Two weeks ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, German Football Association (DFB) partner Commerzbank rolled out a direct campaign that both promotes the German women’s national team and also tackles discrimination in football and acknowledges the soccer establishment’s own role in diminishing female football.
The integrated campaign – which includes both brand and product strands – tackles discrimination in football head on, while aiming to appeal to football fans, existing customers and also seeks to win new customers.
The sponsor, which partners both the German men’s and women’s teams, admits that it hasn’t invested enough in marketing the team and that is one of the reasons that the German public isn’t as familiar with the players as it should be and it publicly mocks its own reward for the women’s first European championship – a tea set.
The campaign embraces its failures and those of the wider football world with creative that illustrates the team’s grit and determination with powerful and direct creative.
One social content piece even includes the copy: “We don’t have balls. But we know how to use them.”
"We don't have balls.
But we know how to use them!"The @DFB_Frauen with a campaign ahead of this summer's Women's World Cup. #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/IC1b9b2VHU
— DW Sports (@dw_sports) May 14, 2019
The campaign is spearheaded by a hero commercial running across national television as well as digital and social platforms which highlights and tackles the persisting degrees of discrimination experienced by female footballers.
The objective is to show how the women’s national team meets with prejudice with strength, courage and wit.
The spot, called ‘We Play For A Nation That Doesn’t Even Know Our Names’, features national team players and discusses discrimination, lack of reward and lack of recognition.
As well as the 90-second hero German video (which includes the copy ‘The German women’s national football team. Their game. Their beat. Their bank. Commerzbank’),
there was also a shorter cut down.
The full DFB ad copy translates as:
We play for a nation that doesn’t even know our names.
We’ve been European champions three times, right?
Wrong! Try eight times.
For our first title we were given a tea set.
Since we started out, we haven’t just fought against opponents.
We’ve fought against prejudice.
“Women are just there to have babies.”
“They belong in the laundry room.”
“It’s like watching amateurs in slow motion.”
But you know what…
We don’t have balls.
But we know how to use them.
We’re the ones with make-up on our faces.
We like to wear high heels and knee socks
We like to dance.
We’re into people who know what they want.
When it comes to role models, we just have to look in the mirror.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to know who we are.
You just need to know what we want.
We want to play our own game to our own beat.
The activation extends into product-specific promotional content – such as online and mobile banking platforms and an offer of €100 starter credit to open a free current account – with a series of social videos amplified across the bank’s own platforms.
Echt jetzt? Es geht auch einfach. @DFB_Frauen pic.twitter.com/BicQJErfYu
— Commerzbank (@commerzbank) June 3, 2019
Comment:
The campaign is defiant, inspirational and is a strong call to gender parity: it brilliantly addresses gender inequality in sports.
The German national team won the World Cup twice and the European title eight times, but they are not widely recognised at home.
A long-time DFB partner, Commerzbank has supported the women’s national team since 2008 and this campaign sees the bank admit that it has its own responsibilities for this and it is committed to redressing the balance.
The bank believes its DFB tie-up expresses itself through the joint values of fairness, good performance, respect, partnership and team spirit.
Commerzbank is one of six equal-ranking second tier sponsors: the top two partners are equipment supplier Adidas and VW (which recently replaced long-time auto partner Mercedes-Benz).
Through its premium DFB partnership Commerzbank is involved in all levels of German football: from street and school tournaments, to grass roots local clubs, the professional game and the national teams.
It is a partner of the DFB Junior-Coach programme which aims to strengthen football´s base and personality for a positive future in sports and professional terms, while the bank’s other football partnerships range from sponsoring Eintracht and FFB Frankfurt in a deal that includes the naming rights to the teams’ Commerzbank Arena stadium and backing the Drumbo-Cup (Germany’s largest indoor football tournament for primary schools).
We’ve already seen major brands such as Nike (see case study), Visa (see case study), Luna Bar
and Fox (see case study) roll out powerful, equality led Women’s World Cup marketing and now the Commerzbank-DFB campaign joins this list of champions.
The France 2019 World Cup starts on 7 June and the German side open against China on 8 June.
Links:
Commerzbank
https://www.youtube.com/user/CommerzbankPrivat
https://www.facebook.com/commerzbank/
https://twitter.com/commerzbank
https://www.instagram.com/commerzbank/
DFB
https://twitter.com/DFB_Team_EN
https://www.facebook.com/DFBTeamEN
https://tv.dfb.de/static/english-videos
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