Just days after the AFL inked a record deal with Telstra, News Corp and Channel Seven it seems a TVC bungle slipped through the posts this weekend.
Ads for the GWS Giants and their clash with fellow Sydney team the Sydney Swans were running on TV hours after the game ended, despite the creative encouraging fans to buy tickets and support the derby.
The game took place on Saturday afternoon at 2:10pm, however ads were running after 7pm Saturday night, on Channel Seven. AdNews understands the ads also aired on One.
While the ads are part of a contra agreement, as part of the broadcast rights deal, the ad slip arrives hot on the heels of the AFL inking a $2.5bn deal with Telstra, News Corp and Channel Seven.
The ads were booked through the AFL's media agency MediaCom in Melbourne.
Media relations manager for the AFL, Patrick Keane, told AdNews that while the ads were not paid advertising, the AFL is working to make sure the error is corrected.
“The ads were booked through an agency and there was an error made in that match-specific ads were booked for GWS rather than GWS brand ads for the overall club in the spots after the game,” he said.
“We will work with the agency in the next few days to ensure GWS gets spots to make up for the error that occurred,” he said.
AdNews understands that each AFL club has contra advertising to use and they either have the choice of using game day specific ads or club focused advertising. The ads that were shown in the evening were pointing to the Saturday afternoon clash rather than the clubs themselves.
MediaCom's Melbourne GM, Anny Havercroft said: “Unfortunately, a few spots ran incorrectly post the actual game. This is not uncommon in the world of retail advertising.
“They make up a small component of thousands of spots that run as part of contra deals across the AFL TV broadcast partners that are used to promote AFL and club activity.”
One media mogul, who didn't want to be named, told AdNews that issues such as out of date TVCs promoting events that are over is more uncommon these days, but added that “mistakes do happen”.
“More common are online promotions running past offer days,” he said.
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