Beauty brand Avon has penned a shirt sponsorship deal with Liverpool FC’s ladies team that sees it become the very first female-focused brand to sponsor a British women’s professional football club.
The three-year partnership sees the cosmetic and beauty brand replace Standard Chartered (which continues to be the men’s team’s primary partner and shirt sponsor) as the Liverpool Ladies Football Club (LLFC) front of kit sponsor.
This fresh partnership marks the first time that the women’s team has had its own shirt deal independent of the men’s team.
Through the deal Avon aims to inspire women all over the world to break down social barriers, challenge stereotypes, and the brand will also use the partnership to encourage young girls and women around the world to achieve their ambitions.
Avon unveiled the new partnership with a marketing campaign that spanned a launch event, PR, digital, social and at-game initiatives.
The initiative was led by a spearhead online ‘History Girls’ spot from Avon.
The video, first posted on 19 April, announced the new partnership with Liverpool Ladies FC and set out some of its objectives.
The spot and supporting assets ran across the beauty brand’s digital and social channels such as Twitter,
Kick off starts here! We are proud to announce our partnership with @LFCladies Read more here: https://t.co/Zh5VZTXl3v pic.twitter.com/m6f4lHmmKI
— Avon Cosmetics (@Avon_UK) April 19, 2017
Instagram,
and Facebook.
There was also plenty of social support from the team too.
Made up we play at home on Friday! You could even win a @kickitout shirt signed by @gembon23 Who's coming? https://t.co/4C4xACfsfm pic.twitter.com/mdKOv3IYDr
— Mighty Red (@MightyRed_LFC) April 25, 2017
Andrea Slater, general manager of Avon UK, said the brand’s purpose of trying to ‘inspire and create a world with more empowered women’ would be reflected in its partnership with the Liverpool women’s team.
‘This sponsorship aims to inspire women all over the world to drive real change in women’s football – breaking down social barriers, challenging stereotypes, and empowering young girls and women to play the sport that they love,’ says Slater.
‘This sponsorship is another stride forward in our support for women and one that we’re approaching with whole hearted commitment as we embark on this new and exciting venture together. The teams and professionals we have spoken to on this journey are truly inspirational women, working together to achieve their goals, and we are very excited to be sponsoring Liverpool Ladies Football Club and supporting the women through all of their future successes.’
‘Avon is an iconic women’s brand with a rich history and shares the same core values as Liverpool Ladies Football Club,’ said the club’s managing director and chief commercial officer Billy Hogan at the deal announcement event.
The team donned their new Avon-sponsored shirts for the first time during its opening game in the Women’s Super League Spring Series against Yeovil Town Ladies on 23 April.
The Spring Series itself is a one-off transitional football tournament that aims to link the league’s switch from a summer to winter calendar for the 2017/18 season.
Activative Comment:
The new shirst sponsor and Liverpool women’s team itself are likely to see bigger TV audience numbers for the tournament following the BBC’s recent decision to buy the broadcast rights for the competition.
Despite the BBC deal, the clubs are also allowed to live-stream their games through their own digital platforms – thus giving Avon an additional potentially powerful activation channel.
We feel Avon’s move to pen and exclusive women’s team partnership is another sign of the evolving change in women’s sports – both in terms of audiences and commercial partnerships.
Aside from a handful of examples such as tennis and golf perhaps, remains relatively untapped in terms of sponsorship – despite the ever increasing fan metrics.
Last month also saw an innovative women’s football initiative from the Swedish National team which replaced the players’ names on the back of their shirts with empowering messages in a kit campaign that aims to inspire women (see case study).
One of the first brands to represent the opportunities linked to the rise of the women’s game and the importance of splitting the women’s and men’s’ games in terms of partnerships was SSE – which became the title sponsor of the Women’s FA Cup last year when the FA agreed to split the FA Cup’s commercial rights.
In terms of SSE’s strategy, sponsorship head Colin Banks says the deal was intended to apply the company’s diversity and equality drive to its sports sponsorship portfolio.
To explore some of our favourite recent women’s sports sponsorship campaigns from recent months, check out our collection of ‘15 Stand Out Sponsorships’.
Links:
Avon
https://www.facebook.com/Avonuk
https://www.youtube.com/user/iAvonUK
https://www.instagram.com/avon_uk/?hl=en
Liverpool FC
https://www.facebook.com/LFCladies/
https://www.youtube.com/user/LiverpoolFC
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/welcome-to-liverpool-fc
https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolFC
