Sport England’s ongoing and award-winning ‘This Girl Can’ platform returned in September with a fresh campaign celebrating the inventive ways women have stayed active during the pandemic which aims to inspire other women to do the same through uplifting real-life stories.
The latest work, by FCB Inferno (the agency behind the original campaign creative back in 2015, continues the umbrella objective of closing the gender gap in activity levels for men and women and is again built on the insight that a fear of judgement – of not being/looking good enough – is the key barrier preventing women from being as active as men.
The insight behind this work is that although individual motivation is essential to overcome fear of judgement, there are also wider societal barriers preventing some groups of women from getting and staying active. So the campaign sets out to celebrate the defiance of the women who have had to overcome societal barriers to get active and inspire those around to be part of the solution.
The campaign, launched on 14 September, spans VOD TV, radio spots, OOH, online and social advertising, online tools and virtual experiences.
The new wave of creative is led by a hero film which features women from the original campaign alongside several new faces all finding inventive ways of fitting activity into their lives – in their own way and in their own time.
The content features women like 43-year-old Katy, the founder of ‘Blaze Trails’ (a community of walking parents and children formed during lockdown), walking with her baby on her back and her toddler beside her cope – an activity which helped her cope with feelings of isolation in lockdown. It also features Glynnis who has rediscovered her love of swimming and built up her self-confidence in the pool thanks to facilities and family members who support and cheer her on. Another star of the creative is Aneesa, a 43-year-old mother of two, who lost her job at the start of lockdown and so began attending HIIT and dance sessions over Zoom where she met an entire community of new supportive women.
The spot is call-to-arms and features British Rapper Little Simz’s ‘Offence’ track to reinforce that it really is time women stopped feeling judged and unrealistically defined by society.
The stars of the spearhead spot also appear in the Instagram feeds of a team of social influencers and commentators who all donated channel space to share the women’s stories and drive conversations around women’s experiences of keeping active during lockdown: including YouTube fitness gurus Lucy Wyndham-Read and Tally Rye, journalists Poorna Bell and Bryony Gordon comedian and TV presenter Judi love.
The hero commercial is supported by a multi-channel campaign including a series of content films that dive into more detailed stories of the women and girls featured.
Meet the women featured in our new ad. From mum-of-5 Cathy, who started #Couchto5k during lockdown, to Aneesa who does boxercise in her bedroom.
— This Girl Can (@ThisGirlCanUK) September 15, 2020
"I love exercising alone, but you never know what opportunities come along when you’re prepared to be sociable." Read Megan's story
— This Girl Can (@ThisGirlCanUK) September 10, 2020
Join our inspiring team of supporters. Whether you run your own fitness classes or club, we'd love you to get involved to encourage other women and girls around the country to get active.
— This Girl Can (@ThisGirlCanUK) September 11, 2020
Alongside the hero videos, the campaign also sees the launch of an improved ‘activity finder’ and a ‘girls’ night in’ evening of music and workouts
Linking in to the ‘Great British Week of Sport’ (19 – 27 September), This Girl Can and ukactive are bringing an evening of music and fitness on Saturday 26 September powered by Foundation FM. This live, virtual experience and event will be streamed live across Instagram and will feature exclusive workouts and DJ Sets which people can participate in and enjoy from their own living room through #BeActive and @GBweekofsport.
“At the beginning of lockdown there was a sense there was a right way to do it. A feeling like we should all be starting new hobbies and getting very fit. But the reality for a lot of women is that we have more demands on our time, and more financial and mental wellbeing challenges,” explained Kate Dale, campaign lead for This Girl Can.
“We’re back with This Girl Can celebrating the fact that there’s no right way to get active – there never was. Just like there’s no right way to do lockdown. We’re celebrating all the women getting active in the ways that work for them, no matter what life throws in their way. Saying it’s okay to do it when you want, how you want. The pandemic has given many of us a renewed appreciation for the benefits of mental and physical health, and we hope the film will inspire other women to want to feel that joy of moving, whether they’re jogging with their kids, squeezing in a HIIT session in between meetings or trying to walk instead of get the bus to get their steps up.”
FCB Chief Marketing Officer Sharon Jiggins added: “It has been remarkable hearing the inspiring stories that the This Girl Can community have been sharing about how they are managing to stay active despite lock down throwing up a myriad more barriers. This film celebrates this but also acts as reminder that the barriers that were there before lockdown are still very much present during lockdown and as we emerge from it. That’s why it is so important we keep talking about those topics such as menstruation and menopause to normalise the conversations around them.”
The FCB Inferno team on the project included Chief Marketing Officer Sharon Jiggins, Senior Account Director Emily Whiteaway, Strategy Partner Laura Pirkis, Senior Strategist Tom Lindo, Director Of Production Nikki Chapman, Broadcast Producer Hanna Davis, Creative Producer Russ Mallows, Chief Creative Officer Owen Lee, Creative Partner Al Young, Senior Copywriter Sarah Lefkowith, Senior Art Director Nicole Chen, Senior Editor Jude Moore, Head Of Artwork Richard Bagley, Joint Design Lead Sarni Strachan and Designer Max Fox.
The campaign is supported by publicity from Red, with media planning from MediaCom and buying by Manning Gottlieb OMD, plus production by Partizan with Director Ali Kurr, Producer Rosie Litterick, Production Manager Charlie Scannell and DOP Ula Pontikos, with Editor Matt Nee of Metal Edit and post production by Unit.
Comment:
It has been five years since the launch of This Girl Can which has had great success both in terms of getting millions of women active and scooping advertising and marketing awards around the world.
Previous phases of work have tackled fear of judgement and practical barriers and the fourth phase links to topics and groups that requiring wider societal attitudinal change if all women are to be given an equal opportunity to get active: including topics such as the menopause, the role of support networks, disabilities, LGBTQ+ and periods.
The previous campaigns within the This Girl Can platform include the 2014 launch (see case study) and additional campaign waves in 2015 (see case study), 2017 (see case study), 2018 (see case study) and January 2020 (see case study), as well as Australia’s own March 2020 This Girl Can campaign (see case study).
With this new wave of remarkable work, the initiative’s success story looks set to continue.
Other recent Sport England campaign’s include summer 2020’s pandemic-linked ‘We Are Undefeatable’ (see case study) and May 2020’s ‘Join The Movement’ (see case study).
Links:
This Girl Can
https://www.youtube.com/user/thisgirlcanuk
https://www.facebook.com/pages/This-Girl-Can/1486200494975441?ref=profile
https://plus.google.com/106091288943299282651/videos
https://twitter.com/ThisGirlCanUK
#ThisGirlCan
http://instagram.com/thisgirlcanuk
Sport England
FCB Inferno
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