Clubs Australia has cut the expected spend of its advertising campaign against poker machine reforms from $20 million to $2 million, as it considers removing television from the marketing mix.
The "It's un-Australian" campaign, which launched on 11 April and was created by Banjo Advertising, was initially intended to run for two years across multiple media, including television. Clubs Australia has since revised these expectations, claiming that the campaign will probably only last for up to a year without the need for television, due to "significant media interest and political support".
A spokesman for Clubs Australia said: "The decision not to include television advertisements in the campaign was made on 8 April, three days prior to the campaign launch, when it became apparent that the campaign would recieve significant media interest."
"Had the campaign proceeded as initially planned with TV in phase two then the cost of the campaign would have been in the vicinity of $20 million. It is our hope and expectation that the campaign will not need to run for the two years initially planned or involve television advertising. That being the case, our working budget for the remainder of the campaign is approximately $2 million."
He did say, however, that the budget was "fluid", and that television could be revisited if it is felt necessary, or if the government continues to go ahead with the reforms.
The Clubs Australia campaign speaks against proposed national reforms which might see poker machine players using smartcards that impose gambling limits set by the player before they begin gambling. These reforms have been proposed by Tasmanian independent and anti-gambling advocate Andrew Wilkie, and are currently being promoted by the Gillard Government, as the minority government seeks to retain the support of Wilkie.
Clubs Australia has also asked that the video it released online, which was featured on this site, be removed from the AdNews YouTube page. In an email to AdNews, YouTube said that Clubs Australia asked them to remove it due to a "copyright infringement" on the part of AdNews.
This is despite the fact that Clubs Australia had provided the video to AdNews for the sake of it being put up on the site. As of today the video had recieved 4,363 views, 77 comments as well as eight likes and 134 dislikes.
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