Leave everything in the pitch: Australian Professional Leagues hires R/GA as lead agency

News 4 Aug 2021 - 2 min read

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Tags: A-League Paramount+ Australian Professional Leagues 10 ViacomCBS

A new organisation managing the various professional football (soccer) leagues in Australia has appointed R/GA as its lead agency to build the league brands, following a hotly contested pitch.

What you need to know:

Australian Professional Leagues (APL) has appointed R/GA as its lead agency partner, after a competitive tender process.
APL is a new organisation dedicated to managing the various football leagues in Australia, including the A-League and the W-League.

Australian Professional Leagues (APL), the organisation that oversees the A-League, W-League, Y-League and e-League in Australia, has appointed R/GA Australia as its lead agency after a competitive tender process.

APL was carved off earlier from Football Australia at the beginning of 2021 as part of an “unbundling”, in which the new entity would operate, commercialise and market professional football, but Football Australia would still control the national teams and overall future of the sport.

The pitch process included agencies in Australia as well as the UK.

R/GA will work with APL to boost fan engagement and growth, while “re-inventing the professional football brand and experience in Australia”, said Michael Titshall, VP and Managing Director of R/GA Australia.

Rob Nolan, APL’s Director Marketing & Data, said: “We have an ambitious vision, and R/GA are the perfect partner to help us realise it. Football has unbelievable potential, and we need the right people on the journey to unleash that potential and deliver the future the game deserves.”

R/GA’s other clients include Australian Ethical, Google, Uber, Nike, Toyota, Slack and Kimberly-Clark.

The A-League will be broadcast on 10 ViacomCBS’s new streaming platform, Paramount+, after the network bought the rights in a $200 million deal.