofters play soccer. Thanks for the terrible attempts.
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lulz socca is teh ghey!
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a hoppa joke?!?!? arn’t we a few years past hoppa jokes???
i’m gonna have to agree with General Ashnak – two quite poor attempts.
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The first one has the best idea, the second one is pretty weak in the creative department.
Whilst they both had good production values, the directing, editing and overall execution of both ideas was pretty poor.
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Agreed, in my opinion neither of these get to the root of the matter.
As a fanatical football fan i feel quite disappointed at both attempts, as well as mildly insulted by their approach.
If they wanted a good creative idea they should have called Craig Foster and asked to get inside the mind of a literate, knowledgeable and passionate football supporter who understands the psyche of the disenfranchised football fan.
Making it a war f the codes is just wrong. And I agree with @Wisey, a Hoppa joke really??
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Ad #1 for me. The juxtaposition of the arty shots for the first 30 seconds with the surprise biff and then the appeal to win the damned World Cup worked better for me.
The problem with soccer is … no matter how much I try to like it (and yes I watch all the national games no matter what hour) … that it is a pretty boring game alongside our local offerings. 90 minutes for a 0-0 draw?!? The most finely-tuned athletes in the world who can fall over and roll 5 metres when hit by the zephyr of breeze from an opposition player who comes within their personal space?!? Fix the product and you fix the problem.
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I concur with Wisey and Ashnak but prefer the first one.
a bit of a letdown after those amazing ads for the Greens and compulsory euthanasia
As a true football fan (hence not the target audience), i felt both didn’t sell the idea with any conviction and were just having a bit of a laugh with their rugby friends.
@John Grono – there are no more problems with soccer than there are with any of the other major codes in Australia, i find point scoring and continual stoppage in other codes ridiculously complicated and frustrating but i guess it’s just a matter of perspective
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A poor effort from both. They failed to do any research to understand what the game of soccer is all about and instead relied on old (and offensive) stereotypes.
Here is a tip for any young graduates. If you don’t know anything about the product you are selling, get out and do some reseach!
And seriously, a hopate joke…?
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I give these a penalty for an infringement on the box
Boom Tish
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Mocking the product you’re trying to sell is probably not the best way to go about it. The humour was poorly thought out. Overall both were pretty poor and both companies come off looking as though they couldn’t even be bothered doing basic research. The aim was to try and convert people into football fans and on this issue they have both failed miserably. No doubt Wil Anderson will find them funny though.
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These two agencies were given the task to sell Football to Australians and instead turned it into glorified adverts for Rugby and Aussie Rules cause they really need the publicity the poor darlings. Sums this country’s media up perfectly in my eyes.
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lol, pretty sure Iniesta is capable of evading guys like this and hey he won the world cup and scored the winner.
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I’m afraid the dinosaur 1970 soccer attitude behind these projects didn’t work. Fail!! How about a shot of Aussie sports fans climbing Everest. Base camp the Rugby League WC, Camp 1 the Cricket WC, Camp 2 Rugby Union WC etc to the Top with the Green & Gold Army supporters planting an Australian flag.
Oh the Aussie Rules WC..well their still back at Melbourne airport!
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Very lame ads. Would be good if occasionally the panel on Gruen just came out and said – this is crap. It undervalues the agencies that do make something surprising and brilliant which does happen from time to time. Seemed fairly obviuous that neither team actually play or wactch football. Also the racist tone of the first ad with the “wog” stereotype quite concerning.
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Really disliked both ads. It shows that they clearly had no knowledge of football and relied on poor stereo types. I cant believe one ad actually relied on a hopoate joke ? that is a seriously poor attempt
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very bad attempts at the brief. Both ads fall very flat and seem to use the very dated stereotype of football players are not “Hard enough” To me the ads simply achieved the opposite and promoted the AFL, rugby league and union.
