Cadbury Ireland launched a new ‘Become A Supporter & A Half’ campaign in April to encourage and incentivise the public to support for women’s football across Ireland – particularly the grassroots game.
Through its sponsorship of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which was unveiled in October 2021, Cadbury is an official partner of the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team and this activation brings to life its commitment to supporting women’s football at all levels – from the amateur game to the national squad. It brings to life the company’s commitment to make women’s football more accessible by removing barriers to entry and boosting the profile, improving facilities and expanding opportunities to play the grassroots women’s game.
The 2023 initiative, developed in harness with agency The Public House, expands the brand’s existing sponsorship platform and ‘Become A Supporter & A Half’ calls on the general public to go above and beyond in their support for the women’s football. It aims to act as a Cadbury backed rallying cry to do more than just passively support the national team and the idea of women’s football, but to go out and offer direct, personal support in volunteering for amateur clubs and going to grassroots games.
The project was informed by insights which emerged from a set of surveys and focus groups with players, coaches and volunteers from grassroots women’s teams across Ireland. These studies found that while direct funding is vital to growing the women’s game, support for both the national side and local teams is also key as amateur players highlighted the huge impact that members of local communities have by volunteering at their nearest grassroots club and/or going to local matches.
The activation, which spans OOH, social and digital strands, plus a PR push, directly and indirectly asks the audience – the Irish nation – not just to support women’s football, but to themselves ‘Become A Supporter & A Half’.
The integrated campaign features players from two grassroots teams and the women’s national team. Indeed, during the strategy and planning phases of the activation, the sponsor and agency group ensured authenticity by asking grassroots and community clubs across Ireland to submit stories of their own side’s best ‘Supporter & A Half’s’. These were then integrated into the campaign to bring their support to life in a way that reflects the reality of amateur clubs across the country.
The work was spearheaded by an energetic, call-to-action hero film, which dropped on 6 April and was shot by female director duo JAK, which features a pair of amateur players alongside stars of the women’s national team. The spot blends a combination of in-camera and post special effects mixed with a bespoke score by Otis Studios.
It explains how consumers can buy a Cadbury product and support grassroots women’s football and urges viewers to find out more either in-store or by visiting a landing page at www.womensfootball.cadbury.ie.
The lead video is backed by a set of cut downs and supporting social content.
As well as the creative and media marketing spend, Cadbury is also putting its own money where its objectives are and those who buy a Cadbury product during the campaign are entered into a contest to win an advertising package worth €3,000 for eight grassroots clubs to further support a recruitment drive in women’s football.
“We really loved last year’s ‘Become a Supporter and a Half’ campaign and we are thrilled to see it come to life once again across multiple platforms. Our aim was to break down the barriers that women’s grassroots football teams face today and we’re proud of the positive effect that the campaign had, so this year we’ve gone bigger and better,” Cadbury Ireland Sponsorship Marketing Activation Lead Eileen Leahy. “We are really looking forward to seeing who the winning clubs will be and how the prizes will impact their clubs”
The Public House Creative Director Dillon McKenna added: “There’s a real buzz around women’s football in Ireland at the moment. From grassroots all the way to the national team, you get a sense that we’re witnessing the beginnings of something really special in the sport. We wanted to capture this positivity with a campaign that implores the viewer to get behind their team, whether local or national, and support in any way they can. Given that a lot of the players, and supporters volunteered their spare time to help make this happen, we’d like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone involved.”
The client team at Cadbury Ireland was Marketing Manager Eileen Leahy and Brand Manager Sandrine Dahmani, while the group working on the project at creative agency The Public House included Creative Director Dillon Mckenna and included Art Directors Rudy Godfrey and Danny Cullen, Copywriters Mikey Curran, Karl Graham, Blaise Hoban and Patrick Dunne, Designers Trevor Nolan and Molly Devlin, Agency Producer Claire Boylan, Marketing Director Catriona Campbell, Account Director Terri Turner, Account Manager Tori Campbell, Account Executive Siddharth Aghi, Strategy Director Sarah Walsh and Strategist Rohan Pipalwa.
Media was handled by Spark Foundry and production was by Knucklehead with Director JAK, with Executive Producer Matthew Brown, Producer Helen Hayden, Director Of Photography Joseph Ingersoll and Production Designer Giovanna Chiarella. Post Production / VFX was run through Daydreamer with 2D Artists Rob Chandler and Ed Poulson, Executive Producer Cat Hammond and Colour Grading Mark Horrobin.
Editorial was by The Quarry with Editor Meg Thorne and PR by Fleishmanhillard UK Brand Director Gill Madden, with Client Servicing Executives Grace Shields, Norah Ferris and Ava Mcevoy.
Comment
The grassroots research-inspired activation is admirably ambitious as motivating the public to volunteer their time is always a challenging marketing proposition – however alluring the confectionary and community finance incentives may be.
It follows in the footsteps of Cadbury’s 2022 ‘Game Is On’ poster led campaign which sought to turn amateur female players into stars.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.