Footy fans front and centre in Youi Insurance’s latest partnership campaign ‘Footy. Made by Fans’
Footy fans across Australia are finally getting their premiership moment. National insurer Youi has unveiled its latest partnership platform, Footy. Made by Fans, emphasising its recognition on the true contributors to the game: the fans.
As a brand dedicated to understanding customers, Youi identified an unmet need for acknowledging fans’ efforts at every level of the game. Via its Official Insurance Partnership of the NRL and the Brisbane Lions, Youi will champion and reward footy fans across the country, solidifying its position as a partner to the unsung heroes of the game.
The partnership creative platform, which was delivered by Youi’s powerhouse internal agency, will be shared across TV, broadcast partnerships, on contextual Out of Home (OOH) and audio, plus support two significant community programs directly impacting footy fans even at the local level.
Youi has been an official partner of the NRL since 2017 and began its partnership with the Brisbane Lions’ AFL and AFLW teams in 2020.
Says Andrew Abdo, chief executive officer, NRL: “Youi spent the time to create such a unique platform, that truly resonates with, and celebrates fans. Something we are proud to partner with Youi on.”
Says Greg Swann, chief executive officer, Brisbane Lions: “We have a great partnership with Youi, they’re an innovative brand always looking to work with our club, engage our fans and help our football community.
“Our club is made by fans, they’re who we play for week in week out and it’s great to see Youi align so well with the fabric of our club.”

Drafting real footy fans for its TV spots, the creative goes beyond a logo on the wall. And no fan was left without acknowledgment, from the banner poets, to the orange slicers, horn honkers, crazy head wobblers and every type of fan between.
Whether on linear TV, OTT, or in the Uber on the way to the game, Youi’s screens strategy captured fans on every step of their fan journey. The new platform was reinforced with contextual OOH that featured around the stadiums of major games throughout the season, as well as having LED signage that championed fans in the ground and watching at home, highlighting the fans’ important roles in making Footy great.
Says Angela Greenwood, chief marketing officer, Youi Insurance: “As the people’s champion, we wanted the platform to deliver something of real value to footy fans and tangibly demonstrate Youi’s connection to the game. This is just the beginning, and we’ll continue to walk the talk when it comes to celebrating, supporting and rewarding fans.”

Says Matt Gilmour, creative director , Youi Insurance: “Brendan Fevola said it best when he pointed out the huge impact of empty stadiums during Covid, saying that ‘fans make the game’. I agree with Brendan, which is why I love this platform that’s all about what fans bring to footy. Our in-house team has brought this direction to life beautifully and I’m excited for Youi to keep showing up and doing things for all the fans throughout the season.”
The importance of community sport was not missed in the execution, with Youi rolling out two major initiatives across NRL and AFL.
The Youi Community Hill and Canteen, located at the Lions’ new home, Brighton Homes Arena, is a space where fans can come together throughout the season to celebrate a shared passion for footy, friends and family. As part of the Youi Community Hill development, the Community Canteen was created to support the Lions’ community partners, and to date has raised a total of nearly $40,000 for local clubs and initiatives with Youi matching every dollar, totalling at $80,000 raised in the 2023 AFLW season alone.

