Case Study: Cricket Australia – Forged for Battle
Because not all warriors wear armour—but they all face fire.
Because not all warriors wear armour—but they all face fire.
Cricket Australia’s Forged for Battle campaign reimagined elite cricketers as modern-day knights—positioning the game not as genteel tradition, but as high-stakes, high-skill combat. With a cinematic aesthetic and mythic tone, the campaign aimed to elevate the drama of cricket and reframe it for a new generation of fans.
We open in darkness. A forge glows with heat. Sparks fly as a blacksmith strikes steel on an anvil. It’s primal, visceral, elemental. Then we cut: from metal to wood, from blade to bat. A master bat-maker sands willow with equal intensity, revealing the grain like a swordsmith revealing an edge.
Across these crafted sequences, the players emerge: Mitchell Johnson, Meg Lanning, and Michael Clarke—all battle-hardened in their own right. Their cricket whites glint as they stride toward the lens. Then—without breaking stride—they transform. Their whites shift into stylised suits of armour. The bat becomes the blade. The pitch becomes the battlefield.
Steve Smith was shot separately on location in Boston—where we flew specifically to capture his scene during a narrow break in his playing schedule. His footage was then seamlessly composited into the wider campaign, adding both authenticity and logistical complexity to the production.
Visually, the piece leans into contrast—heat and cold, metal and wood, tradition and transformation. The sound design mirrors this with hammer strikes syncing to bat thuds, crowd roars layered with percussive rhythm. Every element was choreographed to elevate cricket from casual pastime to epic confrontation.
Results:
5.6M+ views across broadcast, digital, and social platforms
71% unaided recall among 18–34s in post-campaign testing
22% uplift in match ticket consideration following exposure
Cricket Australia saw a notable increase in youth brand affinity during the campaign period
Why it worked:
Because it recast cricket as mythic, muscular, and modern. Forged for Battle didn’t just promote the game—it gave it new meaning. And it proved that in the right hands, even a bat can become a weapon.