“I jiggle therefore I am”
That was the signature caption on the This Girl Can campaign which ran across England during 2015, raised levels of physical activity among women and could have the potential to do likewise in Ireland.
The campaign was all about bursting stereotypes of the body perfect and addressing the fact that when people are exercising they don’t have to look, or feel as though they should look as though they were stepping onto a catwalk.
“Our brief was to make girls and women between the ages of 14 to 40 think more about getting active and revel in the fact that they might not look great while they were doing so,” said Tanya Joseph of Sport England speaking to the Levelling the Playing Field conference in Dublin last week.
Behaviour
“The campaign had to be about changing behaviour, not just painting it pink or recording a happy, upbeat song.”
The campaign is now one year old and has begun to deliver spin offs with a new video about running released in the past week.
Could it happen in Ireland? The simple answer is yes though the budget of £10 million assigned to the project by Sport England is well outside the range of what could be invested or indeed needed here.
The campaign was very much driven by social media and PR with user generated advocacy and sharing at the heart of what gave it life.
Letting Go
“It was a case of being comfortable with letting go of the campaign and then planning meticulously to do so” said Vicky Holgate of the creative agency behind the English campaign FCB Inferno.
“We were brave enough to put phrases like “I kick balls, deal with it” in front of Government Ministers and secure their sign off.”
She’s right that if this had been a more traditional public information campaign it would not have had the same level of impact.
Likewise of it had not been funded by the National Lottery it would not have had the scope to reach as far as it did.
Virality
Part of the campaign was an app that allowed individuals to submit their own pictures, using captions from the campaign and having them turned into posters that were placed near their homes or places of work. The level of virality this generated was the strength of the campaign and it became a badge of honour.
So much so that the campaign is now producing t-shirts with some of the more popular taglines.
Coming back then to whether this could happen in Ireland…
We spoke to Minister for Equality Aodhan O’Riordan after the conference and he expressed genuine support for seeing what could be possible.
If it was costed at 10% of the UK cost or even less it would still have the potential to make a difference to how women feel about exercise with all the physical and mental health benefits that would bring.
Partnership
It has grown in the UK because different sports and commercial organisations threw their weight behind it. Sports rowed in with simple visual content about their sport and let people make up their mind about whether they were more comfortable doing boxing or wake boarding.
It would require cross Government, cross sport and cross business support to make it happen but as with much else in Women’s sport the potential gain in terms of long term changed behaviour would be immense.
Sport for Business has already held initial discussions with a leading advertising agency within our membership who are looking at how the campaign might be produced, costed and rolled out across Irish mainstream and social media.
As those discussions progress we will gather our existing group of advocates, sports, businesses and social influencers for a morning to look at the possible. Watch this space…
Coming up through the week on Women’s Sport on Sport for Business
Monday:
Inspiring words from an Inspiring leader in sport. Fiona Coghlan speaks out on why we need to normalise sport in girls lives and normalise women’s sport in society.
Wednesday:
The Leadership Gap – 44% of those competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games were women but in leadership roles within sport on a global basis the number is only 15%. In terms of behavioural change it seems the biggest challenge will be in this area rather than in pure participation.
Thursday:
The Media Question – It’s one that absorbs those in the media and in sport. It’s also what normalises the telling of the stories around Women’s sport.
Friday:
The Sponsorship Question – We will talk to those who are putting their marketing muscle behind women’s sport across a range of area from gaelic games to rugby, soccer and hockey to horse racing. Are they winning?
