The Grand Final timing test: when brands earn the moment, and when the moment marks reputation
You don’t need to be an AFL fan to have been totally enamoured by the AFL’s Grand Final week and what it delivered.
Last year I wrote about the Brisbane Lions’ epic Grand Final win over the Geelong Cats, powered by a marketing campaign repeated this year for a third time…BELIEVE (yes, that one’s for you Ted Lasso fans).
This year, there were three stand out brand moments that delivered textbook lessons in creative communications strategy.
Nike truly owned the moment on the AFL’s Brownlow Medal night with its ‘inevitable’ Brownlow winner, Collingwood’s Nick Daicos.
The Fremantle Dockers, well that was a different story - the timing of their fan ritual, Wharfie Time, with minutes to go during the Grand Final hair-raiser exposed a vulnerability, showing how quickly a celebration can acquire a meaning its creators never intended.
And, it’s the AFL that deserves the biggest round of applause. They announced pop icon Kylie Minogue’s Grand Final appearance back in March, giving themselves a six month runway to create Team Kylie that fans could be a part of, whether you like the game of AFL or not.
One message is clear: creativity and timing are everything when it comes to strategic brand communications. Get it right, and the creative idea earns excess brand love and attention, building brand trust for years to come. Get the timing wrong, and you’re in brand reputation damage control - your narrative flips and the story runs away.
The Nike campaign was nothing short of marketing and communications excellence. They took a calculated risk and bet on a champion’s predicted win. Nike’s “Inevitable” campaign appeared on the morning of the Brownlow count splashed on newspapers across the country. Inevitable T-Shirts were made. The brand then created a high impact, moment creating custom ‘Nick’ cufflinks for his Brownlow appearance; a swoosh that could travel into red-carpet high profile media coverage and viral social content. Then perfectly timed for his winning speech, an outdoor ‘inevitable’ campaign projection gave that same idea mega scale. Daicos’s Brownlow win resolved the tension Nike had deliberately created.
The Dockers were not so fortunate with their brand story. On AFL Grand Final morning, the club had been granted approval by the AFL to play Wharfie Time - a song and fan celebration played towards the end of a match that had worked as team motivation and as a genuine fan ritual throughout the minor premiers’ successful 2026 season. And so with nearly four minutes to go in the match, with the Lions 17 points down, the communications signal was given and the song played throughout the stadium. It should have sealed Wharfie Time’s triumphant meaning, yet the moment has become inseparable from the unimaginable comeback by the Lions. Brisbane players said the brand activation energised them to win; Fremantle’s coach said it did not cause the result. What is true is that the media and audiences can turn a brand symbol like Wharfie Time into shorthand for a very different story and how that story is told for years to come.
And while the NRL were in negotiations with Tones and I to perform at their Grand Final weeks out from match day, the AFL created a longtail Team Kylie campaign to garner new fans to the game. Kylie Minogue's concert at the AFL Grand Final was not simply a one-off appearance, it was an epic brand partnership.
The partnership brought to life custom merchandise including a limited Sherrin football collection selling out in less than 24 hours after its release, a dedicated activation was built for fans with a four-day physical Team Kylie store at AFL Footy Fest in Yarra Park and the campaign timing allowed for AFLW Giants player Georgia Garnett to mount her social media campaign to meet her idol - great examples of what a long runway permits. The AFL dug deep on cultural currency teaming an Aussie icon with modern creators the Inspired Unemployed, William Barton, Dom Dolla and G Flip. The AFL made Kylie a team fans could join, giving Kylie’s own cultural equity and the league’s sporting equity time to reinforce and elevate each other’s relevance.
This last week shows that good timing with communications strategy requires two clocks: the production clock that gives an idea space to thrive and for fans to participate, and the human judgement clock that tells you whether the audience is ready to BELIEVE it and whether you have earned their trust.
So as the final siren sounds for the AFL 2026 season, the official clock stops on the field but for brands associated with this massive sporting event, their clocks and reputation calls continue.
Opinion Piece by: Leilani Abels, founder and CEO of creative communications agency Thrive PR & Communications and strategic corporate communications agency, Acuity Communications Advisory. The agencies build brand equity, trust and manage brand reputation.
