A punchy, rap-battle meets soccer skills music video spot – starring musicians Gavlyn and Nadia Rose, plus footballers Kelley O’Hara and Alex Greenwood – fronts Under Armour’s ‘Armour Up’ rallying call campaign leveraging the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Launched on 12 July, ahead of the kick off of a tournament jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand between 20 July and 20 August, the Baltimore based sportswear company campaign celebrates the strength, discipline, and community spirit shared between female football players while promoting its brand and its female football product range.
According to the creative team, the intention was to create a film that inspires the next generation by focusing on the individuality of each athlete and artist and collectively capturing the essence of the female force.
Created by agency Zambezi/ZMBZ and helmed by production house Fela Director Kat Webber with creative executive Karena Evans, an empowering music video fronts a campaign that aims to capture the mental tenacity and physical strength of the world’s best female footballers, while showcasing their unwavering fortitude of the players and the sense of community they share.
The music video style film stars US rapper Gavlyn, and UK rapper Nadia Rose who battle one another on behalf of their respective athlete ambassadors Kelley O’Hara (of the USWNT) and Alex Greenwood (of the England Lionesses) while encouraging viewers to ‘shop the looks’.
The spearhead music video was social support with focused executions on individual player ambassadors and specific female football ranges and products.
“We wanted to capture the individuality of each athlete and artist, while collectively capturing the essence of the female force,” explained Director Kat Webber. “Although Kelley and Alex are being pitted head-to-head in a battle style song structure, there is also an underlying element of community, collectivity, mutual respect, support, and kinship that unite these women, even during competition. They have a shared legacy that they aim to leave in their wake – to empower the next generation of females.”
“As a filmmaker my mission is to amplify the female gaze and celebrate the female experience, so this truly was a dream project,” continued Webber. “We worked with an all-female key creative team from LA to New York to Manchester, to celebrate these women who are changing the game.”
The campaign was briefed in by and created for a marketing team at client Under Armour which was led by Product Director Erin Kahle, Content Director Emily Bois, Creative Director Alex Bardoff, Marketing Angela Sikes, Project Manager Meagan Perkins, Partnerships Brenden Miller and Producer Dean Young.
The team which worked on the project at creative agency ZMBZ included Head Of Production Kara Pierce, Producer Alex De Santis, Chief Creative Officer Gavin Lester, Creative Director Matt Sherman, Associate Creative Directors Andy Holderman and Jamie Kiersted, with Writer Alexa Thomas and Art Director Alayna Zidek.
Media was handled by Luti Media with Head Of Production Linah Bensadok and Producers James Cross and Lewis Nicholson.
Production was by Fela with Director Kat Webber, Creative Director Karena Evans, Executive Producers Taj Critchlow and Fuliane Petikyan, Head Of Production Amir Karimi, Producer Mikayla Fasullo and Operations Manager Olivia Swayze.
Comment
The music video has the intensity of a sports campaign and again sees the ongoing blending of sport and entertainment marketing in a campaign that we think oozes attitude, style and a strong female energy as it showcases how elite football is a mental game as well as a physical one.
Under Armour’s FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup marketing plays against Nike’s ‘What The Football’ and official FIFA partner adidas’ ‘Play Until They Can’t Look Away’.
Which do you think will win the tournament’s sportswear marketing trophy?
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