In the second week of March, Unilever antiperspirant brand Degree leveraged its NCAA partnership through a March Madness initiative aimed at helping close the gender bracket during the tournament called ‘Bracket Gap Challenge’.
The activation, created in tandem with agency Edelman, aims to raise awareness around the 2022 NCAA Women’s tournament and was informed by brand research (with Edelman Data & Intelligence) which found that only 12% of people filled out an NCAA Women’s tournament bracket last year.
The brand launched a BracketGapChallenge.com website which began accepting entries from 13 March through to the start of the first game on 18 March. An approach which also enables the brand to collect valuable first-party consumer data.
The campaign, which was led by online video starring athlete ambassador, WNBA star and two-time NCAA champion Candace Parker (one of the biggest names in women’s basketball), essentially sets out to change the parlance around picking tournament winners from ‘bracket’ to ‘brackets’ and thus encourage hoops fans to also fill out a women’s bracket via BracketGapChallenge.com.
The hero video, which dropped across the brand’s digital and social platforms from 9 March, was called ‘Brackets 101’ and sees Parker state “There’s no such thing as a ‘bracket’ anymore, this March Madness, there’s only ‘brackets.’”
Participation is incentivised with one ‘randomly selected’ entrant receiving $25,000 for themselves and a $75,000 donation in their name given to a women’s athletic program of their choice.
“As a longtime advocate of equitable investment, I’ve seen that opportunity is a key driver to equality—and there is no opportunity without visibility,” said Candace Parker in the campaign PR material. “I’m proud to team up with Degree for the ‘Bracket Gap Challenge’ to give women’s college basketball that increased visibility by urging fans to fill out a women’s bracket and follow this year’s tournament. Together, we’ll drive conversation and hype that will ultimately help level the playing field when it comes to sports.”
“Investment in women’s athletics has come a long way over the last few years, but we’re not done advocating for equity yet,” added Degree NA Director Desi Okeke. “We know that more-engaged fans ultimately leads to more recognition for the athletes, and the hope is that the Degree Bracket Gap Challenge will help raise awareness for the next generation of women’s college basketball players and motivate girls across the country to stay in the game.”
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Traditionally, hoops fan attention during March Madness is focused primarily on the men’s tournament, but the parallel women’s tournament is an equal part of the college basketball festivities and this initiative seeks to draw attention to the women’s tournament by driving awareness, attendance and funding.
This purpose-driven marketing push is part of Degree’s larger purpose-driven ‘Breaking Limits’ program which launched last summer and supports those who face barriers to being active – whether due to race, sexual orientation, ability level, gender or age – and which saw Degree commit more than $5m over the next five years to the program.
(As part of this program, last September saw the brand call out the fitness industry for its lack of support for people with disabilities.)
According to some marketing industry analysts, this purpose-driven project rolled out whilst parent company Unilever, an official corporate partner of NCAA March Madness, faces increasing investor criticism that it has prioritized ‘progressive marketing messages’ over ‘business fundamentals’.
However, we feel that this initiative aligns brand identity and positioning, which use synergies and business outcomes.
The gender pay- and participation-gap has also been a focus of several recent campaigns from key competitor P&G’s Secret such as 2020’s ‘The Secret Kicker’.
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