Additionally, working directly with the NRL, Youi will help regional communities and fans by launching a bespoke community uplift program called the Youi Community Scrum. Delivered over four days and launching on 5 June 2024, the Community Scrum will initially be rolled out across the Northern Rivers of New South Wales and outer Brisbane in Queensland – both regions have done it tough in recent years. Led by NRL’s trained staff and ambassadors, the community uplift will include equipment for clubs and a focus on clubs that are still feeling the effects of previous significant weather events.
Footy. Made By Fans will continue to roll out over the season, with campaign extensions, alongside fan engagement and experiences, to come.
For more information on the campaign and Youi’s partnerships, visit https://www.youi.com.au/about-us/partnerships.
Youi
Chief Marketing Officer – Angela Greenwood
Head of Marketing, Strategy, Planning & Insights – Dave Annesley
Brand & Partnerships Manager – Drew Reid
Partnerships Coordinator – Darien Wilson
Senior Marketing Communications Manager – Alexina Harris
Integrated Communications Manager – Danielle Sidney
Head of Creative & Production – James Bilaver
Creative Director – Matt Gilmour
Copywriter – Trent Christie
Art Director – Gemma Wicham
Campaign Delivery Lead – Simone Delaney
Campaign Delivery Manager – Jordie Smyth
Head of Media – Marcel Hashimoto
Broadcast Media Lead – Craig Munks
Social & Programmatic Manager – Matt Mcdonald
Production partners
Director – Luke Shanahan
Producers – Clare Shervington and Helen Morahan
DOP – Alex Serafini
Editor – Stuart Morely
Designer – Cherith Crozier
Partners: Brisbane Lions and NRL
28 Comments
Nailed it! This is exactly how real people talk to each other! My friends and I sure do. It will resonate with audiences brilliantly. Congrats to all involved.
…you know who speaks like this?
Friggin no-one.
Nice work team! Go Youi
This is good. Nice work from the Youi team.
Ah, yes, because all real conversations are carefully scripted to perfection. If you and your advertising fake friends talk like this, you might want to consider stepping back from all the back slaps, high-fives and going down on each other. This reeks of trying way too hard. Youi seems to have lost its way over the last year or so.
I think ChatGPT was being sarcastic dude, that’s probably why their name was referencing a robot copywriter AI.
Why don’t you just ‘show’ this stuff instead of having people awkwardly talking about it? Painful writing.
This is just as bad as their NRL campaigns. Poorly written, poorly acted, poorly humoured. Feels like a decent enough strat but another prime example of in house creative getting it so so wrong.
Says no football supporter ever.
Love your work team Youi
Nice, unpretentious work. Well done Youi team.
Twitter must be down today given the calibre of comment this is dredging up.
Simple and effective. You can’t assume sportsfans know what role they play in sport. Reminding them through simple creative with recognisable faces (their heroes) reinforces their love of the game. I do enjoy the comments of these keyboard warriers behind fake names though. When it comes to content creation, it appears everyone is an expert. How fun!
Thanks for the information, person who worked on this campaign.
When telcos and insurance companies do a better job than the sporting codes themselves. These spots are fun and probably appreciated by fans more than insurance ads.
Like it or not, the Origin ad will stand out for all the Cane Toads and Cockroaches over the next two months
A great brand truth bought to life with humour – love it!!!
This is really, really poor quality. It is, unfortunately, a contrived execution of a strategy document. Nobody talks to each other like that, and no real person thinks so self-reflexively about their hobbies or their ‘role’ in sport. They just enjoy it. Wall to wall dialogue, very little in the way of visuals – more wallpaper and more waste of huge amounts of media dollars. We need more people in this industry looking at, and learning about really great work, so they learn how to make it. This is just another nail in the coffin of genuine branded entertainment and it’s little wonder people, for the most part, feel total apathy towards advertising these days.
What fan in their right mind has ever felt like their unmet need to be heard is an issue? Do you ad people just make this shit up out of thin air in some thinly veiled way of trying to post rationalise an idea that isn’t even very good. Its embarassing.
Please stay out of football if you spend your days in an ad office.
Does this copywriter watch rugba leeg
I liked it, made me giggle. Well done Youi!
Besides being badly crafted, what does any of this even do for Youi? A long, confusing path to travel to get to a dead end before a guy in the bushes jumps out and shouts a brand name before running off.
This is by no means great, but it isn’t as horrible as these comments would suggest. Most reek of juniors with an axe to grind or agency comments by whoever lost the business to the internal agency. Grow up, you all sound like a bunch of spiteful little c&nts.
Someone explain to dumb-dumb how brand likeability and salience works and why brands like Telstra, NAB or Youi would choose to make ads like Footy Country, Mini Legends and this, instead of a telco, banking or insurance ad.
Dare I say it this work should not be compared to Country Footy or Mini Legends.
It’s definitely not in the same league.
Youi staff have done a nice job defending this work. Smart people have seen straight through it
Made by You?
Awesome work from Angela, Dave, and the entire team at Youi. Especially love the community initiatives via Scrum and Canteen. Bravo Team.