The Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) launched its new 2021/22 season with a promotional campaign built around a hero spot called ‘It’s All Kicking Off’.
The season launch spot stars several of the league’s biggest stars and showcases the entertainment side of the league – positioned 2021/22 as its biggest season yet.
The campaign, which was created by London-based sports marketing agency Dark Horses and production company Great Guns, rolled out on 31 August/1 September ahead of the Friday 3September season start with games between Manchester United and Reading and champions Chelsea against Arsenal.
The online-led marketing push is based around a hero video which sees some of the league’s biggest stars show up for a promotional photo shoot and ends up in a chaotic game of football which wrecks the studio and which closes with a slow shot of Arsenal’s Nikita Parris kicking the ball into the camera lens.
The biggest names.
The biggest games.The Barclays FA Women's Super League is kicking off this September. You ready? pic.twitter.com/ckl3htdX3v
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) August 31, 2021
Described as ‘organised competitive chaos’ by Great Guns Director Cassandra Brooksbank, the spot puts skills at the creative centre by pulling the rug on a fictional director’s plans after he initially instructs the players to “be nice and lively with the eyes with nice bright smiles”.
“We said, let’s do something a little subversive, and Dark Horses really fought to make something that wasn’t pulling any punches,” recalled Brooksbank who admits to accidentally hitting producer Kate Phillips’ head with a ball in what became one of the ad’s funniest moments. “And as a director, that’s the greatest gift you can get.”
“In an earlier draft, there was this idea that we might have a shot at the end with them all together, arms around each other smiling – a super chummy tone,” she continued. “And it was so funny, because on set we were talking about that original plan, and they were like, ‘we would never do that, once the season starts that’s it.’”
“It’s almost like a renaissance painting of mayhem and madness,” she continued. “It’s beautiful destruction, but you know – with a lot of women’s football spots, they go down a social justice female empowerment angle, which is really good, but also we need to remember these women are epic athletes, and showcase that fact.”
Comment:
This is a high-octane, tongue-in-cheek look behind the scenes on a sports ad shoot which seeks to show what happens when you try to box in female footballers.
The campaign follows in the footsteps of other outstanding marketing around The FA Women’s Super league such as title sponsor Barclay’s 2019 ‘History Is Anyone’s Now’ campaign.
The Barclays FA Women’s Super League 2021/22 season is it’s 11th season and its fourth as a fully professional league and it will see plenty of airtime too as recent multi-million pound broadcast deals with Sky Sports and the BBC come on stream with weekly games both free-to-air and on pay-tv.
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