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“MIldly insulting” to the most played game in the world?! Try, “moronic, year 7, try-hard humour”. The panel should have had the guts to not award the trophy for these. They both ignore their brief and do damage to the product they’re supposed to sell.
How about an ad concentrating on skill, technique and finesse? Two boys in science class, one carefully designing a life-saving medical device, one smashing his gear with a hammer. “Which one of these grew up to play soccer (sic)?” Shots of the first young man weaving through tackles and scoring then lifting the World Cup. Crowds screaming passionately. Voiceover,”There’s a reason it’s the most popular sport on earth”. Cut to shot of second young man standing, looking bewildered. Suddenly he’s smashed to the ground by a rugby tackle, gets up and waits for the next tackle. Voiceover,” Soccer, the three-dimesional game. If you’re good enough for it, it’s good enough for you. Play it. Watch it. Love it.”
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“persuade the Australian public that all football codes should give way to soccer.”
The pitch has always been a fantastic part of the show with some outstanding efforts in the past.The same can’t be said about either of these.
It really wasn’t a hard sell,in fact marketing is the only reason the game isn’t bigger in Australia.With over 40 billion viewers of the South African World Cup and nearly 5 billion people that take an active interest in the sport it really shouldn’t be that hard.
Using the outdated stereotype of “shielas,wogs and poofters” not only missed the point completely but probably cost both companies magnificent international exposure in the trillion dollar industry that is world football
The “Everest” example , “Who wants to be a Billionaire”, or 100’s of other themes would have worked
A brilliant opportunity completely undervalued by the clients
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both executions way off strategy as others have said.
perhaps the agencies didn’t have a suit to marshall the strategic thinking!
And yeah,didn’t the panel have the guts to call it as it was
willie63
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Reading the opinions from the public, the attempts were epic fails, and I think it would be interesting to try again using a couple of agencies with a clue and have a more 21st century veiw of Football [actual Football fans] rather then the prehisoric veiws of the first two attempts.
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Really disappointed in both of the attempts. Mocking your target can work on occasion but fails miserably in these cases. The fact that football aka soccer is a world-wide sport and loved by so many people should have been the focus of the ads rather than these attempts to drag other codes into it.
John Grono – I find your comments about 90 minutes and no scoring bizarre. I’m seen some of the most exciting matches of my life ending in draws. Just because the score wasn’t 876586 to 98684 doesn’t mean that it isn’t exciting. Although I suppose I have to admit I find AFL kinda weird because if you miss you still get a point!
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Both ads were shocking, im not going to go over why as the reasons have been covered quiet comprehensively above. I think it was wrong for Wil to award one of these terrible ads.
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Scott, I wouldn’t say bizarre. I was at the AFL Grand Final in 2005 when the Swans won by 4 points and again in 2006 when they lost by 1 point. They were amazingly exciting games but no-one was left with the hollow feeling of not having a winner.
The thing is I have been fortunate enough to grow up with – and play – all four codes here in Australia. I wonder how many fans of the roundball code can say they have similar experience and breadth across all those codes. Or are they content to neigh-say others without widening their vision. As a child I was a rugby league fan (grew up in the St. George area in their hay day), then a soccer fan (St. George Budapest – largely because of Johnny Warren, Manfred Schaeffer etc), then a rugby fan (Randwick – the Ellas, say no more), then found AFL in the mid 80s and can honestly say it is the most exciting of all the codes I have ever played or followed.
By the way, the origin of the point is from the aboriginal heritage of the game Marn Grook – somewhat older than Association Football may I add. Strange yes, but delightfully, eccentricly appealing. Mind you, bouncing an oval ball while you are running flat-chat is pretty odd too!
