Nonna Maria Becomes Basketball Coach in Optus’ Comeback Platform

A nonna becomes a basketball coach in the hero film launching a new brand platform for Optus, ‘There’s Always a Way’. The Droga5 AUNZ work is designed to rebuild trust and confidence in the Australian telco, and make it easier to do business with.

Directed by Steve Ayson, the film leads a multi-channel campaign also spanning social, radio, and out-of-home placements and stars Maria, who steps up to coach her grandchild’s basketball team with the help of Optus’ connectivity.

Droga5 AUNZ co-CCO Barbara Humphries said the strategy of “can-do connectivity” gave the creative team a “really interesting space to play in” when it came to building meaning, “action and energy” into the campaign.

“We all know stories of people who've learned something on YouTube or started a business with nothing but a great idea and a social media following,” she said, speaking at a media briefing on Friday, ahead of the campaign’s launch over the weekend.

“Connectivity is the enabler if you have the drive and determination. So that really became the backbone of the creative platform; there's always a way.”

The best stories, she added, aren't about perfect heroes. “They're about ordinary people rising to extraordinary moments. Our nonna doesn't suddenly become an elite basketball coach. She simply refuses to give up. With a little curiosity, a lot of heart and the right tools, she finds a way. That's a wonderfully human story, and one we think people will recognise."

Maria's character presented an opportunity for an “interesting” juxtaposition.

“We don't see many stories in advertising with a 70 or 80-year-old person as the protagonist,” Barbara continued.

“It's just not something that happens. They’re usually relegated to the background of dining scenes in Christmas ads, or the periphery in family photos.

“We all know women of her generation who have that spirit and who have great stories in them. So she's really an amalgam of lots of women of the generation that we know.”

Inspired by everyday Aussies stepping up when their communities need them, the campaign builds on the foundations of Optus’ ‘Yes’ positioning, follows last September’s 14-hour network outage that led to people being unable to call emergency services.

Droga5 AUNZ CEO Matthew Michael said the brand relaunch represents a “big moment” in the partnership, which began mid-last year when the agency won the account. The outage followed the appointment and delayed the launch of Droga5’s first work.

Since then, Vodafone moved its business to indie Howatson+Co and launched work fronted by US comedian Ali Wong, and CMO Brent Smart departed market leader Telstra after a four-year creative streak, replaced by the more retail-focused Jana Kotatko.

“There's a bit of responsibility when you get a brief like this in the time Optus has had, so it was something we obviously didn't take lightly,” Matt said.

“If you think about how hotly contested the telco industry is going to be over the next year, the stakes were obviously very high.

“Our aim here was to bring a sense of that everyday relevancy for telcos and to bring some emotion back into what a telco means to you. It is so important in our lives, it's such a big role, and so we wanted to try to shape that and show that through the work.

“It was a great privilege as well to work across it from a creative, media, and design point of view, and that will really show up through the plan over the coming months as well.”

Accenture Song AUNZ media strategy managing director Chris Colter described the campaign’s media approach as meticulous and forensic, tying the creative platform to a brand partnership with local basketball leagues, the NBL and WNBL.

“Instead of just running the ad in that environment,” he explained, “we've created an experience responding to the games that are happening.

“Every single individual panel was considered in terms of how we bring to life the creative message. Because one thing we wanted to really drive in this campaign is enhanced repetition … where you see the brand in slightly different contexts, but it's still got that connective tissue; it's going to build deeper meaning and also bring to life the positively infectious creative platform.

“You can just see again, really simple, really clean ways to bring it to life in the sponsorship arena, and even again, just leveraging the fact that we got this amazing NBL sponsorship, but we've got this new creative messaging and big disruptive media to make sure we're commanding that attention in culture.”

Optus’ chief corporate affairs and marketing officer Felicity Ross said the brand’s priority is developing a stronger brand that is “easier to trust” and “easier to choose”, as part of its five-year strategy.

“Looking at the long horizon, [we’re asking] how can we build a company in a way that's more resilient and meets customer needs?” Felicity explained.

“In the last year, we’ve been going through a transformation programme looking to strengthen our process, our accountability, to make sure we've got clear and strong governance.”

The work follows ‘We’re On It’, a campaign launched in response to the network outage which included an open letter penned by CEO Stephen Rue.

That campaign was about taking “accountability for what happened,” Felicity said, and signalled “the progress and investment” Optus is making in the resilience of its network, and in meeting customer needs now and in the future.

Optus executive general manager Lauren Dawber said now, the brand must focus on showing up for Australians.

“We know Aussies love to just get on with things,” Lauren said.

“[This campaign] is a story of determination and ingenuity, and it's all about how we imbue meaning into ‘Yes’ and the positive role Optus plays as a tenacious enabler of Australians, allowing Australians to get on and do the things they really love.”