After returning to Australia, Blood UTD's David Smith has helped create this awesome campaign that showcases gritty netball at its very best.
Netball Australia has teamed up with Blood UTD's David Smith to launch an edgy, action-packed campaign that shines an evocative light on the skills, passion and athleticism of netball.
The campaign promotes the newly revamped professional Super Netball Season with the tagline - 'all on the line'.
It's intentionally moody and showcases the high-speed skills and in your face competitiveness of elite netball - set to the new track of Australian hip hop star Tkay Maizda.
The campaign also features large scale outdoor and social posters shot by Sydney photographer, Toby Dixon, and a series of short 'Throw Down' films, where the league’s best players lay it on the line for their opponents, telling them exactly what they can expect on the court this season.
"It was important to show netball as a legitimate sport that was as intense and physical as all the other codes out there. Which it really is.," Smith tells AdNews.
"I also approached the project with the view that I didn't really care that women played it. For me that was an irrelevant point. I wanted to treat it with the same lens that I approach male sport.
"So many agencies and media organisations make the mistake of focusing on the novelty of women doing sport rather than covering the sport itself."
Smith was keen to work with TKAY Maizda because she "represents a new voice in Australian music", adding: "people like her are creating a new aesthetic in Australian art and culture".
He says that creating the sequences was more difficult than his recent European experience as creative director on
Nike and EA Sports at W+K Amsterdam. In Europe, there are sport choreographes to help build plays and sequences, but this role doesn't occur over here.
"You have great directors and awesome talent but not in this area. So I shot it with the help of Liam Gilmour, a great DOP, who really stood up to the challenge and produced some sweet looking shots," Smith says. "And the client is amazing. They are truly one of the best I have ever worked with."
The competition, which is being broadcast on 9Gem on 18 February, has new teams, more commercial backing and is the first to be covered by a commercial free to air network.
Netball is one of several professional women's sports that is set to taker off this year. The Women's AFL has its inaugural season while WBBL cricket and the W-League have gone from strength to strength over this summer.
Credits
Client: Netball Australia
Agency | Prod. Company: Blood UTD
Writer/Director: David Smith
Producer: Luke Coulson
D.O.P: Liam Gilmour
First A.D: Andrew Moffat
Edit house: The Trace House
Editor: Chris Brown
Grade: Nicholas Hower (Posthaus)
Final Mix: Craig Conway (Final Sound)
Music label: Dew Process
Artist: TKAY Maizda
Photography and content film production: Flint Sydney
Director: Toby Dixon & David Smith
Photographer: Toby Dixon
Producer: Tim Berriman
Digital agency: Made by Eastwood
Designer: Vicki Smith
Logo and type: White Kite
