Ogilvy Melbourne's Viral Home Run

Teasers videos for a new Jet Couriers Melbourne Aces TVC campaign – all developed by Ogilvy Melbourne - have gone viral across the globe, generating more than half a million views in more than 190 countries.

 

The three TVCs were released early on YouTube prior to going live on Australian television, in an effort to generate additional interest and awareness in the lead up to the launch of the baseball season in November. Designed to get more people attending Aces games, the full suite of TVCs have now gone live on free to air and pay-TV.

 

Entitled ‘A different ball game’, the campaign shows Aces players take on seemingly impossible sporting tasks to demonstrate their sporting prowess. The first shows Aces player Cameron Forbes landing a hole in one with a baseball bat rather than a golf club. The second shows Ace’s player Scott Wearne finishing off a 7-10 ten-pin bowling split with two baseballs and the third features Aces player Brad Harmon at the State Hockey Centre taking on two hockey players blindfolded – and catching ten hockey balls in a row.

 

Ogilvy Australia’s Chief Creative Officer Steve Back said the campaign and teaser videos had been developed to show Australian sports fans just how exciting baseball could be. “The Australian sporting landscape is dominated by AFL, Rugby League and Cricket and it’s often hard for sports such as Baseball to gain traction,” he explained.

 

“As a result, it was important to create a campaign that showed how strong, skilled and amazing this sport really is, and how entertaining the Melbourne Aces really are. By creating three TVCs that are also suitable for social media, we’ve captured the attention of sporting fans and generated plenty of discussion around whether these feats are even possible – we’d say come along to an Aces game to find out!”

 

Back said while much of the footage that made it into the final TVCs and YouTube video footage was altered to make it more compelling and entertaining, several of the players “got pretty close” to achieving the tasks during filming. “This campaign is designed to be fun, entertaining and get people thinking about baseball when perhaps they hadn’t before. To make them realise baseball really is a different ball game, and by attending an Aces game, they are going to see world class athletes competing at the highest level doing amazing things.”

 

 

The campaign’s viral success online was also an indication of how much the advertising landscape had changed in recent years according to Back. “For certain demographics it’s now vital that campaigns are created in a way that is appealing across a range of formats and channels,” he said.

 

“Combining traditional TVCs with social media in this campaign has given the Melbourne Aces exposure to a whole new audience that may not have been possible in the past.”
He said key statistics from the ‘teaser’ campaign on social media are staggering:

- Youtube views: 566,836 (and climbing)
- Hours of video watched: 4,041
- Number of countries the video was viewed in: 192
- Number of online mentions of the videos: 1,466 (across Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs,
news sites etc)
-Number of websites the video featured on: 120+
-Number of mentions of 'Melbourne Aces' online: an increase of 81% month-on-month

The campaign is the first collaboration between the Melbourne Aces and Ogilvy Melbourne, with the three 30-second TVCs running on free to air and pay television from now until November. Filming was undertaken at Sanctuary Lakes Golf Club, AMF Bowling at Watergardens and the Victorian State Hockey and Netball Stadium.

Credits:
Chief Creative Officer: Steve Back
Art Directors: Sally Hastings, Brett Edwards
Copywriters: Tim Pashen, Michael Punton
TV Producer: Luke Coulson
Senior Account Manager: Toby Gill
Exit Films: Brett Luderman, Corey Essey, Jeremy Flynn
Fin Design: Morgan MacCuish, Julian Ford
Flagstaff Studio: Brodie Flint, Dee Gjedsted