TAB shines a light on some of Australia’s greatest sporting moments in latest ‘Long May We Play’ campaign
TAB has continued its brand platform ‘Long May We Play’, that launched for the spring racing carnival with a wider campaign highlighting the range of sports Australians love.
The ad opens with footage of yachts and the audio clip of the late, former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, stating “I tell you what, any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum”, following Australia’s America’s Cup victory in 1983. Other sporting highlights in the ad include Melbourne Cup winning jockey, Michelle Payne, telling people who don’t believe in women’s abilities to “get stuffed”, AFL commentator’s Mike Williamson’s call of “Jesaulenko, you beauty”, and Steven Bradbury winning gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The campaign was created by M&C Saatchi, which won the creative account back in January. The ‘Long May We Play’ brand platform launched in September, angling more on the idea of ‘play’, whereas the follow up in October took a more emotional approach to acknowledge those involved in grassroots horse racing.
M&C Saatchi chief creative officer, Cam Blackley, said the agency wanted to bring great sporting moments to life in the campaign.
“Long May We Play is really about the power of connection, be it a small fan insight or a moment of Australian sporting folklore that becomes part of our identity. With the latest work we wanted to bring fans those iconic Aussie moments from an angle they’ve never seen before and remind them about the power of racing and sport to bring us together,” Blackley said.
Tabcorp executive general manager of marketing, customer and product, Luke Waldren, spoke of the move to focus on a wider variety of sports.
“TAB understands the role racing and sport play in Australian life, and long may it continue. In this spot, we salute some of the most epic moments that have transcended time and culture in our country. It’s these moments that matter to TAB and we love nothing more than celebrating them with our customers, particularly at this time of year. It’s when millions of Australians will connect with TAB at the track, online, or in one of our venues and cheer home the winner of the race that stops the nation. This is category-breaking work and something we are excited to share,” Waldren said.
60, 30 and 15 second cut downs of the 90 second launch film will appear in the coming weeks.
Credits
TAB
Luke Waldren – EGM Marketing, Customer & Product
Kent Madders – Head of Brand & Marketing
John Vellis – General Manager of Media & Sponsorship
Jonathon Rhydderch – Senior Marketing Manager, Brand
M&C Saatchi
Cam Blackley – Chief Creative Officer
Guy Futcher – Creative Director
Chris Cheeseman – Head of Art
Michael Harris – Senior Copywriter
Roy Leibowitz – Senior Copywriter
Neil Walshe – Senior Art Director
Chris Wilson – Senior Art Director
Justin Graham – Chief Strategy Officer
Nick Jacobs – Senior Strategy Director
Russell Hopson – Group Managing Director
Jasmina Porter – Group Account Director
Will Woods – Senior Account Director
Karen Muxworthy – Senior TV Producer
OMD
Dan Clark – Business Director
Scott Crisp – Account Director
Bethany Sawyer – Account Manager
Mark Aloe – Account Executive
Production Company: Revolver
Director – Bruce Hunt
MD/Executive Producer – Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer – Pip Smart
Producer – Sarah Nichols
DOP – Simon Duggan
Editor – Joanna Scott
Colourist – Justin Bromley
Post Production – Fin Design + Effects.
Editorial – ARC Edit
Music – Daniel McCormick
Audio House – Rumble Studios
The more this campaign goes on
the more you realize how torturous
and devoid of emotion it is
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Love this campaign and seeing how it’s coming to life.
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These ads are about as emotive as they come – get more of them on our screens
I assume you aren’t a sports fan & work on creative for a pharmaceutical brand or something?
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I hate gambling and am nup to the cup but to say this is void of emotion is sadly just not true and just makes us haters sound stupid. It’s beautifully written and crafted but long may it fail.
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Cold. Distant. Forgettable. Dull. Strangely depressing.
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Should just be titled ‘Long’
The 90 secs was torturous and the felt like longest ad break in history.
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Yeah, I like it.
It’s a betting ad but it is all about sport. Nice strategy.
But JV, where is “Leo Barry you star” from the 2005 AFL GF? Or Norman May saying “It’s gold, gold, gold for Australia”?. And what about Cadel Evans on Galibier or on the podium on Champs Elysees?
Just three quick thoughts that shows that this campaign can have legs.
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While I’ve got better things to do with my money than give it to TAB, I love the treatment here. About 7/10 of the scenarios are genuinely seminal moments from our sporting history. Who could forget waking up at 4am to watch Australia II win against Liberty. Not sure about the boxing add on, but love the finish on Makybe Diva on her 3rd Melbourne Cup. Australia is a society founded on making sport and leisure famous – get over it.
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Better than the Tourism Oz rubbish.
Sadly it’s still a gambling ad — albeit far less annoying than the blokey or pommy git ads from the competition.
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TAB need to find relevance with modern punters against a swarm of innovative and large global
competitors. This ad does the opposite… and recently announced record low results back that up.
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