We launched a campaign to enlarge Greater Wellington to just north of Whangārei so the ’Nix can continue to play home games in Auckland, with the suggestion Auckland FC can play at the well-appointed KeriKeri Sports Centre.

The Greater Wellington campaign for the Phoenix tapped into a cultural moment, delivered at the perfect time to maximum effect, driving a very high pick up in media, supporting very strong ticket sales, generating $269,913 of PR value for a $3000 investment. It is also a platform for future campaigning. 

The idea, Wellington Phoenix launching a petition to the New Zealand government to extend the border of Greater Wellington 700KM north to just beyond Whangārei, was just zany enough to overtake the actual football news event of the day, the champagne launch of Auckland FC backed by US billionaire Bill Foley and local billionaire Anna Mowbray. 

Our petition quickly caught fire through our amplifying comms of public relations and social media. Instead of headlines being about the glitzy reveal of Auckland FC and their rich backers, reporters asked what they thought about our petition and claim on Auckland.

Our objectives?

We didn’t want them to have it all their own way, and needed to reinforce we were playing in Auckland that weekend; protecting ticket sales was vital, especially as we didn’t have billionaire owners with deep pockets. We couldn’t disappear from the news agenda; it was hard enough to get media coverage as it was – despite having led the A-League on and off through the season, national news seldom picked up football stories, instead focusing on more traditional Kiwi sports such as rugby, netball, and league. 

Football is all about rivalry and we reckoned that we should make a start before Auckland FC had kicked a ball.  

We decided to crash their party and make the story more about us, less about them.