When Lidl wanted to announce their new sponsorship for the LGFA – We knew going down a traditional approach may have affected small change on the very small number people interested in women’s sport and the even smaller number of people interested in Ladies Gaelic Football. But we really wanted to affect change on a societal level so developed a two phase approach to maximize impact.
Phase 1 – Agitate:
Confront the unconscious negative attitudes that prevailed and compel people to feel outraged. We did this by using all of these negative attitudes to create a spoof product, the “Ladyball.” We marketed it like a real product, with its own website, a soft launch through PR and social media, followed by an above-the-line campaign. Although weeks in preparation, this phase was only live for 3 days. Social media and digital were integral as we needed to create a massive pool of negative support to re-target with positive support in Phase 2.
Phase 2 –Support:
Re-direct the outrage we created towards the unfair treatment of women in sport and use it to demonstrate why these women deserved Serious Support. We quickly followed up on Ladyball with a large scale advertising campaign designed to portray Ladies Gaelic Footballers as the true heroes they were, a custom normally associated with men. We hijacked a high profile international men’s rugby match to launch our 60 second TVC and supported this with large format outdoor, high impact digital and social media.
