The 10 Best Women's Sport Campaigns of 2019
2019’s Best Women’s Sport Campaigns
What a year it has been for women’s sport! There’s been unforgettable moments inside the stadium and outside of it with brands jumping in on the action. As 2019 comes to a close we take a look back and celebrate the best ten women’s sport marketing campaigns from the year.
Not surprisingly, it’s a line-up dominated by the Women’s World Cup which saw over 1 billion people tune in. Tennis and the big name brands played their usual part in creating buzz but encouragingly we saw a number of new brands and codes break into the women’s sport sponsorship and marketing fold. Sadly we didn’t see any specific stand-outs from the Netball World Cup but we had multiple campaigns by the same brand making the list, further demonstrating that those brands who are really getting behind women’s sport, are 100% in it!
While it’s hard to know the long term impact on brand affinity and sales that the various women’s sport campaigns will have, Team Heroine has awarded the top ten based on a number of factors including cut-through, relevance, authenticity, connection and the contribution to the women’s sport narrative.
Congratulations to the 2019 Team Heroine Award winners
10th place:
Guinness ‘Sisters’ - Six Nations Rugby
Guinness did a cracking job of digging deeper than the usual women’s sport insights to uncover a unique real-life story of sisterhood rivalry in order to champion women’s rugby and mark the launch of their Women’s Six Nations European rugby sponsorship. This feel-good 30 second video tells the story of rugby players and sisters Bridget and Harriet Millar-Mills who grew up pushing each other to be the best players they could be. This sisterly bond was put to the test when they found themselves in the unusual situation where they were picked to represent opposing teams of England and Scotland. A nice celebration of family bond which ended with a powerful frame ‘Rivals, always sisters’. While Guinness have been tied up with men’s rugby for some time, this was a nice first play into the women’s game.
9th Place:
BudWeiser Heart of a king- Lionesses
Budweiser teamed up with the England women’s football team ahead of the Women’s World Cup and produced a witty video with the aim of rallying a nation to support the Lionesses. A carefully thought out execution, it played on Queen Elizabeth’s ‘Heart and Stomach of a King’ speech from 1588 when she attempted to unite her army in the face of invasion. Featuring powerful women including boxer Nicola Adams and singer-songwriter Jessie Ware with the England football stars, it replaced key words in the famous speech to change the meaning and inspire fans. We love the parallels with a sports team’s pre-match speech and the way it brought fans together.
8th Place:
Vans Vanguard
Vans created their Vans Vanguard campaign to celebrate women skateboarders across the globe. The 4 ½ minute mini movie tells the stories of some of skates best personalities from all different parts of the world including Yndiara Asp,Lizzie Armanto, Brighton Zeuner and Mami Tezuk. In true Van’s tone, Brazilan Asp says with a smile ‘I’m going for it, that’s my style’ - right after falling and crashing her head into a pole.
What we love is that as well as inspiring from the top, it ran all the way down to grass-roots level activating ‘Skate Jams’ to encourage young girls to get into skateboarding, impeccably timed on International Women’s Day. We loved how on-brand it was and how it challenged stereotypes of girls skaters and sportswomen.
7th Place:
Budweiser Future Official x Women’s National Soccer League
Budweiser strikes again but this time it was their Future Official campaign. Perfectly timed, it leveraged the post Women’s World Cup and Megan Rapinoe hysteria with discussion around investment in the US women’s game. As Official Beer sponsor of the US Women’s National League, it called on other companies to step-up and support the domestic competition by becoming a sponsor. They created mock executions as a call-to-action using star of the moment, Megan Rapinoe to highlight other available sponsor categories like Official Time Piece and Official Deodorant. It also cleverly encouraged fans to participate and apply pressure by tagging specific brands that they thought should become sponsors. As well as slick static executions they had a video that was narrated by Rapinoe thanking the current NWSL Sponsors. A win for Budweiser and the game - benefiting the whole women’s sport ecosystem and displaying themselves as true partners. This one scored big for us on originality.
Budwesier - Future Official Campaign
6th Place: Commerzbank x German Women’s Football Team
This satirical video was filled with disturbing truths and created huge buzz after poking fun at the football establishment and support or rather lack there of. A hugely successful football team, Germany have won the World Cup twice and are eight-time European Champs but used humour to shock and remind people that for their first European title they were awarded a Tea Set. The 25 players and coach confidently mock how they play for a nation that doesn’t even know their names. Thumbs up to German Football Association for being brave enough to admit that they have not invested in marketing the women’s side like they should have and major props to Commerzbank who have been long term sponsors for 10 years.
5th place:
US Open Women Worth Watching
This emotive 90 second spot was narrated by sport legend and tennis icon Billie Jean King. It had a perfectly crafted script with lines like ‘We can change not just how women are being watched but by how they are seen’. It shifted the dial on women’s sport and equality with moving scenes of women’s suffrage but specifically delves into the shocking 4% coverage that women’s sport receives. It ends with a call-to-action to help change the world by tagging videos and pictures of indomitable women with #womenworthwatching. They cleverly bring it back to the US Open by reminding people that tennis and Billie Jean King is where it all started. Great insight brought to life in a powerful execution.
4th place:
BBC Change the Game
BBC Summer of Women’s Sport Presenting Team - Photo by BBC
It wasn’t just commercial brands getting behind women’s sport but also publishers which we love to see given the power and influence these wide reaching platforms have. Again, in a bid to help overcome the dismal 4% of coverage that women’s sport receives, BBC put a spotlight on women’s sport with their ‘Change the Game’ campaign supporting the massive Northern Hemisphere’s summer of women’s sport. Not only did they secure a huge line-up of programming with the FA Cup Final, Women’s World Cup, Netball World Cup, Wimbledon and the Women’s Cricket Ashes but they commissioned bespoke content including podcasts, online and documentaries. They also added an inspiring and insightful line-up of female commentators and reporters.
