Medibank is kicking off its sponsorship of the Australian Open with a branded content play aimed at cutting through the other brand noise surrounding the event.
Rather than rehashing what has been happening court-side, the health insurer is creating its own content for the event: getting little kids to dress up in costumes of famous tennis players to act out the most memorable moments from the day.
“We've basically rebuilt a set of the centre court and created about 32 costumes that these little kids will wear and they'll just re-enact whatever happens: whether it's a 'between the legs' shot or a ball-boy doing a catch,” Medibank content marketing manager William Falkingham told AdNews.
Medibank will then be using its own channels – its branded content platform, 'Be' and its social media channels – to share it in real time. It will also be extending the use of its hashtag, #genbetter, which during last year's sponsorship run was the second most popular hashtag behind the official Australian Open one.
Falkingham said the campaign will enhance its sponsorship both of tennis, junior tennis and health more generally.
“We've built up our own channel through social and through Be where we have an audience that is interested in our content, so we just looked at different ways we could talk about tennis and talk about our partnership with it,” Falkingham said.
“We've basically rebuilt a set of the centre court and created about 32 costumes that these little kids will wear and they'll just re-enact whatever happens: whether it's a 'between the legs' shot or a ball-boy doing a catch.”
Medibank has been a sponsor of the Australian Open since 2012. With so many brands competing for space at the event, the challenge is standing out among the noise. Falkingham said it is also difficult to get access to much of the event – such as shooting video or images - unless a brand is part of the top tier sponsors.
“As a sponsor, you really want to get your sponsorship out there, you want to get views and eyeballs on the fact that you're supporting the event,” Falkingham said.
“Everyone’s trying to be a broadcaster, but we don't see that as our role. We're not there to try and tell the score each day and who is the favourite to win.”
“We'll track pretty closely the social conversation, work out what people are talking about and we'll just tap into that. We'll have it online in real time and will be able to get Medibank involved in a nice way.”
Medibank is involved in several sports sponsorships, including a role as the main sponsor of the Melbourne Marathon, but Falkingham said that brand involvement needs to go further than just supporting an event on the day.
“You need to be having year round conversations with your audiences,” he said.
“It's hard to just come in and say 'we haven't done anything all year and now we're doing somethng for the Australian Open' because it doesn't work, you're just paying to pay and it's not real.”
“For us, it's about building our community of people who are interested in our content. Then, when it comes to these sponsorships times, we've already got a head start, because we have a community who is engaged.”
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