National Australia Bank/ NAB: Fanshake [video]

Credits & Description:

Category: Financial Services
Media: TV, Print, Online, Email
Agency: Clemenger BBDO
Client: National Australia Bank
Brand: NAB
Company: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Melbourne
Target: Australia · Asia Pacific
Creative Chairman: James McGrath, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Executive Creative Director: Ant Keogh, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Creative Director: Rohan Lancaster, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Creative Director: Darren Pitt, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Art Director: Russel Fox, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Copywriter: Richard Shaw, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Agency Executive Producer: Sonia von Bibra, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Agency Print Producer: Michael Travers, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Director: The Glue Society (Jonathan KneebPaulone & Paul Bruty), Will O'Rourke
DOP/Cinematographer: Rob Marsh, Will O'Rourke
Editor: Luke Crethar, The Glue Society / Will O'Rourke
Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie, Will O'Rourke
Head of Projects: Josh Mullens, Will O'Rourke
Producer: Helen Morahan, Will O'Rourke
Sound Designer/Engineer: Paul LeCouter, Flagstaff Studios
Post Production: Finish Productions, Finish Productions
Managing Partner: Lee Simpson, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Group Account Director: Ben Knighton, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Account Director: Kyle Abshoff, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Account Manger: Navin Arunasalam, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Account Executive: John Stowell, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Social Copywriter: Chelsea Parks, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Digital Creative: George McQueen, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Digital Creative: Tom McQueen, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Chief Marketing Officer: Sandra de Castro, National Australia Bank
General Manager, Brand & Products Marketing: Kevin Ramsdale, National Australia Bank
Manager, Sponsorship Communications: Tim Clarke, National Australia Bank
Consultant, Sponsorship Communications: Katelyn Whinfield, National Australia Bank
Associate, Sponsorship Communications: Ben Willis, National Australia Bank
Features: Pages, Boosted Posts, Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, Custom Audiences, Video Ads
Language: English (UK)
Objectives: Awareness, Preference, Online Traffic, Direct Response
Tags: Financial Services, Asia Pacific, English (UK), Pages, Boosted Posts, Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, custom audiences, Video Ads, Awareness, Preference, Online Traffic, Direct Response, TV, Print, Online, Email  
Campaign Description
Professional sports earn millions of dollars from sponsorship deals, with brands paying to slap their logo on stadiums and team kits. But as the professionals get richer, grass roots sports struggle.
As a sponsor of Australia’s national sport (Australian Rules Football – AFL) National Australia Bank (NAB) wanted to buck that trend and use our sponsorship to help the sport at every level.
We found that amateur Australian Rules Football clubs rely on volunteers to keep going, but many struggle to get the help they need. Some larger clubs need upwards of 200 volunteers to run games for every age group, but can’t get anywhere near that number.
To generate volunteers, we harnessed one thing every sport has – fierce fan rivalry – and turned it into something positive by getting supporters to set #Fanshakes.
NAB Fanshake pitted fan against fan. Supporters backed their team against a mate’s team – each pledging to volunteer at a local club if they lost. The stakes could be any voluntary job, like mowing the pitch, refereeing a game or taking junior training sessions.
#Fanshakes could be set directly on Facebook, by tagging a friend and stating a pledge, or via our website. Users simply picked a match, a pledge and tagged their rival. A Fanshake post was automatically generated and shared straight to their rival’s wall.
Losing supporters then posted user generated content of their volunteering efforts.
Our objective was to engage the 7 million AFL fans (the largest number of supporters of any sport in Australia) and create a campaign they would participate in – which would ultimately generate volunteers for grass roots AFL.
We also wanted to make our social channels more engaging and move it away from a functional source of financial information. Finally, our goal was to change the perception of an unpopular major bank among customers and non-customers, through a positive use of sponsorship.
Campaign Goals
Facebook played an integral role in this campaign. We used press, online media and TV commercials during live matches to reach fans. But Facebook was the channel where we could engage supporters and drive participation.
Facebook allowed supporters to set pledges with fellow fans and show the proof of them volunteering if they lost.
People could set Fanshakes in two ways, directly on Facebook by tagging a friend and setting a volunteering pledge, or via our campaign website. Our site used Facebook to make it easy to challenge a friend. Users simply picked a match, a pledge and then a rival using tag functionality. A challenge post was then automatically generated and shared straight to their rival’s wall. By utilizing share functionality it made pledges instantly visible in the Facebook feed, causing more people to follow through with their Fanshake since they were now accountable to their peers.
Every challenge had bespoke share copy and team imagery tailored to the match.
Facebook was our main season long media channel. We developed a plan to reach fans when they are most engaged in the sport and their club.
Dark posts were created and directly targeted to fans of different teams – with strategies used to engage them at certain points and continually optimized through testing. These approaches differed for each team and changed in real time depending on performances.
Facebook was the right platform to engage with fans and made their experience better by leveraging the existing behavior supporters already showed - they could easily set a Fanshake and their rival was automatically notified.
It also helped achieve our objectives of reaching our audience. Not only was content succeeding organically and but we also used the #fanshake hashtag to aggregate all this content on our website. To accompany this we had a number of PR pieces from major AFL TV Shows featuring panelists and guests. They set their own Fanshakes on air and Facebook.
Campaign Performance
By the end of the season, fans across the country had used Facebook to set Fanshakes and volunteered at local clubs, posting their efforts. Their pledges and user generated content amassed over 19 million social impressions – in a country of just 24 million people.
It engaged fans on a social level to such an extent, the campaign generated over AU$23.3 million in earned media with national news coverage and every major AFL TV show covering Fanshake and setting their own.
But it didn’t just help the sport, it had a direct business impact surpassing our goals of shifting perception of the bank. Positive sentiment for NAB was at an all time high of 80%.
The campaign strengthened brand retention by increasing consideration with customers by 16% and non-customers by 12%.
It earned NAB a Share of Voice of 60% out of every major AFL Sponsor, more than double that of the primary sponsor Toyota.
And it made our social channel somewhere customers and potential customers wanted to engage. All by using our sponsorship to help the game at every level, and harnessing the passion fans have for their sport, rather than simply paying to make rich clubs richer.