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I think you will find John that the vast majority of people who follow association football also do or have followed the other codes (in fact for me I have followed RL, RU, SANFL and various association football codes). I personally don’t understand the 0-0 draw being so emphasised when the average goals per games is more than 2, but the various pros and cons of the football codes is of second importance to the fact that last night we saw the Gruen Transfer award a prize to the second of these ads, and neither of them actually met the client brief – that is both shocking and disapointing. Did they honestly think either ad tackled the brief provided or do they think that if they personally had presented either of these ads to a client that the client would have gone: “Yes! Brilliant! Talking about punching out an opponent, or smashing them to the ground or shoving your fingers up their anus is the perfect way to promote our product! Here is a bonus for your creative endevour!”. I think not.
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John Grono this “my sports better than your sport” is old and boring. You don’t see swimmers bagging tennis players or cyclists bagging pole-vaulters. Let it go. They are different sports and many can enjoy them all. The project was to entice all sports fans to get out of the shallow end of the pool and head up the deep end. Let’s take on the world! And their attempts had an attitude with an ancient, 1970 under tone. Try again with a more current out look.
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I was under the impression that to advertise something you had to research it, gain some knowledge and then construct a knowlegable pitch.
In this case the idea is that the agencies have to ” sell ” the unsellable, which means that association is seen as an unsellable product.
These two agencies chose to prove how wimpy the game is when compared to the ” real ” men sports which really came out on top. They showed that they really have no clue because their knoledge is non-existant.
NO RESEARCH BY THESE AGENCIES LEADING TO TWO PATHETIC OUTCOMES.
Neither agency should have got the award as their attempts were bordering on bigotry.
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Too late! We already know soccer is as attractive as an overflowing drop toilet after a visit by a bus load of tourists with diarrhea, no amount of hype could make me eat out of that toilet bowl.
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You cant really blame them for the shit ads when they have to try to sell it to morons like ^^^
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I take your point Gotheberries. Just as well we don’t see people from ad agencies bagging the work of other ad agencies. Wouldn’t that be terribly old and boring.
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Gotheberries isnt from another ad agency mate…
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I thought they were both brilliant ads. Showed how tough the AFL players are and how football players need to get tougher to win the world cup. They also used that great stereotype that has been around AFL for years.
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Marci, thanks for clearing up something I didn’t say.
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These ads were so good that they have ignited the old ” soccer is for poofters” v ” Aussie-rules is for men “.
As a ginormous majority of the world population know and realise association football is numero uno with daylight 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
Sadly our insular media and some of the posters here seem incapable of accepting that fact.
The 2 agencies in question passed up a chance of a lifetime because of their ineptitude and anarchic thinking.
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May I remind everyone of ‘the brief’ from Wil Anderson.
“We all know the only way we’ll ever win a soccer World Cup is by channelling every atom of our footballing talent in one direction. So we asked our agencies to come up with a campaign to convince Australians to give up all the other codes – Aussie Rules, League and Union – so we can put everything we’ve got into soccer”.
While a ginormous majority of the world population play, follow, watch and love soccer, that was clearly NOT the target.
If you look at the data for 2010 we see:
* AFL 6,495,680 total attendance (H&A) averaging 36,907
* NRL 3,149,927 total attendance (H&A) averaging 16,406
* A-League 1,322,475 (2009-2010) total attendance averaging 9,796
* Super 14 1,964,708 total attendance (only data I could find) averaging 20,901
On this basis, the world scenario is irrelevant to hitting the local target. It appears to me as though both agencies were ‘on brief’ and ‘hitting the target’- i.e. followers of AFL, NRL and Super 14 – the three local dominant codes. You may argue as to their method, strategy and effectiveness but they seem to have done what Wil asked them to do.
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You’re talking rubbish John.Do you work for one of these agencies btw??.
It would have been very easy to do an add challenging Australians
“Are you good enough to take on the world .Sure you can play AFL or ,NRL and dominate at a local level but do you have the determination and skill to take on the best in the world in front of an audience of billions
Are you good enough to become Australia’s first real superstar in world football “”
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Mister Football – Football players need to get tougher to win the world cup? Skill and technique wins the cup. Look at the 2010 final, Holland (usually a master football team) put out a mixed martial arts team, a bunch of psychos who were ‘tough’ including flying ninja kicks into chests, and guess what. THEY LOST. They lost against skill and technique no matter how much they tried to kick Spain out of the game.
