Our client Brisbane Roar engaged our video services in Brisbane for 6 months to get more membership sales and fans paying to come to the live games. We parted ways during major changes to the clubs management and budgets.
How we started working together:
Brisbane Roar found us through an industry referral Sean Nicolle, a legend at online marketing, and he recommended us to Brisbane Roar because he needed video content to run across paid ads, which also then expanded to us doing work with the Matilda’s and Football QLD too.
About Brisbane Roar
“Brisbane Roar Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. competing in Australia’s premier men’s competition, A-League Men, which is the top tier of Australia’s football pyramid.” – Wiki. The main reason why video was, and still is important to them is they need to drive hype and excitement to get membership sales and fans paying for seats at the games.
The challenge
They came to us because they needed exciting video content for their Facebook and Google ads to get fans excited to come to games and sign up to become a member of the club. They even got us to do video’s for their jersey collaboration with New Balance and promotional content with club sponsors. Before utilising our services their content was far and few between, outdated, old and overused.
Working with them was actually incredibly interesting because we got to do a wide range of videos from basic clips to higher-end creative promotional videos and interviews.
The issue we were able to overcome when filming were last-minute changes to schedules and sponsors wanting particular videos with minimal notice.
What we produced
Player Interviews:
We sat down with players and Hinksey held interviews with the players shot in Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium. The reason we were engaged to film this was it was a great opportunity during a media day to sit down with each player, find out more about them, their why’s, what their role on the team is and some more fun info about them. Each interview was between 5-15 minutes long and was then able to be cut up and repurposed. We filmed 30x Interviews, most notably with the likes of Charlie Austin and Tom Aldred (now club captain).
Sponsorship Content:
We produced a ton of different content for their sponsors during the period we were working with them, from the likes of Sixt Car Rentals, Buy Your Car and New Balance. The sponsors needed the content as part of their agreements with the club to push their brands.
Behind the Scenes
During our partnership with Brisbane Roar we got a range of different behind the scenes type footage, mainly at their training days where we filmed them running through circuits, goal keeper practice and more. This was done in an effort to create some general hype content that could keep fans in the loop and engaged on social media. This was a very run and gun type of filming setup because we had to simply capture them in the moment with as minimal disruption to their training as possible. You couldn’t just get them to ‘re-create’ a kick they did.
New Balance Season Launch Kit
This was probably one of our favourite campaigns to film. The official season kit launch with New Balance that then had our video featured online and presented on screen during the season launch event hosted at Buy Your Car’s warehouse in North Brisbane. The reason this kit launch was special was because we needed to create genuine hype across both the male and female team. We shot some scenes at Kangaroo Point, Suncorp Stadium.
Season Launch Hype Video
The result
The result after 6 months was their internal marketing efforts were able to be scaled through our video content that we provided. We are grateful that we received this as a review from the official club page.
“Brisbane Roar has been working with Unreal Media for 6 months to produce key video content and key announcements for the club. Our announcements have been amplified through Jakob’s professionalism, his skill in editing and his common understanding for professional work to the highest level. He has made our experience with Unreal Media easy and effortless.” – Brisbane Roar
Why sports clubs and event-based businesses benefit from professional video
Ticket sales, memberships, sponsor activations, you name it. Every revenue channel a sports club runs depends on getting people excited enough to act. That’s a different problem to most marketing briefs. In this case you’re not trying to sell something people actively need, you’re selling bums in seats, exclusive access and for the sponsors you’re selling the opportunity to be associated with the sports club.
Brisbane Roar brief is the perfect example of needing to use video to scale the marketing efforts of each revenue channel. The club needs to get fans off the couch and into seats at the live games, members to renew their annual memberships, and sponsors to see their investment reflected in actual content. Over the six months that we were working with Roar, this was done by producing player interviews, training sessions, game day promos, a New Balance kit launch, Suncorp activations, and awards night coverage.
Once the video content was doing what it needed to, every part of the club found a use for it. That’s what happens when video is treated as an ongoing marketing asset rather than a one-off production job.
Any business where attendance or sign-ups is the primary metric can make use of this type of video production. For example, a gym trying to get new membership sign ups, a venue promoting a concert, a conference selling tickets, needs video that creates demand before the doors open.
A game day promo running as a paid Facebook ad the week before kick-off is the same tool as a gym’s January campaign.
If you’re running an event or a season campaign and need content that actually moves tickets, our Brisbane video production team has done it at A-League level, and we can do it for you.
How can video production help a sports club sell more memberships and tickets?
People don’t buy tickets because they saw a flyer. They buy because they got excited. Video is what creates that excitement. With Brisbane Roar, we made game day promos that ran as paid ads on Facebook and Google before matches. We produced player interviews that gave fans a reason to care about the people on the pitch. We made behind-the-scenes content that made supporters feel like insiders. Each of those formats does a different job, but they all point at the same outcome. More people in seats.
How do you film around a professional sporting club’s schedule?
Sporting clubs don’t wait. We had to be run and gun for the majority of the shoots we did with them. Schedules can and did change, sponsors send approved briefs with two days notice, and the window to film before a match is tight. Working with Brisbane Roar taught us to plan around key moments, while staying flexible enough to handle whatever changes on the day. We’ve done it at A-League level and across a number of our other clients over the years. Last-minute changes are just part of the job.
What types of video work best for sponsorship content?
Sponsor content that feels forced gets ignored. The stuff that actually works integrates naturally into what the club is already doing. For Brisbane Roar, that meant weaving Sixt Car Rentals into content fans were already watching, for example a Sixt Car arriving with the players getting out to get ready for their training day. The sponsor gets visibility and the fans don’t feel sold to.
How much does video production for a sports club or event cost in Brisbane?
It depends on what you need. A single game day promo is a few hours of work. A full season content package covering training, matches, sponsor activations, and events is a much bigger scope.
Most sports and event projects we work on sit somewhere between $5,500 and $10,000+. The honest answer is we’d rather understand what you’re trying to achieve first and give you a real number than quote something generic. Get in touch and we’ll work it out from there.