The ‘Change the Game’ promo was filled with the biggest names of the women’s game and included inspiring, raw athletic moments from across the women’s sport spectrum in a fast paced execution. The centerpiece of this campaign though yet again was around the Women’s World and created buzz through a unique music video featuring London rapper, Ms Banks who has opened for mega-star, Nicky Minaj. It highlighted the English and Scottish football stars showcasing their skills, athleticism and personalities in a gritty and bad-ass way. They also created a bespoke promo for the Vitality Netball World Cup again showcasing the competitive side - this time in a slow-mo execution.
3rd Place:
Visa One Moment Can Change the Game & Team Visa - Women’s World cup
Visa have become the biggest supporter of women’s football and didn’t disappoint with their campaigns this year. Not only did they vow to spend as much on the Women’s World Cup in marketing activation as they did on the Men’s World Cup but they produced two notable campaigns that added to the women’s sport world by helping address the lack of role models in women’s sport.
Team Visa - Women’s World Cup Campaign
Replicating their Olympic initiative, they created ‘Team Visa’ featuring a line-up of female athlete ambassadors. They set the tone with a powerful 60-second TV spot around the idea that One Moment Can Change The Game. In the opening scene, that I as a female athlete have experienced more times that I care to remember a frustrated young girl features – the only female player on the pitch – whose persistent pleas to receive a pass are falling on deaf ears until a boy floats a ball to her which she scores. This was complemented with two-minute documentaries which were all inspired by true stories. One of the most powerful ones features Nadia Nadimhen, an Afghanistan-born striker who was in a refugee camp at age 10 before going on to represent Denmark.
We loved this campaign not only because it was well executed but more importantly because it tapped into deep rooted behaviour, was authentic to the core and served a dual purpose of showcasing the stars stories but encouraging change everywhere no matter how small.
2nd Place:
Nike Dream - Dream Crazier, Dream With Us, Dream Further Women’s World Cup
Although technically three campaigns that all sat under the ‘Dream’ umbrella, we’re awarding Nike’s marketing series second place. A sound overarching theme and a well rolled out campaign around major moments and Heroines, they started the year with a bang by labeling 2019 as ‘Year of the Woman’. Their campaigns were inspiring, empowering and beautifully told. If it wasn’t for some backward maternity clauses in their athlete contracts and links to body shaming that are in complete contrast to the campaign messages they were putting out they would have claimed first place in our awards.
Dream Crazier featured mega Heroine, Serena Williams telling a disturbing truth about what it’s like to be a woman in the sports industry. She takes the negative statements and stereotypes and turns them into an empowering message for girls. It showcases moments from sports history where female athletes embraced their ‘crazy’ to own it.
Their Women’s World Cup, Dream Further campaign captured a young football hopeful living out her dreams at a World Cup. Jam-packed with legends including renowned Matilda’s striker, Sam Kerr and ground-breaking BBC commentator, Alex Scott it finished with the spine tingling message of ‘Don’t change your dream, change the world’.
Spinning out of the overarching showpiece was Nike’s Dream With Us sponsorship of the US Women’s National Team claiming ‘Having a dream won’t change the world, sharing one will’. We loved how this tapped into the collective and flowed to outdoor where Alex Morgan was featured on her desire to inspire girls and boys everywhere.
Well done Nike - an inspiring year of campaigns that worked seamlessly together and gave us the feels
Nike Dream With US campaign - Photo by Nike
WINNER:
Bumble Make the First Move x Serena Williams
More like a short film than an ad, this 60 second video for female-led relationship app, Bumble tells the story of Serena Williams knocking down the many barriers she faced as a young black girl in order to achieve her dream of becoming the best tennis player in the world. It includes empowering lines like ‘The world will tell you that you’re not strong enough to play’ and ‘What they don’t tell you is that you already have the power’. It’s an inspiring watch and showcases Serena Williams not just as a 23-time Grand Slam winner but a wife, mum and successful business woman too. What Team Heroine loved most about this was the bravery to launch in the most expensive media spot on the biggest male sport’s stage - the Super Bowl where ads often create more debate than the game itself. Putting a female driven product and messages of female empowerment up for discussion in front of millions of eyeballs, both male and female was an inspiring move by Bumble. Congratulations Bumble - an inspiring campaign that effectively showcased all three of their products.
Summary
To say it has been a big year for women’s sport would be a gross understatement with records being broken on the screen, in the sports arena and at the negotiation table.
We’ve seen marketing budgets and effort follow suit producing some outstanding campaigns, new Heroines but more importantly new dreams and conversation.
There were common themes across many with social cause being at the heart of most campaigns, particularity on topics of gender equality and female empowerment. They entertained us with satire, music and emotional stories but most importantly they inspired us which at its core is what women’s sport marketing is all about. We saw brands being recognized for multiple campaigns showing that there is long-term thinking and investment in the game. It was about sharing the big moments and it was impossible to see past the Women’s World Cup. The majority of our 2019 Team Heroine campaign winners centred around this event with the top 10 listed below.
10. Guinness - Sisters
9. Budweiser - Heart of a King
8. Vans - Vanguard
7. Budweiser - Future Official
6. Commezrbank x German Football Association
5. US Open - Women Worth Watching
4. BBC - Change the Game
3. Visa x Women’s World Cup
2. Nike - Dream
1. Bumble x Serena Williamso
With the Tokyo Olympics and other brands wanting to join the game, there is no sign of activity or opportunity fading and we’re looking forward to seeing how 2020 shapes up.
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