Sports retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods set out to challenge the widespread trend for school sports programme cuts with a national US campaign aimed at offering access to sports for one million young athletes by 2024.
Through its Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation, the national retailer launched an initiative across the country promoted through a multi-channel marketing campaign.
The work, spearheaded by a hero television commercial debuting on 4 August, also runs across digital, social media and it is also activated in-stores across the country.
The 30-
and 60-second versions of the lead spot
introduces ‘To Whom it May Concern’ and features youth athletes and teams representative of communities around the country facing the youth sports budget crisis head-on.
The creative features locker rooms and sports fields with youngsters listening to their coaches read aloud letters informing them that their sports programs are being axed or suspended indefinitely.
The disappointed looks on their faces carries emotional power and aims to spark action.
The film and supporting content include a call to action to “help us, help them”.
The video was filmed in Birmingham, Alabama and many of the young athletes featured in the ad are from Fairfield High School who’s school’s athletic department is being supported with a $25,000 grant from the Dick’s Foundation Sports Matter program.
The foundation is fully funding all Sports Matter projects currently on DonorsChoose.org totaling more than $450,000 and impacting nearly 40,000 youth athletes.
The initiative is also appealing to Dick’s customers and urging the to help out by donating to The Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation Sports Matter program in a number of ways: including at the store checkout, online at sportsmatter.org, by texting key word ‘SPORTS’ to 20222 or through a ‘donate now’ button on the brand’s Facebook page.
All donations will directly support youth sports programs across the country.
Additionally, Dick’s is matching up to $1m in donations made by customers to The Dick’s Foundation through September 13, 2019.
The initiative was developed for Dick’s Sporting Goods and Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation by an agency team at Anomaly.
The hero commercial was directed by Ben Quinn and the production company was Superprime.
Comment:
All across the USA, school sports programs are being cut and axed due to budget tightening and restrictions in the public education sector and this initiative sets out to do something about it.
And we can only applaud them for it.
And it’s not just a sad trend going on in the USA, but one across both the developed and developing worlds.
Links:
Dick’s Sporting Goods
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/DicksSportingGoods
https://www.instagram.com/dickssportinggoods/
https://www.facebook.com/dickssportinggoods
Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation
https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/s/community-programs
Anomaly
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