When the AFL were considering placing a stand alone team on the Gold Coast, they spoke to community representatives, business leaders, local government along with the local AFL clubs to determine if there would be the appropriate support for a Gold Coast team. The AFL would back a new team on the Gold Coast provided it could demonstrate key criteria.

SMART set to work, creating a bid team identity (GC17) and a strategy that would not only meet the criteria, but also well succeed all of the set objectives.

Within a 3 month period, GC17 had over 40,000 registered supporters (the set target was 20,000), over 100 businesses had pledged sponsorship dollars and the bid team remained highly marketed and promoted for the bid period. A final key criteria was to engage the community to define the name, colours, jumper designs and logo for the Gold Coast team of which SMART was responsible for.