Cummins&Partners to develop AFL Finals Series campaign
The AFL has selected Cummins & Partners to develop this seasons AFL Finals Series campaign ahead of the code’s agency of record George Patterson Y&R Melbourne.
Cummins & Partners strategy director Adam Ferrier told Mumbrella: “We’re stoked to be working with the AFL and especially for the Finals Series which is the pinnacle of what the AFL is all about.”
While GPY&R remain as the AFL’s agency of record, Julian Dunne, AFL head of brand and market insights told Mumbrela the AFL wanted “wider thinking” on this project which sees the body working with Cummins & Partners on a one-off basis.
“It wasn’t a traditional pitch. We threw the opportunity out to a couple of agencies, we just wanted some wider thinking and Cummins & Partners presented us with a great idea. They turned it around really quickly, it was a strong campaign-able idea so we decided to work with them around the finals,” he said.
This is interesting on two fronts. The first, that the AFL would go near Cummins after the Jeep debacle. The second is that Patts have done pretty good work for AFL over the years. I can’t imagine that a finals campaign would be that taxing on an agency of that calibre. We will soon see if the work is different enough to have gone with a new agency, and if it is different, whether Cummins can pull it off (see point one).
We all will watch with interest.
The Jeep promo was a brilliant idea.That the execution was screwed over by a hacker is sad, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that it was and remains a brilliant idea. I’m sure they’ll do a great job for the AFL. Just as I’m sure as one day I’ll read about an auto brand overseas copying the Jeep promo.
Cummins seems to be on a roll.
So are Cummins in the business of promoting A-League soccer teams, or the AFL? Or perhaps that’s question for the respective brands?
Correction, it’s only a brilliant idea if it’s achievable & well executed. That’s why we pay agencies.
A good idea badly executed is a bad idea in consumers eyes. Not to mention the clients eyes. I’m sure they are watering at the moment.
@ ‘@maybe I’m amazed’. The Jeep promo was a brilliant idea, but it demonstrated how to turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear. That a hacker was able to screw it over was only part of the problem.
C&P brought Jeep an UNBELIEVEABLE gift; 30,000 excited entrants each with access to $10,000. Assuming only a fraction of that number were genuine, that’s still a HUGE number of REDHOT potential leads. Some of which could have been converted almost immediately into a vehicle sale (perhaps with a consolation offer of a spec upgrade), others that could have been massaged through social and other channels until they too were ready to buy.
And what did they do? No pre-prep of the database quantifying and qualifying leads (against visits to Jeep dealerships in the last month, for example); and a lack of diligence allowing a fatal flaw to undermine the whole exercise. The endgame for this promo was to just announce the winners, point the rest of the entrants to a Jeep dealership and they weren’t even halfway through the job.
I’m a big fan of the ‘I bought a Jeep’ proposition. I think it’s the best in the Australian automotive category and I’ve defended it against some real peabrains on mUmBRELLA’s pages in the past. But I’m really not impressed with how this played out from a marketing perspective. I’m hoping someone from C&P or FiatChrysler will correct any misapprehensions I have written here.
In football parlance, it looks like they dropped the ball.
They poisoned their database. And alienated their dealership network.
There are other articles on mUmBRELLA right now demonstrating the dangers of worshipping a brilliant idea for its own sake.