In the world of sport, brands always go after the biggest players in the game. But at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, health insurer Medibank did something different- they went after the players who were out of the game.

And there were enough players out with ACL injuries to make a whole team: ACL United.

Medibank signed 11 international players to create a football club masquerading as a health resource. By turning the typical sports sponsorship on its head, Medibank democratised research and training information on social, for athletes of all levels to access.

In 2023 Australia was the joint host of the Women’s Football World Cup. The world’s eyes were on the showcase of potential from the world’s best athletes. While health insurer Medibank wasn’t a sponsor, as the champions of health equalling potential, it was a chance to enter the conversation. Especially as they had funded research on female athletes to help even the odds.

The insurance category has a habit of badging events rather than having a point of view of them.

We need to be different, we needed:

+A strategy around female sport that connected Medibank’s wider brand POV to women’s football.

+An idea that spoke to the culture of women’s football rather than the marketing version – no ‘female empowerment here’.

The test of it was earned media pick up – because if a health insurer could get headlines in the midst of a WWC, we’d done our job.

In 2023 Australia was the joint host of the Women’s Football World Cup. The world’s eyes were on the showcase of potential from the world’s best athletes. While health insurer Medibank wasn’t a sponsor, as the champions of health equalling potential, it was a chance to enter the conversation. Especially as they had funded research on female athletes to help even the odds.

The insurance category has a habit of badging events rather than having a point of view of them.

We need to be different, we needed:

+A strategy around female sport that connected Medibank’s wider brand POV to women’s football.

+An idea that spoke to the actual culture of women’s football rather than the marketing version – no ‘female empowerment here’.

The test of it was earned media pick up – because if a health insurer could get headlines in the midst of a WWC, we’d done our job.

In the lead up to the Womens World Cup 2023, there were enough players out with ACL injuries that they could form a team.

So Australian Health Insurer, Medibank, made that team- ACL United.

The team helped draw awareness to the lack of research that’s holding female footballers back. @ACL UTD became a vital medical, training and community support resource for athletes of all levels. Hosting training videos, Q & A’s with experts, and motivational tips from the missing players, all housed within a football club that lived on a social platform.

When it comes to women’s sport the conversation is about:

1. Female empowerment

2. Fair pay

But there’s one area that athletes are calling out for help with and that’s fair play.

The sporting system has been designed around the commonalities rather than the differences between male and female athletes. Science has ignored the role that sex plays in serious injuries. Meaning that female athletes are getting injured at disproportionally higher rates. And it’s not just at an elite level, one in every two Australian girls are ditching sport by age 15 and suffering injuries at much higher rates.

The numbers of ACL injuries are so stark that Medibank’s clinical research teams had developed research with La Trobe University that were proven to reduce instances of injuries, but nobody knew about it.

Strategy: Enable the potential of female athletes

POV: We haven’t seen how far they can go

In the lead up to the World Cup, while all eyes were on the Women’s World Cup, Medibank signed 11 international players who were out with ACL injuries. Each player announced to their social media followers that they’d signed with a new team- ACL United, sponsored by Medibank.

The team directed fans to @ACLUTD, a medical resource masquerading as a football club. There they could find vital medical and training information to help recover from and avoid ACL injury, including training videos, Q & A’s with experts, and motivational tips from the missing players.

The campaign ran in parallel to the World Cup, drawing awareness to the gender research gap holding female athletes back, as well as Medibank’s role in evening the odds through funding research on female athletes with research partner La Trobe University.

100% positive sentiment (which is achieved in only 2% of campaigns).

Over 30 million impressions campaign wide.

UEFA is now investigating the issue on a global scale.