Mid August saw Guinness release a campaign telling the tale of Japan’s female rugby pioneers – Liberty Fields.
The ‘Liberty Tales’ story sets out to highlight how a group of female rugby fans formed a Tokyo club and collectively overcame societal pressures in 1980’s Japan in order to pursue their passion.
Despite having very little support and facing outright hostility and ridicule, the team ended up representing their country at the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Running under the brand’s ongoing ‘Made of More’ umbrella big idea and leveraging its own strong rugby heritage and official 6 Nations title partnership, the campaign is built around a five minute documentary
and cut-down commercial.
Like its previous rugby work, this campaign was also created in harness with agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and the spot’s powerful ‘ANAANA’ soundtrack was provided by by up and coming band Cari Ca through Radford Music.
“It was back in the day, when getting harassed, sexually and otherwise was a given. Men expected women to be young, pretty and willing to quit their jobs for marriage. At the time, the women’s team weren’t recognised as official. So, we founded our organisation,” recalled Liberty Fields player Ms Kishida.
“We lose if women can’t play rugby. The reason why we’ve kept on going is because we don’t want to lose. I wanted society to accept that women can love this kind of sport too, not just men.”
Niall McKee, head of Guinness Stout Europe added: “We firmly believe at Guinness that when we stand together, we can take on the world. In a year where rugby takes centre stage thanks to the men’s team, we are using this pedestal to celebrate women in sport by showcasing the story of Ms Kishida and her Liberty Fields teammates – a team who are truly made of more. Our campaign around the story of Liberty Fields will see us talk more about inclusivity and diversity and celebrate women as pioneers.”
The campaign was created by an agency team at AMV BBDO that included Copywriter Alex Grieve, Art Director Adrian Rossi, Planners David Edwards and Lisa Stoney, Alaina Crystal, Producers Nick Godden and Frankie Burwell-Wright, Creative Directors Nick Hulley and Nadja Lossgott, an account team that included Michael Pring, Nick Andrew, Tessa Brisbane, Luke Hickey, Sam Ayre and Flynn Leslie, Social Creative Zak Loney and Business Affairs Maxine Thompson.
The media agency was Carat and the production company was Stink Films with Mr+Positive Tokyo. The documentary short and TV spot were directed by Eliot Rausch, Mackenzie Sheppard and Aika Miyake and the producer was Ben Croker.
Post production was handled by Untold, the music company was Radford Music with music supervision by James Radford, sound engineering by Sam Ashwell and audio post by 750.
Comment:
There is an underlying message here based around the value of keeping on going is where the long term gain is made though reflects Guinness’ ‘Worth Waiting For’ idea.
This film is part of the brand’s existing ‘Made of More’ video series: a set of story spots celebrating real rugby people: other films have included two sisters with split loyalties between the Scotland and England rugby teams, as well as the story of the first openly gay professional rugby player and which began with ‘The Purse’ in January at the start of the 2019 Guinness 6 Nations (see case study) and launches the stout brand’s new six year partnership with the Women’s 6 Nations.
Guinness, an official supporter of the Irish Rugby team as well as the 6 Nations (but not an official Rugby World cup partner), is one of several brands marketing early round the Autumn’s Rugby World Cup in Japan: a tournament which looks set to dominate the sports media landscape in September and October.
Links:
Guinness
https://www.facebook.com/Guinness
https://twitter.com/guinnessgb
https://www.youtube.com/user/GuinnessEurope
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
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