Mars Wrigley leveraged its FA sponsorship rights around the Lionesses via a comprehensive, multi-phase TTL #SupportHer campaign that aimed to bring to life the company’s drive for ‘diversity and Inclusion’ through the lens of football.
The integrated campaign – devised by sports agency Octagon and developed with creative agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, while the PR was handled by Porter Novelli – was structured in two phases: pre-tournament through May and June and in-tournament through June and July.
The activation strands ranged from erecting the UK’s first ever statue of a female footballer (Lily Parr) at the National Football Museum in Manchester ahead of the tournament, to a ‘player of the tournament’ fan vote and trophy, a set of bespoke Snapchat filters to enables users to show and share that they are a Lioness #SupportHer, a retail partnership with the Co-op with two promotional competitions, plus a calendar of reactive social media content, plus
Brief / Objectives
Following on from Mars’ extended FA partnership in 2018, which included the England’s Senior Women’s team, the FIFA World Cup represented the first major activation opportunity to leverage its Lionesses relationship and right s as interest in the women’s game through the year and spiked around France 2019.
The Mars Wrigley’s brief was to leverage its relationship with the Lionesses in way that brought to life the company’s drive for ‘diversity and Inclusion’ through the lens of football.
The key objectives were:
> Leverage Mars’ sponsorship of the England Senior Women’s team to create a women’s football campaign that can raise the profile of the Lioness team and players and grow the national fan base
> Position Mars Wrigley as an industry-leading company for whom driving greater Diversity and Inclusion is not just a fad but a core business principle
> Using Mars as the lead brand, deliver an appealing and engaging TTL promotion with money-can’t-buy prizes on offer
> Partner relationships with a single retailer to secure prime feature and display in-store, build key relationships, and drive sales
> Lay the foundations of an exciting campaign that can be further amplified around the next women’s tournament in 2021 (to be hosted in England)
Insights / Research
To achieves these aims, Mars Wrigley marketers and its agencies carried out relevant research and found that women’s football has grown at an impressive rate in recent years – with increasing interest in international games set to peak in 2019.
TV audiences were rising fast.
For example, the UK TV audience for the Women’s World Cup more than doubled between the 2011 (5.1m) and 2015 (12.4m), with an average audience of 1.7m tuning in to England’s Semi-Final defeat to Japan.
Just two years later, a peak audience of more than 4m people watched the Lionesses’ Euro 2017 semi-final loss to The Netherlands (more than Celebrity Big Brother and Panorama).
Further significant growth was predicted for France 2019.
So, with increasing television audiences, free-to-air tournament broadcast on the BBC, favourable kick-off times for the UK, and an England team ranked 3rd in the world with a genuine chance of taking home the silverware, there was a major commercial opportunity for Mars.
This, combined with The FA’s 2017 commitment to double female football participation and fans by 2020, meant that the company and its marketers believed that there had never been a better time to get behind women’s football.
The Challenge
Raising the profile of professional women’s football and rallying people at scale – even existing football fans – to actively follow the women’s game meant changing behaviour.
While not everyone in the UK has women’s football at front of mind, many people still take pride in supporting their nation and, culturally, an increasing number of people are publicly showing more support for equality.
Big Idea
The campaign’s core idea was to ‘take inspiration from the movements of the moment’.
Mars aimed to activate through an approach that positioned itself as offering a dose of positivity and encouraged people to publicly demonstrate their support for the England women’s team and, by equivalence, show that they are supporters of women’s football.
The idea was that, whether young or old, male or female, famous or everyday, football fan or not, everyone can get involved.
The challenge was to help galvanise the nation to get behind the Lionesses and encourage them to become an official #SupportHer.
Campaign
The team developed a multi-platform, through-the-line campaign with multiple touchpoint opportunities for consumers across the UK to engage with #SupportHer.
ATL
Phase 1 (Pre-tournament) – Lily Parr Statue
Mars kicked-off #SupportHer with a PR campaign championing the past, present, and future of women’s football, erecting the first ever statue of a female footballer in the UK – Lily Parr.
Parr, the first woman inducted into the FA’s Hall of Fame in 2002, was a trailblazer for women’s football in the 1920s and was chosen to act as the ideal icon, inspiration, and role model to be recognised and commemorated with her own statue.
Throughout her illustrious 32-year career, she amassed more than 900 career goals and was reputed to have one of the most powerful shots in football, with the ability to score goals from extraordinary angles.
The life-size bronze statue of Parr was unveiled ahead of the start of the tournament and currently takes pride of place at the National Football Museum in Manchester.
The campaign was devised by sport and entertainment agency Octagon and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO created a film that includes footage of Parr and her team as well as three current England Lionesses – Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and Karen Bardsley – who express their admiration for the football pioneer.
We’re so proud to unveil the first ever statue of a female footballer in the UK. We hope shining a spotlight on trailblazer Lily Parr will inspire both the current generation of Lionesses and all women to follow their sporting dreams. #SupportHer pic.twitter.com/GW0trw5H3j
— Mars UK News (@MarsUKNews) June 3, 2019
The landmark occasion generated incredible national media coverage across broadcast, print, and online press, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 5, Sky Sports News, Telegraph, Metro, Daily Mirror, and more.
Phase 2 (During tournament) – Lily Parr Trophy & Reactive Social Media Content/Filters
Following the statue unveiling, Mars announced that the Lily Parr Trophy (a miniature version of the statue) would be awarded to the Lioness ‘who shows the most Parr-like qualities over the course of the tournament’ on the basis of a fan vote.
