With the 2022 NRL season launching last week, the league has also revealed a new creative platform, UNREAL, which will be rolled out throughout 2022.

UNREAL will be featured heavily across the NRL campaigns for the 2022 season, grassroots Club Rugby League, All Stars, NRLW, Magic Round, State of Origin, Women’s State of Origin, and the Finals Series.

The platform began with a launch film from independent creative agency, Emotive, and was produced in collaboration with Airbag and directed by Ariel Martin.

The launch film includes integrated NRL, NRLW, and grassroots rugby league footage combined with commentary from Ray Warren.

Discussing the launch of the platform, NRL general manager of marketing, Corina Black, said UNREAL provides a chance for the league to connect with and attract new fans.

“UNREAL is a bold step forward for the NRL brand,” Black said.

“An all-encompassing platform idea born from all the real that makes rugby league the most entertaining and connected sport in Australia.

“By bringing together the best of what’s on offer across our incredible portfolio of events and grassroots programs this platform helps us to connect with core fans and attract new audiences to our community so they can experience all the real that makes NRL so unreal,” she said.

Emotive founder and CEO, Simon Joyce, said: “I’ve always loved the NRL.”

“It’s a sport where you experience every possible emotion week in week out, and we feel incredibly privileged to be working with the team at the NRL.

“And we couldn’t be prouder of the masterbrand launch work.

“The platform allows us to simply showcase all that’s unpredictable, gritty and real about the game, on and off the field.

“Everything that makes NRL so unreal,” Joyce said.

Emotive originally won a reportedly ‘competitive’ tender process in October last year for the creative agency project rights of the NRL.