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John Grono – that’s your problem, you’re only watching the national game. Why don’t you watch something masterful like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jy9XIwGfwQ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenupVFSzjs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOK0nUpAdMI or any Maradona video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE-I4kKnTIg
that’s what they could have done, show one of these videos and say ‘football’. job done
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First, I work for no agency. I am a self-employed independent media researcher – hence my reliance on facts and ethnography to help form my opinions (and why I post using my name).
Yes I have seen many of those glorious videos of Ronaldo, Maradona et. al., and my contention is that most Australian sport lovers (and there’s a lot of us) have seen them as well. And you know what – showing ‘the beautiful world game’ at its pinnacle just doesn’t work here. It hasn’t worked for the past few generations of Aussies and on that basis I believe it won’t work in the near future. In fact, I think if you asked the average Aussie punter about Maradona they would say ‘hand of God’.
My point is, that despite massive exposure to the World Game Aussies are more than content to support four football codes. Name me any other nation on this planet that does that. And if you gauge the local support for each game by their attendances you can read the Aussie mind-set (TV ratings also rank the same). I also query the logic that just because something is big overseas means it has to be big here. Clearly I have no musical taste as well because I’m off to see Megan Washington tonight rather than trolling the Net for Justin Bieber songs.
So one has to ask, why do Australians hold such footballing preferences? I believe that there are four key factors. There is history or incumbency. We also tend to prefer contact sports. We tend to be tribal (but decreasingly so) in which team we support. Finally, we tend to like a result at the end of the journey (the introduction of ‘golden-point’ in NRL and the deathly silence after a draw in AFL demonstrates this).
These are the challenges that soccer face in replicating its worldwide dominance in Australia. Anyone that thinks that an ad campaign that relies on showing the ‘beautiful game’ to Australian sports lovers will work IMHO don’t understand the Australian sporting psyche.
The essence of the brief as stated by Wil was to ‘convince Aussies to give up all other codes’. The two ads shown clearly targeted existing supporters of those codes – how is that not bang on target and brief? I’m not convinced that either ad ‘cracked it’, but I thought the juxtaposition in the first along with the more subtle humour would go closest – and the Hopoate gag in the second was pretty crass.
So, I guess we have to agree to disagree. What I would like to see is some posters who are obviously very passionate about it to mash together some ideas and post the link on Mumbrella, because as you can tell I don’t have a creative bone in my body.
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I don’t think it’s bang on target John as it does more to promote the other codes, so rather than enticing the Australian public to give up these codes if favour of association football it drags out old stereotypes, uses lame humour and rubbishes the code it should be showing in a good light.
As for playing all codes, I can only put my hand up for 3, we don’t play Rugby League here in the south., and as for ” contact ” sports that have an outcome I stray from winter sport and bring up Australia’s love affair with cricket that, as I’m sure you’re aware, can end in draw after 5 days and has zero contact.
In light of what I’ve said throughout I still believe these guys were off the mark and did not address the brief
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I don’t think reinforsing very old stereotypes to get people to move away from their codes to follow Football would work.
So for me the adds were 5 minute jobs, unimaginative and failed!
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Fair enough Brian I see your point – especially with the cricket but I meant that comment in context of football codes.
I just didn’t think that either ad ‘promoted’ the other codes. I seriously saw this ad as promoting soccer and the dream of actually winning the World Cup.
The second ad (on air) bascially said to me – look at all these fabulous players we are able to produce in the other codes, imagine if we could unite and produce the same calibre of world beaters (leaving the poor taste Hopoate joke out of it – cringe) for soccer. Sure the first ad took a swipe at soccer but I took that as in jest in order to attract the target – Aussies love people, things and brands that can laugh at themselves. The second ad also did promote the hardness aspect, but I saw that as in-keeping with the players referred to and the ‘credibilty’ factor with existing code followers – could you seriously see them depicting Barry Hall as a Ronaldo-like twinkle-toes international soccer player, which would be laughable.
