TAB Celebrates Sports-Packed Spring Season With ‘Make A Date With Play’ Via M&C Saatchi

The changes to the Australian sporting landscape this year have been tremendous due to all kinds of restrictions. The silver lining? A Spring 2020 racing and sport calendar to be rivalled by no other.

Traditionally a time of year synonymous with the Spring Racing Carnival, this year, Spring is loaded with NRL and AFL Finals, NBA Playoffs, a new NFL season, the MLB World Series, French Open Tennis, Masters Golf – not to mention State of Origin Game 1 the day after the Melbourne Cup in November.

To help racing and sports fans navigate a hectic calendar, TAB is inviting Aussies to Make a Date with Play. The fully integrated campaign aims to excite Australian sports fans and fully connect them through technology and new product offerings, so they never miss a moment.

Make A Date With Play this Spring! Join the TAB Locker Room to unlock a host of features that’ll make the next couple of months that much better 👌

👉https://t.co/Cdwantl2rA pic.twitter.com/MDK7Rc4hvh

— TAB (@tabcomau) October 6, 2020

Make a date with banter this Spring with TAB's Hot Seats, where @samsimmonss & @MrABarnett will chat about all things sport & racing! pic.twitter.com/Lq6lKJSV1X

— TAB (@tabcomau) September 29, 2020

At the heart of the campaign is TAB’s Spring calendar creator. A utility created to sync user’s calendars to any racing and sport event, link them to venues and set reminders. There’s also a new way to connect with friends and family through the TAB Locker Room, a social utility using Twilio that allows users to stream in virtual rooms with each other, watch live racing as well as live content normally found in a TAB venue.

In an epic launch film shot by Revolver’s Matt Devine, classic flip-down stadium seats come to life across the country like giant keyboards to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony; inviting punters to grab a seat wherever they are.

The ‘seats theme’ continues with TAB Hot Seats in social channels, a weekly show that dives into the sporting calendar co-hosted by comedian Sam Simmons and Fox Sports presenter and sporting enthusiast Andrew Barnett. Hot Seats brings entertainment, banter, history and information to sports hungry sports fans in a fresh new way for TAB.

“The Calendar Creator is going to sort out a few headaches as racing and sport collide like never before. We’re proud of that, it’s the kind of UX that truly adds value to sports nuts.” said Cam Blackley, Chief Creative Officer, M&C Saatchi.

Luke Waldren, Executive General Manager Marketing, Customer & Product, TAB said: “Regardless of whether fans can attend racing and sporting events this Spring, we want to make sure we continue to bring Australians together in whatever way we can and ensure they enjoy every moment. That may be at the track or stadium, visiting their local TAB (in States where that’s possible) or on the couch watching live vision and chatting to their mates in the TAB Locker Room. This will be a Spring like no other and we can’t wait to see it all unfold”.

Product films promoting Venue Mode and Live Vision round out the campaign and sports fans can expect a raft of activity around TAB venues throughout Spring.

Credits

Agency

Chief Creative Officer: Cam Blackley

Creative Director: Chris Cheeseman

Creative Director: Doug Hamilton

Senior Creative: Chris Berents

Senior Creative: Ant Hatton

Nicole Conway: Copywriter

Tim Batterham: Art Director

Dan Staudinger: Copywriter

Michael Graziano: Art Director

Design Director: Simone Cherry

Craft Designer: Matthew Harrington

Director of Digital: Sarah Hetherington

Creative Technologist: Simon Kent

Acting Head of Strategy: Nick Jacobs

Acting CX Strategy Lead: Mel Lofts

Group Managing Director: Russell Hopson

Group Head: Jasmina Porter / Emma McJury

Senior Account Director: Charlotte O’Brien

Account Director: Joshua Johns

Account Manager: Kurt Griffin

Project Director: Dean Trendler

Head of TV Production: Loren August

Senior Broadcast Producer: Lill Schroeder

Senior TV Producer: Ros Payne

Senior TV Producer: Carolyn Starkey

TAB
Luke Waldren – EGM Marketing, Customer & Product
Kent Madders – Head of Brand and Marketing
John Vellis – General Manager Media &  Sponsorship
Ben Willis – Senior Marketing Manager, Racing
Luke Feddema – Senior Marketing Manager, Sport

PRODUCTION
Production Company – Revolver/ Will O’Rourke
Matt Devine – Director
Michael Ritchie

Pip Smart

Ian Iveson

Lachlan Milne

Tom Churchill Brown

POST-PRODUCTION

Post Production: Heckler

VFX Supervisors: Jamie Watson & Tom Corbett

Executive Producer: Bonnie Law

Colourist: Billy Wychgel

Senior Flame Artist: Julian Ford

3D Team: Tim Jarick, Boris Fomin, Jack Scrase, Tim Quarry, Phillip Wang, Nick Kaloterakis

Senior Compositor: Maxence Peillon

I/O Team: Dan Page, Maud Chapuis

SOUND

Music & Sound: Rumble Studios

Composer: Adam Moses

Music Producer: Michael Gie

Sound Designer: Tone Aston

Audio Post Producer: Katie Harper

POST PRODUCTION
Resolution Design

MEDIA
OMD Australia