ASADA Reputation Campaign

Campaign management and media relations

Client Australian Sports Anti Doping Authority (ASADA)

The brief

Earlybird was tasked with managing ASADA’s first national proactive anti-doping campaign. At the heart of the campaign was a highly topical and hard-hitting image of an athlete injecting an illegal substance.

The key message of the campaign was ‘You can’t win your reputation back’, a message that needed to be promoted to National Sporting Organisations and state education authorities and school students across Australia with the aim of having all athletes sit up and take notice of their message and understand that doping in sport is simply not worth it.

Our work

Earlybird worked with ASADA to develop a targeted media strategy to disseminate key campaign messages as well as write and edit targeted communication materials, including media releases, speaking notes for the Minister, email responses to National Sporting Organisations and schools. Our team was also responsible for coordinating aspects of the Ministerial launch event at Parliament House and securing media attendance.

Results

The combination of direct marketing to schools and National Sporting Organisations, complemented by a hard hitting creative and a strong media campaign proved to be a success. After a media event organised by Earlybird with the then Minister for Sport, the Hon. Kate Ellis MP and three high profile Australian athletes—Olympic rower turned cyclist Amber Halliday, Western Bulldogs player Robert Murphy and Paralympic swimmer Matt Cowdrey, the campaign received unprecedented national exposure.

The campaign also had a high take up within schools and National Sporting Organisations who worked it into their current curriculums. This resulted in a number of elite athletes in training and school students hearing how drug taking in sport could potentially ruin their career.