The brief

Bringing the entire footballing community together for the inaugural Gather Round in Adelaide, the AFL wanted to elevate the fan experiences in new and innovative ways and deliver a consistent experience across the weekend matches across 9 games in 4 days and at 3 different venues.

The solution

Collaborating with the AFL's Event, Creative, Digital, Broadcast, and Content teams, I creatively led a team to deliver the overall Gather Round experience. This involved delivering physical on-field activations, coordinating entertainment, overseeing game day technical production, creating Big Screen and LED content (including an AFL captains day shoot), and ensuring live technical in-match graphic delivery. Additionally, we introduced an AFL first: a game day app integrated fan voting activation experience, scaled across the round, and a Welcome To Country Mixed Reality experience for live venue attendees and a national broadcast audience.

The outcomes

Off the back of the positive public reception to Gather Round and the successful delivery, it was confirmed for a further 3 years in South Australia. Key KPI numbers to note:

• 268,000+ total fan attendance across the weekend

• 2 million viewers (including digital) on Channel 7’s coverage and 300,000+ digital views across AFL socials for the Mixed Reality Welcome to Country Experience

• 21,367 fans driven to the AFL app via the innovative fan voting activation, with 19,948 total votes recorded

Role: Creative Director