TAB Pushes for More Bums on Seats This Spring in ‘Make a Date with Play’ Campaign

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

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.

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/Will O’Rourke’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.

Says Cam Blackley, chief creative officer, M&C Saatchi: “We’ve had a lot of fun building a campaign for what is to be an epic Spring, one that helps get bums on seats via tech as much as it celebrates pulling up a pew in film and content 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.”

Says Luke Waldren, executive general manager marketing, customer and product, TAB says: “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.