England’s Lionesses kick-off their UEFA European Championship campaign in the Netherlands today as The Football Association implements a significant marketing plan to grow the women’s game.
The support stems from The FA’s wider For All brand purpose and its recently launched Women’s Strategy ‘Gameplan for Growth’ with three main targets; to double participation and the number of fans by 2020 and achieve success on the world stage by 2023.
Last week, the FA launched its Salute campaign, working with Little Mix to engage fans to show their support to the team this summer.
The FA and Little Mix released an edited version of the band’s hit-single Salute, featuring cameos from the Lionesses, stars from the England men’s team and a number of grassroots footballers.
The campaign has called for fans of all ages across the country to show their support by submitting a salute on social media by using #Lionesses.
The FA is continuing to release videos of other celebrities saluting in order to drive the organic reach of the campaign in the build up to the tournament.
The marketing team also recently announced a three-year partnership with Disney, kicking off ahead of the Euros.
The partnership aims to increase participation in, and challenge perceptions of, girls’ football as well as empower and build the self-confidence of young females across the country.
The FA will work together with Disney utilising their unique range of channels, characters and franchises.
The first initiative of the partnership sees Disney team up with the Lionesses to challenge the clichés of what it means to be a modern Princess to promote and inspire girls to fulfill their potential.
Mark Bullingham, The FA’s Group Commercial & Marketing Director, said: “We want to raise the profile of the Lionesses to help inspire a generation of girls to get active through football.
“Our salute campaign is already performing brilliantly to get the country behind the team and to get to know the players. Our partnership with Disney will help us to take campaigns like this to a new level in the future.”
Additionally The FA has acquired out of home advertising to further raise the profile of the team.
Creative asking fans to ‘Follow the #Lionesses this summer’ has appeared on buses, billboards and in shopping centres and train stations across the nation.
The advertising runs in conjunction with a significant campaign from Channel 4, UK broadcaster of the tournament, which includes TV advertising, a national billboard campaign, newspaper wraps, radio ads and social media targeting.
All of the activity has been supported by the launch of The FA’s new For Girls digital platform (www.TheFA.com/ForGirls) which will act as a hub to follow the Lionesses this summer and resource for elite and grassroots football for women and girls beyond the conclusion of the tournament.
England begin their UEFA Women’s Euros campaign against Scotland on Wednesday 19 July, a game televised on Channel 4 (kick-off at 19.45).
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Image: PA Images
