The Challenge

By 2015, the Adelaide Football Club (AFC) had experienced several challenging years both on and off the field. With a new CEO, coach, and captain in place, the club wanted to move past recent controversies and poor performances. The brief was to reinvigorate the brand, reconnect with fans, and unite the entire Crows community around a shared purpose.

The Response

Working closely with a range of AFC stakeholders, including executives, coaching and playing staff, we undertook our Spotlight brand process, which helped to distill and define the essence of the organisation, their values and their purpose. Through this process, we revealed what really drove them – not just on field success as measured by premierships, but striving to achieve great things across the whole AFC community. 

“We exist to bring people together to achieve 
great things.”

That was something everyone could get behind. 

From on field wins to introducing a premiership winning women’s team. From inspiring fans to donate to the Crows foundation to celebrating major club milestones with an entire state, AFC is about collective success.

From this internal brand on a page document, Showpony developed a consumer-facing brand platform –We Fly As One – and an integrated communications campaign was launched to introduce it. Built from the DNA of the brand – the very purpose of the club – the campaign went beyond a slogan to reflect the club’s collective spirit. 

To bring it to life, we created a suite of assets spanning television, print, digital, radio, outdoor, and social media channels to communicate this unifying message. Following the tragic death of coach Phil Walsh in July 2015, the campaign took on even greater significance, helping the football community share condolences, comradery, and solidarity during an extraordinarily sad and challenging period.