Do you see where I’m coming from? I’m not trying to be objectionable (but probably am achieving that) but footy followers who watched Gruen that I have spoken to (albeit only 7 AFL and NRL) basically saw it as soccer having a laugh at itself but sowing the “what if…” seed, without being denigratory to soccer.
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Both are crap, bar production on teh second ad.
Time and again we see Australian agencies with no strategic thinkers (and I dont mean the accounts department) and thus will not have the insight, therefore won’t hit the brief, will create something irrelevant and ultimately waste the target and the clients time.
And clients pay for this stuff!
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Soccer needs advertising. In fact hype is all soccer has because the on field action is as boring as hell, which is particularly apt given only masochists can endure the sport.
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Lachlan – if it’s so boring, why is it so popular, not only that, why does it continue to grow worldwide? learn the rules fool, understand offside and then you’ll see why the field action can be the most compelling of any drama. Look at the way Barcelona pass the ball, then watch everton play and see how much better Barca play. Stop being ignorant.
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John Grono is the stupidest person on the internet right now. Of course you’d be an independent media researcher, what company would hire you? Besides, showing people videos of Ronaldo(not the Portuguese transvestite) does convert them to fans. But Aussies don’t see this type of player because they don’t watch the sport.
And I don’t believe people as in general aussies haven’t been exposed to the pinnacle of football, maybe if they were and the media was kinder but we weren’t also so EPL centric then people would love the sport more. You said it yourself, ask some aussies about Maradona and they’ll say either hand of god(unlikely) or cocaine(unlikely cos more likely they dont know who he is) rather than know him as the greatest of all time. Yet show them some videos of Maradona and you’ll see the interest.
But fact is these ads fail because not only does it bring down ‘soccer’ but it’s obvious that they were ignorant, everyone knows brawn does not win you game, ‘soccer’ is a skill sport so the ads fail. Little masters like Xavi and Iniesta would run rings around someone like Barry Hall
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Rob, well I may have been at the moment you wrote that, but clearly that mantle belongs to you now by a country mile!
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These ads fail for me, as an avid fan of the world game I was excited when it was announced the pitch would involve converting Aussies to the game I love but I was disapointed that the opportunity to champion football and its qualities such as individual skill and fan passion, were ignored and instead bth agencies chose to subversively mock the game and play to common derrogotary views on the game.
Furthermore the suggestion that players like Barry Hall would win us games was the best laughs I have ever had, but for all the wrong reasons. Players like Hall may be great athletes but they have little to offer in terms of the individual skill that takes years to coach, your Ronaldo’s, Messi’s and Rooney’s would run rings around them, brute strength counts for nothing in football and would rather act as a disadvantage. Imagine a hothead like Hall succumbing to the mind games of a centre half, Muscat would have him sent off in seconds
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I’m a six foot four ex-striker, no AFL player has ever pushed me around and the rugby league guys spent their entire time trying to convince me to play their sport. Yes I play football, no I’m not weak. I’m not trying to say I’m tougher than AFL or rugby players, I’m just saying I’ve only ever witnessed them pick on smaller people, which begs the question are they tough at all? Even Barry Hall only ever threw punches when the other players weren’t looking, is that what constitutes tough in AFL?
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Hmm how would Barry Hall react to losing the ball and his body to a Paolo Maldini slide tackle or even better(or worse) a Nigel de Jong kung fu kick to the stomach.
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Get back on track people. Rob, calm it down. Nathan, this isn’t about you. This is for discussion about two ad pitches.
I thought both ads were average and not particularly humorous. Such a disappointing segment. Perhaps the greater the challenge, the better the ad companies rise to it.
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