Amongst these qualities were grit, determination, and self-belief.
Supported by social content featuring key stars of the England squad – Houghton (captain), Scott and Bardsley – Mars encourages fans to vote on Twitter after every Lioness game for the player who they think deserves the award.
The prize ultimately was presented to the winner with the most overall votes following England’s final appearance at the competition.
Vote for the Lioness you think made their country proud, #Mars wants to know who you think will win the Lily Parr trophy? @Lionesses #SupportHer #Lionesses #Marsbar
— Mars Bar Football (@marsfootball) July 2, 2019
Mars also collaborated with Snapchat to develop a series of bespoke filters that enable users to show they are a Lioness #SupportHer.
While a calendar of reactive Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter content was developed to go live following every England match.
Tough result to take. But what a journey it’s been! You’ve captured our, and raised the bar for the Women’s game!! Till we roar again…@Lionesses #SupportHer #Lionesses #Marsbar pic.twitter.com/2bwVQTqi7F
— Mars Bar Football (@marsfootball) July 2, 2019
BTL
Mars also exclusively partnered with major UK retailer the Co-op on its 2019 women’s football campaign which saw #SupportHer feature prominently in-store, online, and on DOOH over two promotional competition phases in the build-up to and during the tournament:
Phase 1 (Pre-tournament) – Kit Out Your Team
To drive up-front awareness of the tournament, of the Mars/Lionesses partnership, and of the #SupportHer campaign, a ‘Kit Out Your Team’ text-to-win promotion offered 10 shoppers the chance to win a personalised #SupportHer pack for their friends and family (up to three additional recipients). Consisting of official team shirts, flags, and balls, the prize ensured that fans were proudly kitted out in their team’s colours ahead of the first match.
Phase 2 (During tournament) – Win a Lioness Training Session
Taking over during the tournament, Co-op shoppers were been given the opportunity to win the ultimate football experience – a training session led by an official Lioness at St. Georges Park (England’s training centre and the home of English football) – for four lucky winners (and two guests), as well as hundreds of footballs to be won.
To enter, fans must simply had to share an image of themselves showing their support for the team via a dedicated online portal (https://www.marssupporther.co.uk/)
Our Three Lions are ready- are you? Enter now for your chance to win up to £10,000! For full T&C's, visit https://t.co/TnnfRgFuDj pic.twitter.com/evrqipaeC5
— Mars Bar Football (@marsfootball) June 12, 2018
Media
Mars also partnered with LadBible, SPORTBible, and Pretty 52 to push out some exclusive #SupportHer content driving awareness of Lily Parr and the statue unveiling, as well as encouraging adults to get (back) into football through their relevant channels.
– SPORTBible:
– Pretty 52:
The Team
The #SupportHer campaign was collaboratively developed by Mars (lead brand / partner), The FA (rights holder), Octagon (campaign concept and rights management), AMV BBDO (ATL and delivery), MediaCom (media planning), Porter Novelli (PR management) The Mars Agency (BTL and delivery) and VCG PromoRisk (sales promotion management).
The Deal
It was back in March 2018 that Mars Wrigley and The FA announced the renewal of their partnership for a further four years.
The deal, which extends to all brands within the Mars portfolio, giving the company the right to promote its entire slate of products throughout the country via integrated sponsorship campaigns, was designed to have an increased focus on supporting greater equality, diversity and inclusion in football.
Thus the expanded partnership saw Mars remain an official supporter of England’s national men’s team and an official partner of the ‘FA Mars Just Play Programme’ until July 2022 (a tie up that dates back to 2009),
while it also expanded to the England disability teams and the England Senior Women’s Team – The Lionesses.
Plus the extended partnership also sees Mars provide 200 Level One FA coaching bursaries, with a particular focus on increasing equal representation and participation among women.
Appendix
Top-10 facts about Lily Parr
Lily Parr was born in 1905 in St. Helens, and was buried there after her death in 1978.
Lily began her career at St. Helens Ladies in 1919, before moving to Dick, Kerr Ladies FC in 1920, following a recommendation from teammate Alice Woods.
Parr began her career with Dick, Kerr Ladies aged 14-years-old as a full back, before moving to the left wing in 1921.
Lily scored 108 goals in her first year as a left wing, coming second only to centre forward Florrie Redford who scored 170.
Parr scored 986 goals during her career with the Dick, Kerr Ladies.
Parr was billed as possessing one of the most powerful shots in the history of the game, an outside-left of immense skill and power. Programme notes from the 1920s describe Parr as “big, fast and powerful, is tricky and can take corner kicks better than most men”, also nothing she “scores goals from extraordinary angles with a left foot cross drive which nearly breaks the net”.
Parr and the Dick, Kerr Ladies team toured in the USA in 1922 where they played against men’s teams.
During the USA tour, four members of the Dick, Kerr team; Lily Parr, Florrie Haslam, Jennie Harris and Molly Walker, ran a relay race with the American Women’s Olympic team. They led all the way and were first past the winning post, beating the Olympic athletes!
Alongside her illustrious football career, Parr trained as a nurse and worked in Whittingham Mental Hospital until she retired.
In 2002, Parr became the first woman to be inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum.
Links:
Mars
https://twitter.com/MarsUKNews
https://www.youtube.com/user/MarsBarPlayYourPart
https://www.youtube.com/user/Mars
Octagon
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
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