YOU’VE GOTTA HAVE A TEAM

Enter an unusual hero:

Yoshi, a 10-year-old football-crazy kid who didn’t have a Hyundai A-League team.

Yoshi visited all 10 clubs and had them competitively pitch for his support. They pulled out all the stops to win him over. The clubs tailored ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences for Yoshi that in turn showed off their unique strengths.

He had a goal scoring master-class with Tim Cahill in Melbourne; a Maouri welcome in Wellington; sat in a RAF fighter jet in Newcastle; had Melbourne Victory #1 ticket holder George Calombaris cook him lunch; re-enacted John Aloisi’s famous World Cup qualification penalty in Brisbane; held the Grand Final trophy in Adelaide; fired a cannon with the Mariners; played beach soccer in Cottesloe; and flew in a chopper over Sydney harbour.

Yoshi shook the hands of 10x captains, high fived over 90 hero players, travelled over 21,000kms and took more than 1600 photos. He visited the clubs and gave them each the opportunity to win his support.

The campaign launched nationally and included TV, Cinema, Outdoor, Radio, Digital, PR, ten club content films and more than one hundred pieces of video content for social – all with a direct call to clubs, fans, players, sponsors to help Yoshi make his decision.

Yoshi shared reports, stats, fun facts, player profiles and training sessions. Hyundai A-League fans followed Yoshi’s journey on www.a-league.com.au/youve-gotta-have-a-team, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and generated be-spoke content to amplify the campaign. Teams encouraged fans to lobby for Yoshi’s support presenting their case using the hashtag, #ALeague.

- Fans made over 400,000 social posts.

- Twitter engagement increased by 670%.

- 6% increase in social following.

- Game attendances are up 34% YOY; TV viewership by 46% YOY.

- The campaign generated nationwide buzz with over 238 million earned media impressions worth AUD$10million.

- The A- League broke its all time club membership record (6% increase in club membership YOY).

The campaign had a positive effect on the HAL brand, across young families (Dec 2015 vs. Dec 2016):

- Awareness: 10% increase YOY

- Familiarity: 57% increase YOY

- Passion: 46.5% increase YOY

Source: Gemba Research

In addition, the campaign’s impact helped secure the value of FFA’s biggest TV deal in the history of the league.

Ultimately, Yoshi made his decision live on Sunrise and chose Melbourne City. But with the most incredible stats in the HAL’s history, it turned out every club was a winner.

‘You’ve Gotta Have a Team’ is an integrated direct response-driven campaign aimed to make real connections with desired fans - particularly kids - to support the Hyundai A-League (HAL).

Enter Yoshi, a 10-year-old football-crazy kid who didn’t have a team. He got up close and personal with every club, then told his story on social and digital channels to show everyone ‘You’ve Gotta Have a Team’.

Different calls-to-action across each of the channels encouraged fans, players, clubs, and sponsors to follow his journey, lobby for Yoshi’s support and ultimately helped inspire millions of young Aussies to pick their own team.

In previous seasons, we’d always engaged the traditional target for HAL: the 25-40 year old male sports fan.

But after a few seasons of flat growth, we needed to change our approach.

Digging through the FFA’s data on attendance, fans, membership and involvement in football, we came across the staggering fact that while 2.18million participate, less than half of those under 15 don’t have a HAL team.

Armed with this insight, we focused on converting kids’ passion for playing, into passion for a team.

We used unique storytelling and produced over 100 different types of content using a different kind of hero, Yoshi to appeal to our audience and make our conversion, from playing to supporting, effective.

Our call-to-action was direct, impassioned and personal every step of the way.‘You’ve Gotta Have a Team’ is a call to arms to choose and support your team.

For the past decade the Hyundai A-League (HAL) has enjoyed steady growth in fan numbers. But last year the figures plateaued. We needed to launch the 2016/17 Season in a way that encouraged new fans into the fold.

While a staggering 2.18 million Australians participate in grassroots football, more than half of kids aged 15 years and under don’t support a HAL team.

That unsettling realisation led us to ask:

How could we motivate kids who play football to get on board, show their colours and pick a Hyundai A-League team?