As a brand, Johnnie Walker has been making a conscious strategic shift to engage and grow its younger audience. Knowing our younger audiences are looking for brands to make more of a stand on the things that matter to them, particularly diversity and inclusion, the Keep Walking mantra has shifted to become a call to arms for collective progress. Acknowledging, supporting and celebrating the people, platforms and movements who are walking to push Australia forward, they have partnered with the Australian Women’s Football League - The AFLW. Our brief and objective was to celebrate the progress that has been made within the game and make Johnnie Walker an integral part of AFLW Culture.

Women’s football in Australia deserves the same historical record and respect as its male counterpart. So, to honour the game’s storied female past, we stitched together its untold history. Taking the boots of generations of past players, we created five unique new football boots. Made from the same boots these trailblazers wore, our boots helped tell stories of defiance, resilience, discrimination and triumph, so that Australians could learn about the way the game was shaped. The boots are designed to be handed down to generations of players to come. Acting as a permanent reminder of progress and achievement, ‘In Her Boots’ has given a voice to the history of women’s football in hopes of inspiring its future.

Declining salience and penetration in a key growth market (18-34) required Johnnie Walker to reinvigorate itself. Given the mandate to find relevance with this audience, ‘drive talkability through impactful and meaningful acts’ and position the brand as an ‘icon of collective progress’ we knew we had to tell a nuanced cultural story. So, we tapped into the nation’s soft spot for the determined underdog who rose against the odds and held an official boot-gifting photo moment where we captured photography that we later pitched with our launch release.

Partnering with an Australian footwear designer, we took the boots of pioneers of the women’s game and stitched them together to create new ones.. More than just a physical pair of shoes, these boots were imbued with decades of history, immortalising the trials and tribulations of bringing this sport into the mainstream, for women in Australia. To support, we created a documentary film, an interactive online experience where fans could select parts of the boot to learn about the contributing player, and photographed current players in the boots for a national OOH campaign. The final pair of boots became a part of official AFLW history as the Johnnie Walker Award for Progress, awarded to the most pioneering player on and off the field.

The In Her Boots campaign forms part of a broader strategy to modernise the perception of the Johnnie Walker brand within Australia, with its impact felt at a campaign level as well as a business level.

CAMPAIGN IMPACT

* Widespread mainstream penetration with 159 pieces of coverage achieved.

* Brand integration into the league’s official accolades, The W Awards, with the unveiling of the annual Johnnie Walker Award for Progress.

* Impressions 55 million+ (1856% above KPIs)

* Brand sentiment: 100%

BUSINESS IMPACT:

* Increased saliency with 25 – 34s

* Distinctiveness +14% demonstrating vibrancy

* +1.6% increase in 18 – 34s purchase on week