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Fairfax launches campaign for newly-acquired AFL fantasy website Ultimate Footy

Fairfax sports journalist Michael Gleeson explains the rules

Fairfax has launched a campaign to promote Ultimate Footy, an AFL fantasy football website that it quietly acquired in September last year.

Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission is sponsoring the site, which goes head-to-head with the Herald Sun’s Supercoach and AFL Media’s Dream Team.

Details of the deal to acquire the popular site remain unclear as Mumbrella went to press.

A push to promote Ultimate Footy comes just under a year after News Limited expanded the reach of Supercoach from online into TV, and put some of its Supercoach content behind a paywall.

Ultimate Footy – a draft-based fantasy footy site – will sit under The Age and other Fairfax Metro Media online mastheads, targeting men aged 15-50 in states where the sport is most popular; Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.

“The draft is what sets Ultimate Footy aside from your tired, traditional fantasy football games,” says Fairfax Sports journalist Michael Gleeson in a promo video for the site.

“Competing sites are expected to move to this increasingly popular format by launching new draft games this year,” Fairfax admitted in a press release.

A campaign for Ultimate Footy will run on print, online, mobile and radio between February and April. A mobile app has also been produced for the site.

TAC is to integrate its own campaign with Ultimate Footy advertising, and will sponsor Ultimate Footy Draft Guide that will be published in The Saturday Age to explain to consumers the best way to pick their teams.

TAC CEO Janet Dore said in a media statement: “The TAC is pleased to be the official launch partner for Ultimate Footy. It provides us with a great opportunity to engage with young male drivers who are four times more likely to have an accident compared to other drivers. This partnership means that the TAC’s road safety messages will have high exposure to footy fans visiting the Ultimate Footy site.”

Fairfax Media’s chief product officer Sigrid Kirk said a media statement: “There is a big appetite for draft-based fantasy football games and the launch of Ultimate Footy is a key step in our strategy to reinvigorate our sports brands and build on the incredible strength of our editorial coverage.”

Fairfax Metro Media national sales director, Paul Sigaloff, added: “Ultimate Footy will attract loyal regular users who are highly engaged with sport. This will allow us to capitalise commercially on the growing draft-based fantasy sports game market, in terms of traffic and sponsorship opportunities.”

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