Project Overview
Helping a community of AFL players launch a platform for collaboration, education and climate action.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Jordan Stokes - Creative Director
Caroline Leung - Design Director
Jaymee Kim - Senior Designer
Alanna Roy Bentley - Motion and Digital Designer
Ella Campbell - Strategist
Ashleigh Gay - Strategist
Hannah Turner - Strategist
Editing / Videography: Mushroom Group (https://mushroomgroup.com/)
Project Brief
AFLP4CA are a climate action group made of AFL and AFLW players, ex-players and people working within the AFL as an industry.
In early 2020 the group began collaborating with climate experts from across Australia to help build a compelling case for how the AFL as a sport should address and talk about the effects of climate change.
We were approached by the AFLP4CA to help them develop a brand strategy and go to market plan, as well as a compelling and engaging brand story and identity to launch their initiative.
The brief was to create a brand that could be a banner for players, ex-players, industry professionals and supporters of the sport who wanted to see climate action taken seriously.
The brand needed to engage with the entire AFL as a sport and as a culture to ignite this change and safeguard the future of the sport.
A key objective of the brief was to engage and gather support for the group's cause, a strength in numbers play that could help activate key stakeholders within the sport as powerful allies. With this in mind, the brand had to be relatable to all audiences and something they could easily get behind.
Put simply; we needed to create a brand for the AFLP4CA that would inspire and drive support for their cause, whilst also establishing a platform for awareness, storytelling and education around climate focussed initiatives and issues.
Project Innovation/Need
Over 10 months we worked closely with the AFLP4CA team and their long list of collaborators and partners to develop a strategic brand positioning and story.
We brought to life the group's vision through workshops and highly collaborative stakeholder engagement that combined all of their work and research to date. By keeping core sustainability leadership principles at the foundation of the strategy, we could ensure that the brand’s focus on climate action could be brought through in everything that they do.
We then built on the strategic foundations with the brand’s visual identity that combined ideas of community, teams and AFL supporter culture to launch a movement that could engage with AFL fans, the AFL as an industry body, players, ex-players and climate activists alike.
We created a team brand, for a team of people passionate about climate action.
Design Challenge
AFL is one of the most popular sports in Australia, but this posed one of the biggest challenges in the brief. The audience we were hoping to engage with was so varied in its degrees of climate literacy, political, religious and science based views; and we somehow needed to unify them all in support of the work that the group was engaged with.
Another challenge we needed to overcome was the scale and breadth of the problem that the group wanted to tackle. Through a highly collaborative strategy process, we helped them develop a vision and plan to focus their efforts.
We created a dynamic and flexible identity that could adapt in time and suit its audience. An identity that is true to the group's vision and grass roots ethos, that their community can feel part of and wear with pride.
We drew inspiration from sports brands; with their motivational, high impact imagery and we combined this with a more DIY, punk aesthetic that is prevalent in supporter culture.
The re-imagining of badges, crests and patterns make the brand feel a part of AFL culture, helping the group’s sustainability focussed messages gain higher engagement in the typically more conservative sports fanbase.
Effectiveness
The brand’s launch saw media secured across major news outlets, a rise in online engagement of over 2000% and the continuous growth of a highly engaged following. Over 260+ AFL & AFLW players have now joined the cause and the group have secured partnerships with Go Neutral on an AFL players offsetting program, the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation and have been invited to work with the AFL on creating a climate change initiative within the organisation.
Graphic Design - Identity and Branding - Community
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the traditional or digital visual representation of ideas and messages. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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