Despite the best efforts of sports brands and health experts, 2 million fewer women than men were exercising regularly in England. Sport England had invested in the supply side, however despite having made improvements, the gender gap remained. The brand knew that to close the gap, it needed to create something that spoke specifically to women for the first time, so the brand put out a pitch brief.
After analysing five years’ worth of Sport England’s research, the agency identified the classic incentive-based approach to behaviour change would not work. Women knew and understood the benefits of exercise and 75% of them said they wanted to exercise more, but they weren’t.
Many barriers were stopping women from exercising, but the agency uncovered something that no one else had. A fresh and unifying theme: the fear of judgement. We set about liberating women by making their self-confidence greater than the fear of judgement.
To do this, the creative had to challenge the norms of sport advertising.
The accepted “aspirational” imagery (perfect, glowing six-packs and slim waists) and uncompromising lines about winning were intimidating and pushing women away. The campaign needed to redefine aspiration. The key was not in appearance or achievement, but in showing women of all shapes, sizes and abilities with an aspirational confidence: a “don’t give a damn” attitude.
The resulting creative was This Girl Can, a celebration of the triumph of attitude over society’s judgement. We championed active women across England who were doing their thing no matter how they did it or how they looked.
The campaign has three core objectives:
- To be relevant and inspiring enough that women would want to become a part of, talk about and share it with friends and family. In less than a year our community has grown from zero to 324,000 on Facebook, 82,000 on Twitter and Pinterest, and 26,000 on Instagram. The total campaign has had 37m views and the campaign film has had 18m views and 130,000 shares. Mentions of @thisgirlcan or #thisgirlcan have reached 660,000.
- To allow for multiple partners to leverage it. To date, more than 7,000 partners have signed up for the campaign toolkit. BBC Get Inspired, sports clubs and universities have produced their own versions of the film; and parents, schools and companies as large as Credit Suisse have used This Girl Can to encourage women
to become more active. - Most importantly, Sport England’s ultimate goal is to get more women aged 14-40 exercising regularly. While the exact data is still be finalized before publication, the results are looking positive. And since launching our social channels have been inundated with women attributing their return to exercise directly to the campaign. This Girl Can has encouraged them to do something that they may well otherwise have not done, and they are recognising the effect and thanking This Girl Can for it.
This Girl Can innovated by challenging assumptions and eschewing the norms. Strategically, it challenged the expectation that women needed motivation to exercise and instead focused on providing the encouragement and support to increase their confidence. Creatively it went against the sports advertising grain, by creating a relatable yet aspirational picture of exercise that others thought would have been off-putting.
In doing so, it captured not only the hearts of women across the nation, but 110 other countries too, without any international spend. Recently a Facebook fan even revealed the first ever This Girl Can tattoo. The campaign has gone beyond advertising and become a point of pride for women everywhere.
Al Young is chief creative officer at FCB Inferno
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