Together #WePlayStrong invites girls across Europe to play football, showcasing the confidence and friendships that come with it. The campaign was developed from the girl up, featuring girls they relate to and addressing issues girls care about most. By doing so, it enables girls to prove to each other that football is something they want to be part of. It was essential the campaign reached girls via channels they’re already active on and in ways that they use themselves, with their peers. Our approach equipped them with the tools to get behind the campaign; to co-create, participate, and make it their own. We created bespoke content for influencers to share, and ambassador Liv Cooke fronted Musical.ly challenges. From GIFs on Giphy (integrating into 600 platforms) to a BuzzFeed partnership and an iMessage sticker pack, the campaign was optimised for the platforms – and mobiles – the girls are already using.

We developed a year-long cross-platform content plan that launched ahead of the Women’s Champions League final in June 2017. Dedicated Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Musical.ly and YouTube channels are kept updated every week, sharing our 20 content films, 1000+ images, 60+ stickers & illustrations and 40+ GIFs. An influencer campaign at launch ensured names from the football world and beyond spread the word: Cara Delevigne (40M followers), Little Mix (12M) and Olly Murs (7.6M) got involved and Cešc Fabregas (9.2M and Gordon Ramsey (5.2M) created bespoke content. Ambassador and football freestyler Liv Cooke was involved from conception and features widely; she’s fronted multiple Musical.ly challenges, alongside footballer Alex Morgan (5M), to encourage girls to create content and get involved. An iMessage sticker pack enabled girls to use our assets in their conversations, whilst reactionary GIFs on Giphy integrated campaign content into over 600 platforms, including Instagram Stories, Tinder and KIK.

Without any traditional above the line media spend, the campaign has had over 200M views and 73% of teenage girls who’ve seen the campaign say they’d want to play football. Together #WePlayStrong has generated over 18K mentions across social, and 55K have joined the online community. Influencer mentions at launch generated over 69M impressions, ensuring our campaign reached those outside of the football world. The Giphy channel has garnered 160M views to date. The iMessage app, which enables girls to use our campaign stickers in their conversations, has generated 2k downloads. #WePlayStrong has an established presence on Tween app, Musical.ly, and top-Muser fronted challenges have generated over 9K pieces of football-centric UGC. Activity has driven over 250K people through to our website, where they can find their nearest football club and join girls across Europe football. We’ve made women’s football visible to girls, with 1.02B social impressions generated so far.

Qualitative research and an understanding of Social Identity Theory established the importance of social groupings and confidence among our audience. We commissioned Birmingham University to produce academic research to understand the benefits of football for girls across Europe aged 12-19. It proved those who played felt stronger and more confident than those playing other sports. However, stigmas around women’s football cause many to quit at the age they need confidence most. We needed to change the way girls viewed football by addressing the image problem, and by speaking to them own terms via platforms they’re already using. UEFA wasn’t on their radar; we needed a campaign girls could relate to and feel part of, and bring influencers they admired on-board. Together #WePlayStrong was our central idea, and at its heart is a visual language that we’ve made available across hundreds of social platforms, so girls can co-create and get involved.

UEFA came to us with a challenge: how can we make football the number one sport for girls across Europe by 2020? Our research showed that not many girls have access to or are encouraged to play football, and, whilst those that do enjoy it up to the age of 12, when they hit their teenage years cultural pressures and societal norms come into play and it’s no longer deemed as a ‘cool’ thing to do. Girls told us about the stereotypes; that women footballers are seen as weak, rubbish or butch. For a teenager, acutely aware of what others think of them, this image problem meant this was game over. We needed to improve visibility of females playing football, address the image problem by presenting football in a relevant and aspirational way for girls aged 13-17, shift societal attitudes towards girls playing and, ultimately, boost participation across Europe.